Bill Brown explains in this audio message how even when he was in dire circumstances during World War II, he trusted in the Lord. He explains how God brought him through his experiences on the island of Iwo Jima. He knew that God has gone out before him.
1 Chronicles 14:15 (NKJV) - "And it shall be, when you hear a sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines."
Every son needs to hear his father say, Son, the Lord goes before you. 1 Chronicles 14, 15, And it shall be when you hear a sound of marching, and you shall go out to battle, for God has gone out before you. Chapter 12 shot down in enemy waters. Since I was a little boy my father told me about the day he was shot down over enemy waters during a raid on Yokohama. This story tugs at me because it details one of the most powerful aspects of fatherhood.
This was displayed in the words of My grandfather spoke to my dad the day he left for the Pacific. On that day, Grandpa Brown drove to the military base and presented his son with a pocket Bible. This was a very special moment for my grandfather because as a pastor he had already performed numerous funerals for the families of boys who had died in the war. As he handed it to him he said, son the Lord goes before you." The memory of those words would come back to the son repeatedly in the days ahead. The next time my father saw his dad was 1945, the end of the war.
My father never forgot those words. Now over a half century later he still repeats them to me. Here is a son, my father, who heard six words out of the mouth of his father, my grandfather, and these words were so precious to him that he has recited them his whole life long. My grandfather's words were powerful for a reason. They were strongly reminiscent of the words of God to King David as he was preparing for battle.
And it shall be, quote, when you hear the sound of marching, then you shall go out to battle, for God has gone out before you. First Chronicles 14 15. These words carried my dad through the most harrowing experiences of his life and they have lived on in him and then multiplied into the hearts of others. My dad arrived on Iwo Jima on D plus eight or February 26, 1945. His airfield number one, the closest to Suribachi, had just barely been secured and was still under Japanese mortar fire while it was being repaired.
Upon arrival he hit the beach and walked about a mile to dig a foxhole with a shovel just like the one he gave me when I was a boy. He dug his foxhole three feet deep and lived there for ten or twelve days until the flight surgeons ordered the pilots be put into tents because of excessive sickness. Even so, he maintained a posture of fearlessness and remembered, quote, Son, the Lord goes before you, unquote. He could easily say along with the psalmist, quote, when the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.
The war may rise against me, in this I will be confident." Psalm 27 verses 1, 2, and 3. The clamor of war was always in the air and conditions were difficult. Temperatures in February and March were cold at night, 45 degrees, while the daytime climate was hot and muggy and the conditions on every level were destabilizing. Dad carried a Colt 45 plastic-handled pistol in a shoulder holster and tracer bullets in the magazine for night fire. This way he could see where he was firing and could, if needed, use his gun as a rescue device.
He also carried a compass, a shovel, can of water, can of pemmican, terrible, and the best Hershey bars ever made, three inches long and one inch thick. He was issued two flight suits with pockets all over them and he wore a soft Air Force hat with a wool liner because he did not like the uncomfortable steel hat. In the pockets he carried orange flares, another reminder of the vulnerability of his position. During the daytime my dad would go to the airfield to see how things were progressing, waiting for the planes to arrive. While killing time he got to know an old CB, a 35 years of age, who would let dad use his bulldozer to push dirt into holes because he was preparing airfields and covering up Japanese cave openings.
The Mustangs finally arrived March 7. The Army Air Corps was in the air the next day as ground support for a battle on the north end. Then came other assignments, flying interdiction missions against Japanese aerial attacks and raiding nearby targets like Chichijima. Life on Iwo Jima was as threatening as it was grimy, but there were some unexpected bright spots. For instance, Gene Autry came to Iwo in the middle of March.
Shooting was still going on and you could hear both American and Japanese gunfire during the show. After the show Mr. Autry had supper with Dad's squadron of 46 guys. Autry's famous cowboy hat was a perfect fit for Dad so he wore it for an hour while Autry put on another show for 500 men. He sang some of my favorite cowboy songs like Back in the Saddle Again, Get Along Little Doggies.
We have a picture of dad in that hat. My dad says that because there was so much death on Iwo, they quit having funerals. The chaplain felt that the constant funerals would have a negative effect on the men, so the ceremonies were suspended. One day my father was the last one left alive in his tent. Three of the four of us in the tent had been killed.
The flight surgeon did not want to leave me alone in a tent, so he moved me to another tent that had some other pilots in it. We were at a psychological point that when people were lost it seemed normal. Death was normal. We didn't develop deep friendships except for maybe one person, but this I remembered. Quote, Son, the Lord goes before you, unquote.
I've always been struck by the casual and disarming way my father faced war and death. It was almost as if he was not aware of the dangers. He seemed to think that none of the bullets had his name on them and he never for a moment thought that he would die in combat. This attitude persisted even in spite of the fact that every day there were other fly boys who never came back from their missions. He says he was unable to maintain this attitude because of his father's parting words and the atmosphere that filled his home life every day of his youth.
Back home, the words of the great hymns of the faith wafted through the house as his faithful mother would sing them over and over again. This was her way of making their home a haven of peace. She never had a driver's license and kept her entire focus on making her home the most wonderful place in the world. She would sing, Blessed assurance, blessed be the tie that binds, wonderful words of life, and the old rugged cross. In addition to this, Dad's father was a Methodist pastor And he grew up daily hearing the words of Scripture coming from his Father's mouth daily.
Looking back on the days my dad said, my worldview was that I was being directed and protected. Every day our leaders were leading us into the valley of the shadow of death, but in my heart I sang, faith of our fathers, living still, and the Lord goes before you. My dad was calm in the midst of battle because he believed that the Lord went before him and that he was being held in everlasting arms. He believed that he, God, is a shield to all who trust him. Psalm 18.
It was his vision of God that sustained him, even when he was the only one left in his tent. All around him there was evidence that his device was imminent, but the knowledge of God overwhelmed the power of the evidence that dogged him every day. This is the only secure source of true confidence and fearlessness. Dad flew 18 sorties during his service on Iwo Jima but on May 29 he flew his last. On that day he was launched on one of the largest air assaults against Japan.
My father was flying one of the 101 P-51 Mustangs escorting 400 B-29s to the target Yokohama, the mainland of Japan. One of the largest Japanese fighter forces ever assembled came out to meet them. Yokohama was a city of 900, 000 population. On that day, 47% of it was destroyed in a single attack, lasting less than an hour. My father was in one of the only two Mustangs lost that day.
The pilot of the other Mustang was not so fortunate. While trying to chase off a Zeke, Lieutenant Rufus Moore's plane was heavily damaged and he plunged into the ocean. My dad's plane was hit, but by God's grace he bailed out and lived to tell about it. It was a picture perfect day. The skies were blue and the sea was green.
Mount Fuji stood out beautifully against the horizon from the island of Japan. He could see the bombers as his plane climbed up and prepared to cover them. Without warning, a Zero appeared dead ahead. Dad and his flight leader were shooting at the enemy. All of a sudden, there was no sound.
His engine had stopped. In the midst of the turmoil, my dad's plane was hit and he took a tracer bullet in his neck. A slight leader disappeared in the sky somewhere and as he looked around he couldn't see the zero anywhere so he pushed over and built up a lot of speed. He got his engine started again and started south toward Tokyo Bay. A few minutes later he saw a group of B-29s who had already left the target and were heading south again.
He stayed far away from them, flying parallel with them for a while, then he eased in a little closer. All of a sudden he looked down and saw that he didn't have functioning instruments anymore. He looked out on the wing and saw that the gasoline caps had popped off and were smoking a pilot's worst nightmare. His plane was on fire. He'd been shot by friendly fire, he said.
When you're in combat, you're excited. When you see something and you really can't identify it, you shoot at it. When you're excited, sometimes you shoot first and ask questions later. The B-29 had a very good firing system for that time. His crippled burning plane was proof of that.
In training, he and his fellow pilots had watched movies on how to get out of an airplane. When you're in a crippled plane, you have to trust your parachute. So he rolled the plane upside down and tried to fall out just the way his CO had said. He followed the procedure but it didn't work. He could not fall out so plan B.
He rolled it back and quickly crawled out on the right side having already dumped the fiberglass canopy. Miraculously his chute worked. Just a month before they had taken a dozen chutes from his squadron, put sandbags on them, and dumped them off over the field. Half of those parachutes didn't open. Reflecting on this, My dad said, when you're in combat as well as when you're flying in the training command, you have an attitude that your plane is going to fly and your equipment will work well and that the Lord is with you.
Even in desperate situations like this one just south of Tokyo Bay, I knew the Lord went before me and that he would spare me at his pleasure so there was nothing to fear. He was at about 8, 000 feet when his parachute billowed. He dropped through light cumulus clouds and on down to the water. He was able to see a little Japanese island. It could have been Oshima, over a few miles to the side.
Then there was that unforgettable moment when he saw the little circle in the ocean that his plane made when it went swoosh into the Pacific. When he got in the water it was just like in the movies. Nothing to it. Dad said they had trained us in Richmond, Virginia in a swimming pool. They'd shown us some movies on how to do this.
We had a sergeant who showed us over and over and over again how to get in and out of a one-man life raft. It was a piece of cake. I got into that raft and had to decide whether I was too close to that Japanese island to mess around with a smoke bomb signal. Once in the water he let go of two of his smoke bombs and waited a while, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and he let the rest of them go. There he was, floating in his rubber raft, wearing a life preserver, with only a bottle of water, Hershey bars, two pills to calm him down, but when he hit the water, the pills in his open pocket had just dissolved away.
Before he knew it, a submarine surfaced next to him, the pipe fish. They must have seen him go down or a bomber saw him and called in. He found out later that the pipefish picked up nine flyers during its stint there in the Pacific. After being picked up, he wasn't allowed to get off at Iwo, but was taken to a sub base in Guam. He was debriefed and the Red Cross sent a telegram to his parents in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Three weeks before, in June of 1945, they had already received a War Department telegram saying that their son had been killed in action. His father had continued to preach, his mother continued to pray. Three weeks later they received a telegram that he had been picked up and was alive and well. It is amazing how one story can symbolize whole worlds of knowledge. In this one event, I have a reference point for the geography of the Pacific Islands, the political climate in Japan during the war, the strategic nature of Iwo Jima, a cultural understanding of the boys who fought the Second World War, the importance of an air force in wartime, the planes of fame that ended the war, the radical courage that was necessary to overtake the most difficult island stronghold in the history of warfare, the personalities and the songs and the heartbreak of an entire era in US history.
However, the most important part of the story for me is summarized in these words my grandfather spoke to my father, son the Lord goes before you. Surely the words of Psalms 139-3 were fulfilled that day he was shot down. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me." Psalm 139. The simple words of his father came back to strengthen him time after time. This was the secret of the attitude of my easy-going dad and the demeanor he possessed in one of the most dangerous places on earth. It is an example of how he handled things his whole life.
He could always go through the most difficult situations with confidence and dignity because he knew that the Lord had already gone before him. Every day of his life he was always coming in on a wing and a prayer. Ringing in his ears were the words he had heard all his life. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help and trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the mist of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, say, law, there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most high.
God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God shall help her just at the break of dawn. The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of Hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge, Thela. Come behold the works of the Lord who has made desolation in the earth. He makes war cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariot in the fire.
Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah Psalm 46. The words of my grandfather which had such an impact on his son continues to ring in my ears as well. My grandfather said, the Lord goes before you, to his son. My father says to me, Son, the Lord goes before you. Now I'm saying the same thing to my own son, the same thing that our Father in heaven has said to his sons for so many generations.
The message is loud and clear and it has implications for all the days of my life. God seems to delight in appearing to his sons and saying, quote, Fear not, the Lord goes before you, unquote. He appeared to Jacob and said, I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham's sake." Genesis 26, 24.
In the same way that our Father in heaven tells us fear not for I am with you so we should tell our sons son the Lord goes before you pray that it rings in their ears all the days of their lives.