Retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel shares lessons from the military as a Latter-day Saint

While a battalion commander during a tour in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, now-retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Jason S.D. Perry led a big operation with a lot of fighting. Afterward, he had the heavy job of writing condolence letters to mothers and fathers of those who had died in the line of duty. His second-in-command came into his office to tell him an unexpected helicopter was inbound and someone on the helicopter was looking for him. It was a chaplain from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had flown to the forward operating base in the middle of Musa Qala in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, “just to say hi to me,” Perry said on the Church News podcast. Perry said it was not easy to get to where he was and rather dangerous. “And yet he came out looking for me. On that day, I was the one.” They spent two hours together, and he was able to take the sacrament again.

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