I find something intensely interesting about the American soldier in a chaplain’s prayer request that will surprise many but resonates with me. He is Chaplain John J. Morris, the senior Minnesota National Guard chaplain currently undergoing deployment.

“Thanks for your prayers. Our task force has assembled at Ft Lewis and cleared through our Selective Records Check and Gear issue. Prayer Requests: The above process weeds out soldiers who for a variety reasons are either unfit or unable to deploy to combat, some for mental health reasons, others for medical reasons. It is difficult on those being sent home. Please pray for the young men and women we are sending back to Minn. They will be lonely, feel alienated and some will have a measure of guilt for not having been able to complete the mission.”

Amazing? Not when you know the American soldier. Think about it. Here are men and women just relieved of the necessity of leaving home and family and being ordered into harm’s way. A free ticket home.

Yet, these consider themselves casualties of war. Not the kind of casualty that wins Purple Hearts and celebrated as heroes upon return.

They sneak home with, as it were, tails between their legs.

Reason doesn’t expect this, but spirit does. Why? Because they are soldiers.

Should any read this — or their families or friends — I want them to return to us with heads held high by the recognition they have already done everything required of them. They have served honorably, and we honor them.

Try to put yourself in their boots. They absorbed the shock of mobilization notification. They endured the stressful tasks of personal and professional preparation. They explained their departure to employers and family. They negotiated relief from jobs and set things in order at home. They said good-bye and left. They set their minds to new routine and adjusted their thinking upon arrival at Fort Lewis, Washington.

Then the army, not they, found a reason they should not deploy. I suspect the bulk are conditions not of their making.

It would be ineffective for the army and unfair to them to require deployment.

So they are sent home to explain something harder to explain than having left. I think we should relieve them of the necessity to explain. Just thank them for their honest willingness and best efforts.

And respect them. Respect —and admire — all soldiers. (Please recognize soldiers is often used in the generic sense of armed forces personnel, e.g., sailors, airmen, marines, as well as soldiers.) They are people, women and men, of honor and duty.

It is precisely this ingrained sense of honorable duty that makes their return so painful for them.

Please recognize the other side of this same coin. That much larger number now found fit for deployment are not envious of those returned home. (In a sense, of course.)

But ultimately they feel affirmed and honored—honored by the duty to serve their country and to serve it with honor. There you have it: Duty —Honor — Country.

I can imagine it was said hundreds of times around Minnesota in recent months. “Why do you have to go? “I have to: It’s my duty.”

This sounds so facile to most civilians, but not to soldiers. The closer you are to soldiers, the better you understand.

So, Chaplain Morris, I am already praying, and I invite my readers so to pray: for those who return home and for those carried away by duty, honor, country.