During an ambush in Afghanistan, I told the Soldiers around me, “The birds are coming!” They thought aircraft support was on the way. I knew it wasn’t.
Then an unexpected artillery illumination round burst above us and lit the battlefield.
I carried that night with me for years. It was only much later, after returning to the Catholic Church and learning more about Saint Barbara, the Patron Saint of Artillery, that I began to see connections I had not recognized.
That experience became my book, The Birds Are Coming: A Soldier’s Story of War, Intercession, and Mercy.
It’s a short nonfiction memoir about combat, brotherhood, returning to faith, and how an event from Afghanistan took on a very different meaning years after coming home.
For anyone here who enjoys Catholic memoirs, military stories, return-to-faith stories, or books dealing with Saints and intercession, I wanted to share it with the group.
During an ambush in Afghanistan, I told the Soldiers around me, “The birds are coming!” They thought aircraft support was on the way. I knew it wasn’t.
Then an unexpected artillery illumination round burst above us and lit the battlefield.
I carried that night with me for years. It was only much later, after returning to the Catholic Church and learning more about Saint Barbara, the Patron Saint of Artillery, that I began to see connections I had not recognized.
That experience became my book, The Birds Are Coming: A Soldier’s Story of War, Intercession, and Mercy.
It’s a short nonfiction memoir about combat, brotherhood, returning to faith, and how an event from Afghanistan took on a very different meaning years after coming home.
For anyone here who enjoys Catholic memoirs, military stories, return-to-faith stories, or books dealing with Saints and intercession, I wanted to share it with the group.
The Birds Are Coming: A Soldier's Story of War, Intercession, and Mercy