Powerful prayer guides Special Forces
By Mike Foley
The Greenville (S.C.) News
U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan are equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and technological support.
Associated Press
They also have support of a different kind: the Special Forces Prayer penned 40 years ago by an Army chaplain four years after his graduation from Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C.
The words of the Special Forces Prayer have been worked into a stained glass window at the JFK Memorial Chapel at Fort Bragg, N.C.
In 1961, as Green Berets from Fort Bragg, N.C., were about to be sent to Laos to train the Royal Laotian army to fight communists, Chaplain John Stevey was asked to write a prayer.
Gen. William Yarborough, then-commanding officer of the U.S. Army Special Forces, told Stevey he wanted to remind the soldiers of the spiritual nature of their work.
"But I had to write it so that it could be used by many faiths," Stevey says. "He wanted it made so it could be put on a card in men's wallets."
Stevey came up with a prayer that makes no mention of Jesus, but captures the spirit — and the spirituality — of the men and women of the Special Forces. The prayer has become a part of these elite warriors' culture.
What started as a prayer on a wallet card soon became ingrained into the Special Forces community. At the conclusion of Special Forces training, soldiers are feted at a regimental dinner. Along with being outfitted with their Green Berets, they receive a copy of the Special Forces Prayer.
Almighty God, who art the Author of liberty and the Champion of the oppressed, hear our prayer. We, the men of Special Forces, acknowledge our dependence upon Thee in the preservation of human freedom. So with us as we seek to defend the defenseless and to free the enslaved. May we ever remember that our nation, whose motto is "In God We Trust," expects that we shall acquit ourselves with honor, that we may never bring shame among our faith, our families, or our fellow men. Grant us wisdom from Thy mind, courage from Thine heart, strength from Thine arm, and protection by Thine hand. It is for Thee that we do battle, and to Thee belongs the victor's crown. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and glory, forever. Amen.
The prayer is etched into a large stained-glass window above the entryway at JFK Memorial Chapel at Fort Bragg. It's included in special Bibles issued to all Special Forces troops. It has been set to music and pressed into records. And, with the Army's blessing, it can even be found on a variety of T-shirts and sweatshirts.
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Special Forces Prayer
"It is very much a part of who Special Forces are. It's part of our heritage, part of what we are," says Col. Paul Vicalvi, command chaplain of Army Special Forces at Fort Bragg.
"It kind of blows my mind," says Stevey, who is from Greensburg, Pa.
Stevey took a commission in the Army Reserve while studying at Bob Jones University. He applied for active duty after earning his Ph.D. in 1957. Two months later, he was an Army chaplain.
He served in Panama and more than a dozen other stops in 22 years, including six years of parachute duty and four years as a Green Beret. He retired in 1977. Unbeknownst to Stevey, a stained-glass window emblazoned with his prayer was installed in the Special Forces chapel while overseas.
While attending a funeral in Dayton, Ohio several years ago, the senior chaplain at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center asked him to serve as a chaplain at the center. So he came out of retirement.
Stevey has had an influence on many lives. But he'll never know how many people he's affected with his simple prayer.
Retired Lt. Col. Bob Huckabee has a framed copy of the prayer hanging above his desk in a Seneca (S.C.) High School classroom where he teaches Junior ROTC. He got it from the JFK Special Warfare Museum Gift Shop at Fort Bragg.
"You would see it in team rooms, headquarters ... and anywhere you see special ops and Special Forces people serving," Huckabee says. "It's followed me everywhere I've been — and now into retirement."
