My daughter Caitlin is engaged to James, the most wonderful young man . James however is a Soldier in the 2nd Combat Engineering Battalion. The two young Australian Soldiers killed this week are from that very Battalion. The reality of Army life has painful hit home this week to our family. I realise, not nearly as painfully as it has to the lives of Sapper Smith and Sapper Moerland family, but the wedding cake and the wedding flowers and dress have lost their gloss and been replaced by the 'holiness' of marriage. The commitment to each other and the reality that without God the true meaning of 'until death do us part' is in fact a reality.
James is not a member of our faith and as much of their courtship has been going on at a distance while he was in training (they have know each other from preschool though)he hasn't had much of an opportunity to hear or experience it.
As of the last few weeks James has been posted to the Base 5 minutes from us and we love having him around. We pray each day for him and that he will be touch by the Gospel. We've the greatest 'Army blokes' in our Ward that can give him the experience to see life is possible as a Soldier and a Latter-Day Saint.
But yesterday he was on duty with his Battalion, bringing back the bodies of the Soldiers and will spend the week attending different services around the State in their Honor, all the while acutely aware that these men must be replaced.
I didn't realise life in the Forces was so difficult. Remember them all in your prayers.