Dear Mr. Aubrecht.

My name is Stephen and I just returned from a duty cycle overseas. I am a specialist who helped maintain CH-53Ds at the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. You may know these birds as super stallions but I affectionately called them dirt devils as they were always blowing sand.

I am a practicing Methodist who attends Grace Methodist church and I am emailing with appreciation for the devotional that you penned on the Civil War. Each week we would get a crate of books from the states and the Southern Cross was one of the paperbacks that caught my eye. I recognized the monument from Gettysburg on the cover.

I think the good Lord may have pointed it out to me because I had no intentions of even taking a book. I was pissed off and missing home all the time and was not going to services for a while. Our divisional chaplain tried to get me to join a men’s study group, but I didn’t have the energy to go. Then I started reading the Southern Cross.

Your book moved me and was a very enjoyable read. I used it with my bible to keep up my devotions in between shifts. I worked the night shift mostly but managed to attend some group meetings. I told them about your book and the chaplain said he knew your name from the Tun Tavern fellowship at Quantico. What a small world we live in.

I liked your choice of scripture and found comfort in reading about Gen. Lee and all the other believers that were dealing with war just as we are. You seem to have a favorite in Stonewall Jackson and he is very popular among my fellow Christians here in the Mississippi. I imagine he is huge in Virginia.

I just wanted you to know that I read your book cover to cover in a week and then passed it on to a friend of mine over there. I think that it will probably be circulating for many months to come. I thought you would be proud of that. 

Thank you brother. Godspeed.
GySgt Stephen J. Ivino

I am Stephen. I really-really am. Thank you.