We Trusted in Prayer
After a particularly harrowing mission through heavy flak Tommy Hayes landed his P-51 at home base in England. He described what happened as his aircraft finally rolled to a stop:
“I climbed out of the cockpit, got on my hands and knees in the mud to kiss the good earth and thank the Lord.”301 When his crew chief realized what he was doing, he got down beside him and joined in.
Hayes was a veteran pilot from Portland, Oregon. He had seen action early in the Pacific flying P-40s and had been with the 357th Fighter Group in England since its first combat mission. He was a little older and wiser than many of his fellow pilots, eventually rising to command a squadron of P-51s flying escort missions deep into Germany. He saw more than his share of aerial combat and downed eight German aircraft. His family at home was never far from his mind.
When I left the States for Europe, I left my wife and daughter of sixteen months. We each had a job to do and we talked about that. I know the stress was greater for her than for me. She wrote me a letter every day. We lived our lives together by our letters. It helped when I shot down a plane and the local paper or radio had a story or a few words on the local boy, Major Hayes. If she hadn’t had a letter for a week or more, at least on this date she knew I was okay. I was not a drinking man. We both trusted in prayer.302
A priest once used a simple blackboard diagram to illustrate how a couple can strengthen their relationship. He drew two separate lines from the bottom of the board converging into one point at the top. The lines represent our separate lives and can, in fact, go in any direction. However, if both parties in a marriage continually strive to grow nearer to Christ at the top of the board, they will also grow closer to each other, as their lines converge. This has been an enduring image in our marriage as my wife and I have tried to keep our focus on this common goal, to be one in love and service to our Lord.
So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.
—Matthew 19:6