A Convert on Saipan

While stationed on New Britain, a young man by the name of Lenice Brady Field came into my office. He said, “Chaplain, may I speak with you?”

“Sure, I’d be glad to talk with you.”

Mormon Sister Missionaries

He continued, “Well, it’s like this. I’ve been to your church three times.” I recalled seeing him there, but he always left before I had a chance to talk with him. “I was brought up to believe in the Baptist religion. My mother is a very staunch Baptist, and I attended the Baptist Church. Although I never felt satisfied, I went for my mother’s sake. When I joined the army, I thought I would have a chance to attend many different religious services and find one that would satisfy me. Since I’ve been here on New Britain, I have attended every service I could and I still didn’t feel satisfied. I found that going to all those services is like going late to the ‘chow line,’ because when you get to the serving table, all they have left is a dry crust of bread. That’s the way I have felt since I have been searching for a church to satisfy me.

“About three weeks ago, I left a service feeling awful. It appeared as though the Lord didn’t want me to believe in Him. On my way home from the meeting, I crawled under a bridge and knelt down and I asked my Heavenly Father to please help me find the right Church. I heard about your church, but heck, I wasn’t interested in any Mormon religion. But, as it turned out, yours was the only one left that I hadn’t gone to on New Britain. In desperation, I went to your service and I liked it. The following Sunday I went again, and yesterday, I attended for the third time. That’s why I’m here. That’s what I want to talk to you about. How can I become a member of the Mormon Church?”

I baptized Lenice Brady Field a few weeks later in the Pacific Ocean. Another Mormon chaplain, Theodore E. Curtis Jr., confirmed him a member of the Church.

A short time after his baptism, Lenice’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Drin, sought me out, “Chaplain Woolley, I don’t know what you’ve done to that man Fields, but you’ve done something. He used to be a pretty good soldier, but now he’s the best . . . soldier in the outfit, and it’s all happened since he’s been coming over here to see you.

“Lieutenant, I’m glad to hear that. In the Mormon Church, we have a saying and it goes like this: “The gospel makes bad men good and good men better. It’s true isn’t it?”

Lenice loved the Church, and became an excellent soldier. A few months later while fighting in the Philippines, his unit got down and several of the men in his unit had been shot and were lying out in no-man’s land. They needed help, and Fields went out to get his buddies. He managed to bring back five of them by crawling out and carrying them to the lines on his back. He went out to get a sixth man, but he didn’t return. He was hit by enemy fire and killed instantly.

The army buried him at sea, and for heroism under fire, Lenice Brady Field was awarded posthumously the military’s second highest honor for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross.

Chaplain George R. Woolley, For God and Country: Memorable Stories from the Lives of Mormon Chaplains, p83–85.