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Vatican News @VaticanNews - During his Wednesday General Audience, Pope Leo XIV meditates on death, and invites us to ponder it so as to discover the power of Christ's Resurrection.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-12/pope-leo-xiv-general-audience-catechesis-death-life-resurrection.html
https://x.com/VaticanNews/status/1998696692665770213

Veteran Stories @Veteran_Stories - Brigadier General James Devereux, USMC Retired
15 Days That Defined Courage
And The 1,354 days after after that defined an officer of the highest caliber.
On December 8, 1941, just hours after Pearl Harbor, Major James Patrick Sinnott Devereux stood on a tiny speck in the Pacific called Wake Island. Around him: 449 Marines, 68 Navy personnel, a handful of working aircraft, and over 1,200 civilian construction workers. Facing him: the entire Imperial Japanese Navy.
What happened next became legend.
Born in Cuba in 1903 to an Army surgeon, Devereux enlisted in the Marines at 20 and earned his commission two years later. By 1941, this 18-year veteran had served in Nicaragua, China, and across the Pacific. He was known as a strict disciplinarian—some called him a martinet—but no one questioned his dedication to his men or his duty.
When the war came to Wake Island that December morning, Devereux transformed a vulnerable outpost into a fortress of resistance. For 15 grueling days, his outnumbered garrison held off one of the most powerful naval forces in the world.
The battle statistics read like fiction: Devereux's Marines damaged two cruisers, sank two destroyers and an escort vessel, destroyed or damaged 72 enemy aircraft, and likely sank a submarine. On December 11, they achieved something unprecedented in the Pacific War—they repelled a Japanese amphibious invasion, forcing the enemy fleet to retreat.
But overwhelming force has its way. On December 23, 1941, after burning through ammunition and hope in equal measure, Devereux made the hardest decision of his military career. He surrendered.
What followed was 1,354 days - nearly four years as a prisoner of war—first at Wake, then transported to China, enduring the brutal conditions of Japanese POW camps. His wife Mary, battling diabetes back home, never received word that he was alive. She died in July 1942, never knowing his fate. Their son was just 8 years old.
Through it all, Major Devereux maintained Marine Corps discipline among his imprisoned men. Even in captivity, he insisted on order, pride, and self-respect—keeping his Marines together mentally and spiritually when everything else had been stripped away.
Liberation came in September 1945. Devereux returned home, was awarded the Navy Cross, and retired as a Brigadier General in 1948. But his service wasn't over.