This is a talk I will be giving at New Life Church in Louisburg this coming Saturday.
Rising nearly 1,500 feet above the jungles below, Hill 488 was just 25 miles west of ChuLai, Vietnam, and it was the perfect place for a Marine Corps recon team but for one minor factor…it was deep in enemy controlled territory, well maybe two, and surrounded by massive enemy buildups. Like David facing Goliath, the 16 Marines and 2 Navy Corpsmen were pitifully small in the face of overwhelming odds.
It was June 12, 1966 in the early days of the United States involvement in the Vietnam war and as the sun was falling behind the western horizon several helicopters moved to the top of Hill 488 to drop off Staff Sergeant Jimmie Howard and his 15 marines. Two Navy Corpsmen completed the small unit delegated the mission of watching for enemy troop movements in the valley below and calling in artillery and air strikes on them. For two days Howard and his men did their jobs well. The North Vietnamese control of the area was disrupted by the effectiveness of the American firepower. It didn’t take long for the enemy to figure out that there had to be someone in the area watching them, directing the fire upon their every move. By the 3rd day Howard’s Battalion Commander A. J. Sullivan began to sense the danger the small recon patrol faced and offered to pull them out. S/Sgt Howard believed he could hold out one more day and requested permission to remain on the hill. By the time word reached ChuLai that a full NAV battalion of 200-250 well trained soldiers were moving on Hill 488, it was too late to pull Howard and his men out. Somehow they would have to survive the night.
Everyone in the patrol knew it was coming. S/Sgt Howard placed his Marines in strategic positions around the summit of the almost barren hilltop, with orders to pull back into a tight perimeter the moment the enemy struck. That moment came at 10 o’clock at night, only 12 feet from one of the Marine defenders. As the enemy swarmed the hill amid gunfire, grenades, mortars and support from four .50 caliber machine guns, Howard’s men pulled back into a tight circle only 20 yards in diameter. Back-to-back they began to defend their small area, counting on each other to work as a team to do the impossible. S/Sgt Howard moved among his men, encouraging them, directing their fire, shoring up the weaknesses in the perimeter. For most his Marines it was their first major test of combat. Huddled in the darkness amid the crash of grenades and mortars, the sky filled with tracer rounds, and outnumbered more than 10 to 1; the leadership and inspiration of S/Sgt Howard was all that sustained the men.
Then quiet engulfed the hill as the enemy pulled back, their fanatical human wave assault initially repulsed. S/Sgt Howard looked around him. Every one of his young Marines and both Corpsmen had been wounded in the initial attack. Several were dead. Worse, he knew the enemy would return in force again at any moment. Grabbing the radio Howard told Colonel Sullivan back at ChuLai, “You have to get us out of here” But no rescue force could reach Howard’s men that night..the Marines would have to hold out until dawn.
Then, from down the hill the enemy began to taunt the few survivors on Hill 488 shouting into the darkness, “Marines, You die in an hour.” One of Howard’s men asked, “Can we yell back at them?” With nothing to lose Howard told his brave young men, Sure, yell anything you like.” They did, and soon their taunts back to the enemy were met with gunfire. The enemy was preparing to swarm the hill once again. The beleaguered Marines caught the enemy off guard as they joined voices in a “horse laugh”. The enemy suddenly stopped shooting and there was stoned silence. The enemy could not understand how a group of men terribly outnumbered could be laughing.
S/Sgt Howard knew the quiet would not last long. He surveyed what remained of his Marines and found that ammunition was running low. The grenades were gone, expended during the first wave of the assault. So he issued one of the most unusual combat orders in Marines history…
“Throw Rocks!!”
As incredible as the order sounded, it worked. When the enemy soldiers began to push their way through the sparse brush and knee high grass to probe the perimeter, Howard’s men threw rocks at them. Mistaking the rocks for grenades the enemy soldiers would move quickly out into the open, allowing the defenders clear shots that made every round of remaining ammunition count.
The Marines held the hill for another 5 hours and were finally rescued shortly after daybreak. After the 12 surviving men were safely back at ChuLai it was realized that among them they only had 8 rounds of ammunition remaining.
This story was found at Home of Heroes http://www.homeofheroes.com/
I believe the above story tells us three things:
1. We need to know our Enemy
2. We need to know our equipment and
3. We need to know who has our back covered.
Why do we need a vibrant Men's Ministry in our churches?
Mark 6:34-36 In these verses we see that Jesus saw something that the disciples did not. Jesus saw a multitude of people who were like sheep without a shepherd and the disciples saw only the facts. Jesus had compassion on them and the disciples had pity on them. Jesus was moved to help them and the disciples were moved to avoid the situation. Jesus looked at the people through the eyes of His heart but the disciples looked at them through the eyes of their minds. In looking at the problems men face we need to be like Jesus not the disciples and it takes a group of men who have a desire to minister to men to do that.
Three questions for Christian men to think about in answering the question about the church needs vibrant men's ministry:
You can answer those questions by leaving a comment.
Here is why we need vibrant men's ministries in our churches.
