Just prior to my volunteering for naval officer's training during World War II, my gradual acceptance of the great truths of Christian Science began. In those days of disruption and sacrifice (not unlike the conditions facing young men today) I realized my need for a fuller understanding of my Father in heaven, who I felt loved me and wanted me to love Him.
A short time before, I had witnessed the healing of a member of our family through Christian Science treatment and study. This healing led my mother to dissolve her membership in our community's interdenominational church and take her stand as a member of the local Church of Christ, Scientist, which had recently been established. Today I still rejoice over the fact that I recognized that healing of a serious ailment as the work of nothing other than this, to us, new religion. Strange as the healing of disease through spiritual means seemed at first to my materially oriented thought, I could not deny the effect I saw and the cause of it. To see that member of our family once again whole was the firm introduction to the healing system of Christian Science that I needed.
During two and a half years of service, most of which was aboard ship in the South Pacific combat zone, I felt the comfort and protection of my growing reliance on God. Our ship was under direct attack by enemy planes on several occasions and encountered numerous violent typhoons at sea without loss of any lives of our crew and without damage to our ship, except for one collision. On that occasion, as we rolled and pitched in a storm off the coast of China, the calming effect of Truth embraced me sufficiently so that I could rescue command on the bridge from my Fourth Officer and avert further damage to both vessels, and possible capsizing.
