James Baxter

James Baxter

Psalm 91
My brother and I joined the U.S. Marine Corps right out of high school and went away to World War II. Our mother, a True Believer, wrapped us in Psalm 91 and claimed God's promises over us. He went to the Paramarine/Raiders and the 5th MarDiv and I to the OSS and the 2nd MarDiv. We both went through combat and returned home safely after the war.

In 1950, with the  outbreak of the Korean War,  we were both  recalled  to  active  duty  with  the 1st Marine Division.   Our  mother  again  wrapped us in Psalm 91, gave  each  of  us  a small New Testament, and again sent us off to war with the Lord's blessing.

As  a  12-year-old,  I  had  accepted the Lord but had never been well-disciplined  or obedient.  I wanted to play patty-cake in the sand piles of the world. At 25, when  I  went to Korea,  I  started reading the little Testament my mother had given me.

At the Inchon landing,  and  for the next two weeks of  heavy combat as a rifle-squad leader,  I  read  a  few Bible verses every day. I loved my brother Marines who suffered  and  died  alongside  me.   As the death and destruction grew more intense  - and as I stood on the brink of eternity - I did not like what I saw.

As my  outfit, Fox Company [F-2-1],  attacked  up  the streets of Seoul,  I was hit with a machine-gun bullet. I made it behind a burning police  sub-station  in the middle of the street.  My  corpsman, Chico, dressed my wounds and as  sniper bullets crashed  into the street beside us, he laid on top of me - covering me with his own body - and yelled in my ear,  "You've  had enough!" Other riflemen  nailed  the  snipers and as Chico left me  to  help other Marines lying wounded in the street, he was hit by two bullets that blew  the shin-bone out of his leg. I never saw Chico again.

Several  Marines  threw  a  wooden  door on

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