Lt. Col. Robert Lee "Bull" Wolverton was the commander of the American 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, from 1942 until his death on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Wolverton's legacy endured, particularly on the strength of this prayer, prayed with the 750 men in his battalion hours before the D-Day parachute drop behind enemy lines. Wolverton's words were cited by President Ronald Reagan in a 1984 speech from Normandy on the 40th anniversary of the invasion, and in numerous other places. Following is a recounting of his prayer as he said:
"Men, I am not a religious man and I don't know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask his blessing in what we are about to do:
'God almighty,
in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy.
We do not join battle afraid.
We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that,
if You will,
use us as Your instrument for the right,
and an aid in returning peace to the world.
We do not know or seek what our fate will be.
We ask only this,
that if die we must,
that we die as men would die,
without complaining,
without pleading
and safe in the feeling that we have done our best
for what we believed was right.
O Lord, protect our loved ones
and be near us in the fire ahead,
and with us now as we pray to you.'
All were silent for two minutes, as the men were left--each with his individual thoughts. Then the colonel ordered, "Move out."
A few hours later, Robert Wolverton was killed by German machine gun fire in an orchard outside Saint-Come-du-Mont, Normandy, France.
Can you just see those 750 American soldiers...dressed in combat gear and a parachute on their backs...on their knees with their faces lifted to the heavens...talking to God? I'm sure I can see those guys...
I found this prayer engraved on the outside wall of the "D-Day Experience" museum in Carpique, France on my D-Day 75 trip this summer. I think about it from time to time and I always think about what's going on in the world today, what's going on among God's people, what's going on in Washington DC. This prayer is my "quote" and it puts things into a perspective that I think the world badly needs.
Nell