Faith Under Fire: Stories of Hope and Courage from World War II

This book is a collection of short pieces about different people and their experiences in time of war. I read five or six of the pieces in a dentist's waiting room this morning. I enjoyed the stories and found them inspiring as well as informative. I had not previously heard, for example, about the balloons that warships used to frustrate attacking fighter planes. The book was written as a reminder that religious faith is, and always has been, a powerful motivating force in the building and defending of this country. Such a reminder is made even more relevant today because of so many efforts to remove any reference to religion in the public forum.

Rabey does an excellent job of pulling together the lives of service men and women in WWII and beyong. These stories are of the courage on the line, behind the lines and behind the scenes. The profiles Rabey writes are inspiring to all no matter what a person believes religiously.From the pilot who flew to Okinawa getting his plane destroyed by a kamikaze to the Tuskeegee Airman whose faith helped him to endure the ugliness of segregation this book shows the enduring promise of people who have hope.These men and women became heroes and then after the war served the country they fought for and the faith they hoped for directly or through encouraging family and friends in the way they chose to live.This book helps us to view Americans of all walks of life and heroes from Korea, Italy (a Catholic Priest), Germany (Dietricht Bobhoffer) and individuals from all Christian faiths. What they did during war, imprisonment, injury, surviving, enduring and winning.From Bataan to Okinawa to the prisons of Nazi camps for US Airmen to Berlin you will see how these Christians lived during and after the war.Inspired writing that will bring you to tears of sorrow and joy.