Courage, Perseverance and Patriotism in the Face of Adversity

Thank you, Mitch, and good afternoon, everyone. I hope you're having a great Sabbath, and I want to say hello to those who are on the webcast today as well. Well, as we heard Mitch mention that today's July 4th, which marks a monumental event in United States history, the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As awesome as that event was and is, there are numerous other significant events in American history that have important dates that we signify from time to time. One of them was commemorated last month and is especially noteworthy, I think, which is the June 6th, 1944 anniversary of D-Day, an invasion by Allied forces against the German Wehrmacht on the beaches of Normandy, France during World War II. But that particular day carried a different and profound meaning to ten young volunteer airmen, including my father, who circled on the screen there. These men served in the United States Army Air Forces, flying a a bomber on a bombing mission that particular day into hostile territory. They were a thousand miles away from the beaches of Normandy that day. These, their arduous experience on that particular day and thereafter was described to me many years ago by my dad, who was aged 25 when he was aboard that bomber as a vaulter at Gunner. I'd like to tell you their story. He told me this story. I'd like to tell it to you because it has many lessons that we can learn from it. And later, I want to discuss a remarkable biblical personality who also dealt with extremely troubling situations during his time. The title of the message is, Courage, Perseverance, and Loyalty in the Face of Adversity.

You don't see loyalty on there, but it should have been. It's there. It sure is.

Under the roar of the engines of a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber, Captain Joseph Buckler, aged 31, began his takeoff role. The aircraft, loaded with 5,000 pounds of bombs, thundered down the runway before lifting slowly into the pre-dawn darkness.

The plane would soon rendezvous with 35 other B-24 bombers of the 15th Air Force, having departed from an airfield in liberated southern Italy. The bombardment group flew eastward across the Adriatic Sea and over the 8,000-foot generic Alps, which lined the coastline of Yugoslavia. They flew into Nazi-occupied Romania to attack railroad marshalling yards that day.

During the past several months, the crew conducted successful missions on their bomber, nicknamed Jackie Boy, against targets in occupied France, oil fields in Romania, and other strategic targets. However, for these airmen, the aftermath of this day's air strike would be unlike any previous mission. In route to the target, one of the four engines developed a critical hydraulic leak and had to be shut down. The aircraft was, however, able to reach its target on its three remaining engines. Nevertheless, after dropping their bomb load, flack from enemy anti-aircraft batteries struck two of the other functional engines, knocking them out of commission. This left only one engine that was fully operative, which alone was unable to give sufficient elevation to clear the high, generic Alps on the return trip to Italy. As a result, the captain, Captain Buckler, ordered the crew to bail out of the aircraft. The men quickly strangled for the exit doors and the hatches. Captain Buckler and the co-pilot Second Lieutenant Robert Cole, age 22, set the plane on autopilot and were about to exit through a forward escape hatch. Suddenly, a voice of desperation came through their headsets, shouting, No, I can't do this, which they instantly recognized as 28-year-old bombardier Charlie Davis. Knowing they had only moments before the plummeting aircraft would crash into a mountainside, the two men scrambled back to the Bombay, where they found Davis's aircraft. They quickly pried Davis's hands from the catwalk, flung them out of the Bombay, and then dove out after him. Moments later, a tremendous explosion ripped the air as the bomber impacted against rugged hills. Meanwhile, as the airmen plumbed into the air, the airmen were able to get out of the air. Meanwhile, as the airmen plummeted to earth by parachute, they looked down apprehensively because they saw men running with rifles. After surviving the loss of their plane, they thought, would not we be killed by the enemy? No. As they landed, soldiers ran up toward them and didn't fire on them, but offered hearty greetings instead. As they landed, soldiers did that and the men soon learned that these soldiers were members of the Chetnik detachment of the Serbian Nationalist power military, commanded by Major General Draza Mikhailovich. When all crew members were reunited, they learned that their ordeal had just begun, because a German military garrison was located only 30 miles away. Even so, the Chetnik fighters and their families safeguarded the airmen, while knowing that the Nazis' penalty for harboring down airmen was death.

To accomplish this, their safeguard of these men, they moved them from one refuge to another, never staying in one location for more than a day or two. Sometimes they slept in barns or small crude dwellings, but most often on open ground. The starvation continued conditions present throughout the country. There was scant little to eat. Nevertheless, the people shared their meager food supplies with the airmen. Their next portion might consist of a little potato soup, a small slice of black bread, or a few green beans.

Not surprisingly, at the conclusion of the ordeal, my father's weight had dropped by 50 pounds, and other men experienced similar weight loss. Even as the Chetnik fighters and their families dealt with distress, privation, they clung to the hope that freedom from Nazi tyranny would come. Likewise, the downed fliers, loyally supporting each other, embraced the hope and their prayers that somehow they would eventually be rescued. And that day finally came. Major General Mikhailovich, working with the Allied Office of Strategic Services called OSS, planned an airlift rescue operation, described as Operation Halyard. Through this effort, a short aircraft runway was built clandestinely in the mountains near a small village of Pranjani. With P-51 Mustang long-range American fighter bomber aircraft circling above as combat cover, C-47 Skytrain military aircraft flew in at a steep angle and landed on the short runway. The aircraft immediately taxied to take off position, loaded several airmen, and then accelerated back down the runway immediately. Since the airstrip was undersized, the planes had to literally plunge off the end of the runway and descend precariously into the mountain valley below. Before obtaining sufficient velocity to reach operational airspeed and then descend out of it. Imagine that. Rescue of the Jackie Boar bomber crew occurred on September 17, 1944, 103 days after it had been shot down. Over a period of five months from August to December 1944, over 500 downed airmen were similarly rescued, as noted in the book The Forgotten 500 by author Gregory Freeman.

Well, considering this story of courage, perseverance, and loyalty in the face of adversity by the airmen and the Serbian people, what can we learn from their example? It is that we, as Christian soldiers of Jesus Christ, must endure hardship while demonstrating courage, steadfast, and faith, while supporting and encouraging each other in the face of difficulties that we endure. In this regard, we know life can have many disconcerting situations when everything seems to be going wrong and even if it appears impossible or unsolvable, the problems we're dealing with.

Considering this, how can we effectively handle great distress and trouble? Let's briefly review the biblical example of the prophet Jeremiah and how he, through courage, perseverance, and loyalty, dealt with adversity. It was Jeremiah's God-given duty to warn the nation of Judah about impending disastrous national punishment resulting from their blatant sins. As he repeatedly warned the nation's leaders and its people, they refused to listen, while ostracizing, rejecting, disrespecting, and persecuting him.

When Jerusalem was eventually invaded and besieged by the Babylonian forces in the first of three deportations beginning in 597 BC, Jeremiah was deeply saddened because the people had refused to repent and turned to God. And God had Jeremiah endure and suffer along with the people during that catastrophe. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3, verse 11. I'll put it on the screen there so you can turn to it if you want.

Lamentations 3, verse 1, he says here, I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely he has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day. He has aged my flesh and my skin and broken my bones.

He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe. How about you? Have you ever felt so sure that things could never work out during a wearisome, seemingly unending situation that you face? Perhaps you're feeling that way right now. Jeremiah, a thoughtful and sensitive individual, a man who was loyal to God, his country, and his fellow citizens, continued his personal lament. He said in verse 14, I have become the ridicule of all my people. He called them my people. He loved them. They're a taunting song all day long. He has filled me with bitterness. He is made, he's speaking about God here, he has made me drink wormwood.

He has broken my teeth with gravel and covered me with ashes. You, talking about God, you have moved my soul far from peace. I have forgotten prosperity. But when the troubles were at their most distressing point, when hope appeared gone, what did Jeremiah do? And what can we learn from his example? This faithful prophet searched his mind and heart as to how God had aided him throughout all the troubles he had endured along with the people. Verse 21, he says this, this I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.

Though the Lord's mercies are not consumed, through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because his compassion's fail not. They're new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. So Jeremiah gave deep thanks and honor to God for his goodness, his guidance, knowing that his Creator would not abandon him. He knew that. Again, what about us? When we feel boxed in and things look hopeless and nothing seems to be going right, even when we are faithful, even when we are patient and committed to God and our fellow brethren, we need to recall not only the words of Jeremiah, but what Jesus Christ said.

He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Finally, let's remember the B24 crew, who fully supported each other under perilous conditions in the air and on the ground, while hoping and praying for rescue. Let's also especially recall the example of the prophet Jeremiah, who, under great distress, stood strong and loyal to his Creator and to his people.

Therefore, let's also be confident that we will do the same if we remind loyal to our brethren and especially to our Heavenly Father, while calling on his help to guide and strengthen us through any adversity.