By Example and Precept

Two very young servicemen, Bob Lee and Clarence Gale, who were perhaps 17 or 18 years of age, arrived in the Aleutians in 1943 as part of a replacement group. The army assigned them to share a tent with four other men. They belonged to a variety of religious denominations, and of the six in the group, two belonged to the Mormon Church, two to the Protestant Religion, one to the Catholic Church, and one was unaffiliated. During their first night together, one of the Mormon boys felt a desire to pray, but didn’t know whether he should or not. He didn’t know the others very well and wasn’t sure how they would react and feared they might ridicule him. As he contemplated his dilemma, he heard one of the men say, “Quiet, Tex is saying his prayers.”

Mormon Soldier

There on his knees with his head bowed, was Tex, the other Latter-day Saint, saying his prayers as though he were in the privacy of his own bedroom. Upon viewing Tex’s behavior, the Latter-day Saint who lacked the courage to pray made a vow that he would never again be afraid or ashamed to pray in public. The next night both he and Tex knelt to pray while the other four watched in silence. On the third night as the two Mormons knelt to pray, one by one the other four boys joined with them in prayer. From that time on all six of the boys said their evening prayers on their knees together. In addition, each night they read and discussed the Bible. Thrilled from what he had witnessed, Chaplain Hess wrote, “I have often thought that God may have suffered this war to be in order that our youth might be scattered throughout the entire world in the work of disseminating this Gospel by example and precept. After seeing so many similar instances of the missionary work of our men in the service, I believe that the Church will make great strides as a result of this war.”

1943, Chaplain Milton J. Hess, For God and Country: Memorable Stories from the Lives of Mormon Chaplains, p36.