Keep Alert | The Good Fight of Faith: Pt Eight

Fully equipped soldiers are utterly useless if they are not alert to enemy advance, and are not in constant communication with higher command. Sentries who sleep while on duty endanger the lives of everyone who depend upon their vigilance. Teamwork is essential for survival: one sleeps while the other stands guard.

Keep awake, alert, and aware - day after day of boredom, and especially in the most difficult circumstances.

Perseverance definition - “steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.”

Soldiers must be trained repetitively in marksmanship, tactics, techniques, battle drills, and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Plus, they must be physically and mentally conditioned to endure the extreme demands placed upon them in battle. During Army training, we sometimes grumbled about the conditions as “practicing being miserable”. Soldiers spend many hours maintaining all of their equipment so that it will perform in a few, deadly minutes of combat in the face of enemy fire.