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The B-26 Marauder Pilot's Prayer
Contributed by: Cam Martin
Lt. Stu Perrin's B-26 Take Off Prayer
558 Squadron (Tiger Tails, yellow & black diagonal stripes on rudder)
387 Bomb Group--
1943-44 (60 missions)
Lord, My life is yours today.
You can do anything with me you want to.
If You've got a job for me to do in the United States
or anywhere in the world,
there is nothing here in combat that can keep me from it.
If You've got a new assignment for me with You in Headquarters,
this is a good day to begin it.
Background:
Lt. Stuart Perrin prayed this prayer with Sgt. Oley Olsen, the radio
operator who sat directly behind him in their B-26 Marauder named
"Pugnacious Peggy". They knew they shared a common faith, and worked out this
prayer to be synchronoized with the take off checklist. They began it
together on the takeoff roll, and finished together when they got
airborne, got the flaps and wheels up and locked.
Oley died from a piece of flak that stopped his watch at noon and then
slipped through a small gap in his flak vest, on their 50th mission
together, May 1944 as they did the softening up bombing in preparation
for D-Day. (The backpack chute caused the flak vest to fit differently,
leaving a gap. The crews were being encouraged to wear the new chutes
because it gave better results if they had to bail out. The Ninth Air
Force B-26s typically bombed from about 10,000 feet to miss the worst of
the flak, lower than the Eighth Air Force heavy bombers B-17, B-24 ...
being able to bail out quickly was important.)
What is transcribed above came from a phone call 6/4/94.
I phoned Stuart H. Perrin, in retirement in Pennsylvania, on Saturday
June 4, 1994 to chat. He had frequently used his flying experiences to
illustrate his Sunday sermons, and as a teen ager decades ago, I always
listened intently. I mentioned remembering that he had a crewman that
he prayed with on takeoff. I did not know any of the details. He
shared the prayer and the story with me over the phone. As I listened,
I understood that I had phoned him 50 years to the very week that he and
Oley Olsen flew their last mission together. The precision of it all
leaves me silent, awestruck and humbled. I could not have planned the
timing of that call if I had wanted to.
It moved me to grasp that these two men prayed the same prayer together,
over and over for 50 missions. God had two completely different plans
for each of their lives.
He answered the prayer perfectly for each of them.
Oley Olsen went Home to Headquarters on May 29, 1944.
Perrin came home and pastored a church in my hometown during my high
school years. My life would not have been the same without him.
He trusted his life to the Son of God, and lived a simple life in a
small town. His words reached a boy who showed up mostly to hear the
airplane stories.
God has no random events in His plan.
Who are you trusting with your future?
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