I began to be interested in the military around the time that I started high school. I honed in on the Marine Corps and begged and pleaded with my Mom and Dad to allow me to join before my 18th birthday (parental permission is needed for anyone under 18). After much badgering and pressure from me, my parents reluctantly agreed and signed the waiver that allowed me to join the Marine Corps Reserves and leave for boot camp shortly after school ended, about 2 months before I turned 18.

After boot camp, I went home for a short time and then went back to Camp Pendleton to be trained as an Infantryman at the Marine Corps school of Infantry. After graduation from infantry school, I went back home to Idaho and started the standard reserve training at Camp Williams in Utah, which training consists of at least one weekend per month and two consecutive weeks sometime during the year. The two-week training is with active duty troops and can take place anywhere in the world.

Camp Williams is part of the 4th LAR which is a Light Armored Reconnaissance Division in the Marine Corps. The main weapon system is the LAV25, which is a relatively small, lightly armored, but fast personnel carrier. I was assigned to be a reconnaissance scout and was trained to ride in the back of the LAV to specific points and then travel on foot to perform reconnaissance.

My first, two-week annual training was to be held in the beginning of July at Twentynine Palms, a Marine base in California that is near Death Valley. The training was part of an annual CAX (Combined Arms eXercise) which is essentially a war game. Units from all over the Marine Corps converge and “fight a war” against a fictitious enemy. Tanks, infantry, artillery, air power, etc., all take part in this.

The training transpired as one might expect at that location and during that time of the year. Temperatures regularly exceeded 120 degrees. LAVs are not designed for comfort and the desert environment only made things worse as we were faced with either suffocating in the stifling confines of the vehicle with the hatches closed or choking on the dust and diesel fumes when they were open. The only relief came at night, when temperatures became bearable.

During a particular night exercise, the LAVs were engaged in target practice the main 25 mm gun against targets on the other side of a small valley. There wasn’t much for the scouts to do, so I left the vehicle. I was tired and hot from the day’s activities, so getting out of the cramped LAV and removing my gear was a great relief. I walked a short distance from the vehicle and decided to lay on the ground to rest and look at the stars. I put my helmet down and lay on my back with my head resting on my helmet and soon after, fell asleep.

As part of the CAX, Marine officers and NCOs travel around the training ground to oversee the exercises. They try to do so discreetly so as not to interfere. At night, they turn their vehicle lights off and rely on night vision to drive around.

As I lay sleeping, I had a very distinct and urgent impression to get up. I don’t know exactly how to describe it. I didn’t hear a voice, rather I “felt” a voice. I wasn’t particularly aware of anything going on around me that would startle me. It was a sudden and very clear alarm. I was startled and immediately sat up and turned around on my knees so that I was now facing my helmet. The next moment I saw a massive Humvee tire roll between me and my helmet that was still on the ground. The Humvee lights were off and I was surrounded by small scrub brush, so I was likely out of the driver’s sight. When it passed by, I could see that my helmet had partially been run over and was depressed into the sand.

As I think of that experience, I am certain that I would have been killed had I not gotten up as the Humvee would have run right over my neck and the lower part of my head.

I don’t know the reasons as to why I was awakened the way that I was. More tragic things have happened and continue to happen to people who are much more righteous than I.

I have thought many times about that experience and have wondered how I was able to move in time. I have thought of several, possible explanations:

• that perhaps my subconscious brain was aware of the noise of the incoming vehicle, even though I wasn’t consciously aware of it
• I have thought that perhaps an innate, internal warning system was sounded that caused me to move
• I have thought that the Holy Ghost directly communicated to me, spirit to spirit

We do not know God’s intentions and can only apply our own very limited methods of thinking to try to make sense of His actions.

Regardless of the unknowns, I do know this: that whatever raised the alarm for me, ultimately came from Him. I know that I was being prayed for by loving family on both sides of the veil. I know that He created me. If it could be argued that I was not prompted in the usual way that the Holy Ghost prompts us, I still give credit to Heavenly Father. At minimum, He created the functions that moved me or at the most direct, the Holy Ghost inspired me.

To me, the particulars of why are not important as long as I know that God is in control, regardless of the outcome of any situation. As I think about that experience, I am inspired to take advantage of it along with many other things I have experienced in this life.

As of this writing, I have a wonderful wife, Vera, and three beautiful girls, Evelyn, Adelaide and Leila. I am grateful for the family, both immediate and extended that I have been born into and I am grateful for the knowledge that I have about the plan of salvation and of eternal families.