Fieldstripping an M-1
James Jordan was in the first wave on Omaha Beach. His landing craft took a direct hit from an artillery shell that killed many of his fellow soldiers instantly. He went into the water and found himself sinking under the weight of a seventy-five-pound pack and weapon. Fortunately, he was able to ditch all his gear, make his way back to the surface, and swim to shore. He recalled, “As badly as things had begun for me, once I made the beach, it got worse.”428 Picking up an abandoned M-1 rifle, Jordan moved forward under heavy machine-gun fire to a seawall where he found what was left of his platoon. He described what he did next:
I then discovered the rifle I had picked up from the beach wouldn’t fire, probably due to being clogged with sand. I picked up a second rifle that was on the beach close to the sea wall. This one wouldn’t fire either. After the third rifle I found wouldn’t fire, I realized I would have to clean it in order to have a functioning weapon. So, while still behind the sea wall, I stripped down the M-1 and cleaned the trigger housing with a toothbrush that I still had from one of my pockets. That one worked.429
This story reminded me of my first training as a Marine officer candidate at Quantico, Virginia. Fieldstripping and cleaning our rifles was a daily ritual. To emphasize the importance of a clean weapon, our young sergeant-instructor told us how he had lost his rifle cleaning kit while fighting in Korea and had used his toothbrush for weeks to clean his M-1. At the time, the concept of putting a clean rifle ahead of oral hygiene was not easy for a group of college boys to swallow. Just like Private 1st Class Jordan in this story, we all learned differently later. Without a functioning weapon, a Marine or soldier in combat is pretty useless and helpless.
In his letter to the church at Ephesus, the apostle Paul described the spiritual armor available to Christians, including our primary and only offensive weapon: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”(Ephesians 6:17). Burnishing this sword through frequent study and application should be our own daily ritual.
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
—Ephesians 6:11