FORT CARSON, Colo. — Ivy leaders with the 4th Infantry Division pray with Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Jon Knoedler, 4th Inf. Div. chaplain, during the Fort Carson and 4th Inf. Div. National Prayer Breakfast, March 15, 2022, at Fort Carson. The founder of the National Prayer Breakfast event is Abraham Vereide, a Norwegian-born American Methodist minister and founder of the International Christian Leadership group. (Photo by Spc. Scyrrus Corregidor)
By Sgt. Clara Harty
4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Maj. Gen. David Hodne, commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson, gives a speech during the Fort Carson and 4th Inf. Div. National Prayer Breakfast March 15, 2022. The National Prayer Breakfast was held for Soldiers to gather and pray together and talk about any personal problems on which they needed guidance and any sadness for which they need prayers. (Photo by Spc. Scyrrus Corregidor)
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Soldiers and leaders from 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson gathered for the annual Fort Carson National Prayer Breakfast March 15, 2022. As the whole installation could not fit into one room, every brigade participated by dialing in virtually to the 4th Inf. Div. headquarters for the opportunity to forge fellowship, tell their stories and bring all types of people together.
“The National Prayer Breakfast is the power of prayer and faith,” said Maj. Gen. David Hodne, commanding general, 4th Inf. Div. and Fort Carson. “You could think of no better way to bring leaders together, even back in the 80s.”
In 1985, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan said in his speech at the 32nd Annual National Prayer Breakfast that many public figures have changed as human beings due to speaking to other leaders on political matters and spiritual ones.
“Fellowships began to spring up throughout the Capitol,” said Reagan. “They existed in all three branches of government, and they have spread throughout the capitals of the world to parliaments and congresses far away.”
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Chaplain (Maj.) Jared Vineyard, an ethics instructor and writer at the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, tells his story to fellow leaders during the Fort Carson and 4th Infantry Division National Prayer Breakfast March 15, 2022, at Fort Carson. Vineyard talked about how he was inspired to be more religious by a Soldier speaking through a radio station when he was young. (Photo by Spc. Scyrrus Corregidor)
The National Prayer Breakfast, known as the Presidential Prayer Breakfast until 1970, is a place where all people can meet but do not need any specific religion or to belong to any religion at all. With former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower being the first president to attend the prayer group in 1953, each president has held a prayer breakfast.
“I think we often forget in the daily rush of events the importance in all human dealings of the spiritual dimension,” said Reagan. “There are such diversities in the world, such terrible and passionate divisions between men, but prayer and fellowship among the great universe of God’s believers are the beginning of understanding and reconciliation. They remind us of the great, over-arching things that really unite us.”
The president’s prayer breakfast is held on the first Thursday in February every year, but leaders around the country often have their prayer breakfasts sometime after. This year, Fort Carson and the 4th Inf. Div. hosted the prayer breakfast virtually and in-person with Maj. Jared Vineyard, chaplain, an ethics instructor and writer at the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, sharing his story of prayer and faith as the guest speaker.
“On April 29, 2004, I lost eight of my Soldiers, assigned or attached to my platoon, outside a town called Mahmoudiyah in Iraq,” said Vineyard.
FORT CARSON, Colo. — The 4th Infantry Division Band plays music during the Fort Carson and 4th Inf. Div. National Prayer Breakfast, March 15 at Fort Carson. Maj. Gen. David Hodne, commanding general of the 4th Inf. Div. and Fort Carson, said that the purpose of National Prayer Breakfast is the power of prayer, faith, reflection of fellowship and unity. (Photo by Spc. Scyrrus Corregidor)
Unfortunately, Vineyard was also wounded that day and transported to Germany for further treatment and later ended up in the medical ward in Kuwait. After that day, he said he had terrible nightmares and severe post-traumatic stress disorder. He was tired and burdened.
“As I was sitting on the bed in the medical ward in Kuwait, God reminded me of something, something I hadn’t thought about in years,” said Vineyard. “It was a radio program, focused on the Family.”
On the radio, Vineyard said there was a guy by the name of Capt. Charlie Plum, a naval captain and top gun pilot in Vietnam, who spent years as a prisoner of war. He said he listened as Plum talked about how he didn’t have any PTSDs, and Vineyard, even at 12 years old, was shocked.
“Plum said ‘I choose not to participate. God’s shoulders are much broader’,” said Vineyard. “Fast forward to back in Kuwait, I thought, ‘well, the same God that Charlie Plum serves, is the same guy that I follow and what God did for Charlie, he could do for Jared’.”
That night when Vineyard was lying in bed, remembering Charlie Plum, he got up out of his bed and fell to his knees and cried out for God. As he prayed, Vineyard said his chest began to feel tight and heavy, like he was having a heart attack, until suddenly, what was broken felt healed.
FORT CARSON, Colo. — The 4th Infantry Division Band plays music during the Fort Carson and 4th Inf. Div. National Prayer Breakfast, March 15 at Fort Carson. Maj. Gen. David Hodne, commanding general of the 4th Inf. Div. and Fort Carson, said that the purpose of National Prayer Breakfast is the power of prayer, faith, reflection of fellowship and unity. (Photo by Spc. Scyrrus Corregidor)
“That was the last time I ever had a nightmare or struggled as much as I did,” said Vineyard. “It was like the hand of God came and scooped it all out. Prayer changes things, and it starts with you. What you meant for evil, God meant for good.”
Vineyard repeatedly said that prayer is the key to unlocking that relationship with God and keeps those channels open. Like Vineyard and Plum, many people have stories that have brought prayer and faith back into their lives. Meetings like the national prayer breakfasts were built to bring all types of people together, regardless of religion or background, to talk about any problems they need guidance for, stories of their faiths they can share, or sadness for which they need prayers.
“I wish I could say more about it, but it’s working precisely because it is private,” said Reagan. “In the most troubled parts of the world, political figures who are old enemies are meeting with each other in a spirit of peace and brotherhood. There are many wars in the world and much strife, but these meetings build relationships which build trust, and trust brings hope and courage.”