Lieutenant Carey Cash
Lieutenant Carey Cash, chaplain to the First Battalion,
5th Marine regiment, was part of the first ground force to
enter Iraq a year ago, and says there is no doubt that God
was with them. (He also served in Kuwait.) During what is
conceded to be the worst day of fighting for U.S. Marines,
the first battalion, the most highly decorated Marines in
U.S. history, suffered just one casualty. Something Cash
calls an absolute miracle in a recent interview with Pat
Robertson:
CASH: On April 10th, 2003, our battalion was given orders to
seize the presidential palace on the Tigris River. And we
went into the center of that city, not realizing that about
a thousand Fedayeen were waiting for us. And at four in the
morning, in the dark, they literally unleashed all their
fury. It became essentially a nine-hour ambush, from urban
fighting, close quarters. The results of which should have
yielded untold casualties and many, many Marines dead. Just
because of the sheer volume of fire, we suspected anywhere
from 1,000 to 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades were shot at
the lead elements of our convoy. When I got to the palace
the next day and began to talk to the Marines, and go and
visit them - and we did lose one man, a 22-year veteran -
what I saw was not a battalion licking its wounds and
overwhelmed with the fight they had just endured. But
literally it looked like I'd come upon a group of men who
had walked through the Red Sea. Over and over the stories
kept coming out to me.' Chaplain, let me tell you what God
did for me; Chaplain, the angels that we have been talking
about for weeks, preceding this war, shielded me and
protected me.' It was amazing.
ROBERTSON: Did they see the angels or did they just know
they were there?
CASH: I didn't talk to any Marines who said they saw an
angel. But what they did share was that rocket-propelled
grenades would come at them, and literally curve in mid-air
and go around them. Untold Marines shared with me that
rockets would come and literally dive down as if batted by
some unseen hand. We had one rocket go through a Humvee
passenger-side window, and explode in the compartment.
Without a doubt, it should have killed every man in that
vehicle. And yet when the explosion came through, it blew
out the front of the windshield, and so it exploded out
instead of in, and not a single man was injured. And over
and over, the accounts of that day were so tremendous, that
I realized I had stumbled upon something amazing.
ROBERTSON: Did your people pray? I've heard of a unit in
World War II that recited the 91st Psalm, over and over
again. Was there special prayer, special confession of God's
presence?
CASH: Absolutely, yes. Psalm 91, which is known as the
Soldier's Psalm, became very instrumental in the days
leading up to that war, even during the war. Joshua 1:9,
"Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Be
not afraid. Be not dismayed, for I will be with you wherever
you go." This became, literally, God's word to us, to
remember that we are not going through this alone.
ROBERTSON: It is almost a cliché - there are no atheists in
foxholes - what is the faith of those guys? When you go in a
battle like that, do they want to know God?
CASH: It is interesting, when I began visiting the men, the
last few hours before we crossed the line of departure. They
all had their rifles, they had their ammunition, they had
all their gear, they had all their training, but in the last
moments what all of us needed was something that far
transcended anything that training could provide. When I
went and visited them, and their eyes met with mine, it was
as if we all knew why I was there. We needed to call on God.
We were joining a host of warriors, for millennium before
battles, who have called out upon the only One who could
provide for them and protect them.
ROBERTSON: Amazing stories. Were there others? You mentioned
going into Baghdad. Were there other examples of the
protection of God that you saw?
CASH: Absolutely. When we crossed in the line of departure,
we immediately met a section of Iraqi tanks that we had not
suspected would be there. In fact, intelligence had not
confirmed or reported their presence. We came across the
border, it was in the dark, their turrets were leveled, we
were exposed, we were at a point of what is called critical
vulnerability---and their main guns never fired on us.The
guns were fully manned by Iraqi soldiers and the company
commander told me, after the fight, about that incident. He
said, 'Chaplain, if their main guns had fired, all it would
have taken is one round to hit one of our armored personnel
carriers and 20-30 marines would have been dead in an
instant.' And I remembered back to the countless letters I
had received from churches across the nations, saying we are
praying specifically that when you cross that border, God
will restrain and confuse the enemy. And the fact that those
tanks didn't fire and that 3,000 enemy soldiers s!
urrendered en masse and in concert, tells me that God
answered those prayers of the people back here in the United
States.
ROBERTSON: This again is probably redundant, but what is the
morale of those troops? It must be tremendous.
CASH: The morale is good. The training is good, their
leadership is determined, but if I could say, the thing I am
most concerned about is the morale of our people back here
and in the churches. I think that the churches prayed for
our men during the major hostilities. But we have to
remember that now, more than ever, we need to pray for those
men. We need to send them letters. It was like life, getting
letters on the front line from churches saying we are
praying for you. We are praying this psalm for you, we are
remembering you daily in our Bible studies. Churches and
Christians all across our country need to remember that this
war is still ongoing, and they need to send letter and care
packages. We need to adopt battalions, like we did during
the war, and lift these men up daily to God."
As a chaplain, Lieutenant Cash does not carry even a
defensive weapon, but he strongly believes Romans, Chapter
13, teaches that "government does not bear the sword in
vain," meaning there is a place for the use of aggressive
force if it is to protect the innocent, to right a wrong. He
also says that despite the difficulties of being in Iraq, he
eventually has realized that "God had not just called us
there to protect the Iraqi people and to protect our borders
from weapons of mass destruction, but He had brought these
men there in order to reveal Himself to them for the first
time."
A devoted husband and father of five children under nine
years old, Lieutenant Cash is a graduate of Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and
recently wrote a book about his experiences in Iraq (check
amazon.com). He was deployed February 4th, 2003, and is in
the Middle East for the duration. When his battalion comes
home, he says, "so will I." Let's remember these men again
in our prayers each week, and ask angels to continue to be
with them. Also---don't forget that our National Day of
Prayer is this Thursday, May 6th. "If my people will humble
themselves and turn from their wicked ways and pray, then I
will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins and
heal their land." II Chronicles, 7, 14. Prayer works!
Copyrighted 2004. For more stories of God's love, check the
website at:
www.JoanWAnderson.com.