As an officer in the US Navy SEAL (for Sea, Air, Land) teams, I was deployed to the Middle East for Operation: Enduring Freedom. This was from March to September 2002. In August I ended up in Afghanistan, where I was in charge of Naval Special Warfare forces working out of Kandahar, which is in the southern part of the country. Our focus there was to try to capture some senior Taliban and Al Qaeda members.
During this deployment, I asked a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me, to help me understand that God was in control and was the only Mind governing the whole situation for me and for everyone else. Random forces and evil minds were not the true forces.
We came under fire early into one particular mission, and as the mission progressed, I heard over the radio that two of the men under me had been shot. I really had to face fear, and my concern for the welfare of these men. Again, I thought of how God was in control, and that God was each person's one and only Life. And this wasn't a life contained inside a physical body.
