Prayer sustains soldier in Iraq war

IRAQ (FBW)–Tightly wound on the only “warm spot” available to him in the chilly Iraq desert, U.S. Army Sgt. Philip Rios fell fast asleep on the hood of his military truck.

But not before remembering to say a quick prayer.

“I know when we crossed the border coming out of Kuwait into Iraq, that first time, I didn’t know what to expect—so you say a little prayer here and there, ‘get me through this,’” Rio recalled.

And afterwards?

“‘Hey. You got me through this one. Thanks,’” Rios recited the words of thankfulness he oft repeated in the field. “‘We know we’re going to have further challenges down the road.’”

A soldier with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, New York, Rios, 28, a member of First Baptist Church in Macclenny, just returned from a second tour in Iraq and has also served overseas in Kosovo and in Germany since his 2002 enlistment.

And both times in the war zone, Rios remembers feeling skittish, but never about praying.

“We definitely take time out,” Rios said. “There were a couple of hard missions where we would go off beforehand and pray. Nine times out of ten it would go without a hitch and there wouldn’t be any problem.”

And back home, the people prayed as well.

Rios’ father, Herman Rios, a native of Puerto Rico, is director of the Language Evangelism and Stewardship Department of the Florida Baptist Convention where he has served since 1990. Rios’ parents are also members of his church in Macclenny and where Philip Rios was baptized as a child and where he attends. Many a prayer chain has been initiated there on behalf of their son.

And then there’s Rose. Philip Rios’ daughter, born in 1999.

“Obviously, you think about your family. I think about my mom, my dad, I think about my daughter,” Rios recalled, when praying before a mission. Since his missions required keeping top brass in the military safe, however, as serving part of a traveling convoy, keeping safe was all about staying alert. “Mainly, you have a mission, this is what you train for. Automatically, you think about it’s always about the guy to the right and left of you, you never think about your own personal safety—[you think] get this done.”

Rios and Rose’s mother are not married and she is currently married to another man, according to Herman Rios who said, however, his son has been a responsible father all along.

It is primarily because of Rose, Philips Rios said, that he did not reenlist and has no plans of returning to active duty. When his terminal leave with the Army ended June 1, he enrolled in the Florida National Guard where he is guaranteed from serving overseas for the rest of his military obligation, he said.

Rios said although it’s time to “hang that up,” the Army is not a bad place.

“I love it,” he admitted, looking around his dad’s office where pictures of him hang on the walls along with military police brassards with unit insignias and pins.

Since joining the Army at 22, Rios has earned a slew of medals and has served with honor.

Rios joined just after 9/11. College wasn’t living up to his expectations and then terrorists hit New York, making him even more firm in his resolve to go ahead and join the military.

Describing thoughts of “anger” and “shock,” Rios said his feelings probably mirrored that of most Americans and he knew there was a chance America might take some military action and that could affect him.

“I mean we weren’t at war at that time and nobody really knew what would happen,” he said, [but] I had already made the decision and this is what I wanted to do, so I just went ahead and went with it,” he said.

As to whether he realized his joining an infantry unit at that juncture would most likely mean he would be sent to a war zone, Rios said it did make him think twice.

“It did, but not to the point where I wasn’t gonna follow through with it.”

After two tours in a war zone, and six years in the Army, Rios cited three primary sources that encouraged him—confidence in the chain of command, the Army’s teaching on core values and the presence of military chaplains.

“Despite what people say here, what they say in Washington, that doesn’t concern me, the fact of the matter is that commander gave my platoon leader a mission, my platoon sergeant hands it down to my squad leader, my squad leader hands it down to me and I’m to carry out that mission.” Rios said about the chain of command system the military uses to carry out its military strategy. “And despite whether I agree with it or disagree with it— that doesn’t matter. And it’s not my place to say whether I agree with it or disagree with it—I was given orders, I was given a mission and we did that mission. To me it’s about what the guys over there are doing.”

Army’s teaching on the core value of integrity is important.

“To choose the hard right over the easy wrong and definitely we did a lot of things that were difficult because it was the right thing to do and not half way because it was easier,” Rios said. “And to try to understand that we are doing things for the greater good.”

Finally, Rios said military chaplains were able to minister to him in ways that made a difference.

Recalling a time when he learned that his grandfather, whom he admired and who was also an Army veteran who served in Korea and Vietnam, passed away, Rios said a chaplain who had known him from a previous mission sought him out to talk to him.

“I remember seeing him in Iraq and I remember I’d walk up to him and talk to him, and he took time out to talk to me and that was really good,” Rios said.

On his second tour in Iraq, Rios’ unit lost two soldiers. One was a friend he had served with on his first tour and been reclassified as a military policeman to redeploy from Fort Drum with Rios’ unit the second time around.

“I was asked to speak at the memorial service and I did that,” Rios said quietly. “And the battalion chaplain, every time he would come to visit, would come to find me and would sit down and talk to me. Almost to the point that I didn’t really want to talk about it; even right now don’t really like to talk about it too much, but he always made it a point to find me and ask me how I was doing and how things were going. So they were definitely there and a support system, even when you don’t want them to be. They’re around.”

Rios said every one deals with the death and destruction they see in Iraq differently.

“Sometimes people would band together, sometimes we talk to chaplains, sometimes we talk to each other,” Rios said. “Every person decides to go through it in their own way.”

Speaking of the day the chaplain sought him out to talk, Rios said it was a good thing.

“But at the end of the day, you know, the next day, the worst thing I could have done, for that individual, was to clam up, and take it hard,” Rios said, clearing his throat. “The next day, I was back out in sector, I was back out on mission, and you know, that’s the worst thing that you could do to dishonor any soldier’s memory is just to clam up. We did the next day, to continue to do what we had to do. So, that’s the best thing we had to do.”

Some things Rios doesn’t ever think he’ll share about Iraq — even with his parents—he said, but one thing he has no problem talking about is the thankfulness for the prayer support he knew he received when he was there. And the prayer blankets the ladies at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville made and sent over for his entire platoon.

And there’s a particular sermon he couldn’t get out of his mind either.

“My dad has a sermon and it’s called, ‘Your boat won’t sink, the storm won’t last forever.’ No matter how bad things can get, there’s always something there that can protect you that’s a little higher, that’s a little better,” Rios said. “You would definitely feel that. And I’ve been through some close calls.