Brian Smyly in his uniform before being deployed to Afganistan. COURTESY ANGIE SMYLY
“Christmas,” Brian Smyly said. “One of the most amazing things that happened on Christmas day was when we finally got to move into our one-man rooms, and I saw that Psalm 91 was hanging on my wall.”
The life of an American soldier gives no guarantee about where he or she will end up working. For Smyly, that place was Afghanistan, in a small base that was often under attack. Behind his dog tags and bulletproof armor, Smyly said he believes something else protected him during his deployment.
After graduating from high school in Pontotoc in 2012, Smyly enrolled in Itawamba Community College and started his first semester in August. After two semesters, he was looking for something else to do.
“My friends talked me into it,” Smyly said of the day he joined the army. “They came to my house. One was already in the army, and one wanted to get in. They told me how I could get scholarships for school if I joined.”
Joining the army was not a new thought to Smyly. His dad was retired from the Army National Guard, and Smyly said he had heard his dad’s stories of the military since he was young. His dad often talked to his sons about joining the military but his mother, Angie, was wary of the idea.
“I asked him if he was sure and told him to call his father, who was out on the road driving trucks, before he did anything,” Angie Smyly said.
After talking to his father, Smyly and his friends went to the local recruiting station and signed the papers to join the National Guard. He made things final when he went to Memphis and signed the rest of his recruiting papers days later.
“In Memphis, it took two days to get everything finalized and I was in,” Smyly said.
Two weeks after getting back home from basic training and his advanced individual training, Brian’s mother was the first one to receive the news that her son would be deploying to Afghanistan in just one month. It was spring, and Smyly had just turned 19. On the last Sunday he was home, members of the small, Baptist church he attends gathered to say their goodbyes. His mother stood and shared memories of Brian along with a special Bible scripture that was close to her heart.
“About two or three minutes before I actually went up to the podium, the Lord spoke to my heart, and he told me to read Psalm 91 to Brian,” Angie Smyly said. “I didn’t know why the Lord put that on my heart, but I knew there was a reason and so, I read it at the end.”
When he got home from church, Smyly packed his bags with a checklist the army had sent. Everything from his combat boots to a laptop that his parents bought him to Skype with them when he was in Afghanistan were spread on the dining room table of his parent’s house. A camouflage bandana, given to Smyly from his troop’s chaplain, lay amongst the chaos.
“I sat my purse down on the table and said, ‘What is written on this thing?’” Angie Smyly said. “I picked it up and just started reading in the middle somewhere, and when I looked up, it was the chapter of Psalm 91.”
After seeing his mother reading his bandana, Smyly reminded his mom that his job title in the army is “91 Bravo.” The title is given to mechanics in the army, a job he wanted, so he could learn a skill to use for the rest of his life.
“I said, ‘Son, that’s confirmation that God’s got you covered under Psalm 91, and 91 is your number,’” Angie Smyly said.
When a soldier is deployed, there is always a feeling of absence in the family, especially around the holidays. Smyly left in the spring of 2013 with the 858 Engineering Troop from Calhoun City. His mother promised that when she put up the Christmas tree that year she would not take it down until he got home.
“I didn’t want him over there,” Angie Smyly said. “I wanted him home for the holidays. I wanted him home for his birthday, the big 2-0.”
Turning “the big 2-0” in Afghanistan when you are a soldier means you get lots of care packages, and you get to do 20 push-ups when your sergeant calls for a line formation, according to Smyly.
“I got about seven packages for my birthday, with zebra cakes,” Smyly said. “Having something that is good like that is trading material if you have enough to barter with.”
Whether bartering zebra cakes with fellow soldiers or doing push-ups for his sergeant on his birthday, nothing could compare to the gift Smyly found on Christmas day that year.
“I transferred to a smaller base than the one that I was at,” Smyly said. “It was Christmas day, and when I opened the door to my one-man room, Psalm 91 was typed on a piece of paper and hanging on my wall.”
Amazed at the Scripture hanging on the wall in his new bedroom, Smyly put his belongings down and snapped a picture of the piece of paper hanging on his wall.
“It (Psalm 91) appeared a lot when I was over there, more times than I thought it was going to,” Smyly said.
Brian finally returned home to Pontotoc in the early morning hours on July 2, 2014.
Since he was a little boy, Smyly said his mother’s side of the family had always celebrated July 4 like it was Christmas. This year, though, it was.
“I told him that I would keep the Christmas tree up until he got home, and I did,” Angie Smyly said. “We had birthday in July, Christmas in July and July 4 all at once.”
At his homecoming celebration, Smyly told stories of his base being attacked and the moments he ducked down into bunkers to all the family and friends at his celebration party, Angie Smyly said she knew he would make it home all along, and she knew why.
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Angie Smyly said. “I believe we ask God to do something, and he is faithful and just does what we ask him to do. We just have to make sure that we totally trust and believe him.”
