Commander Patrick McLaughlin, USN (ret.) is a Navy Chaplain. The University of South Carolina said of Commander Patrick McLaughlin, “Having received a master’s in divinity and a master’s of sacred theology, McLaughlin is currently a commander in the Navy and the Second Marine Logistics Group Forward Chaplain where he supervises 20 chaplains and religious program specialists on three bases forward deployed in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq.” Commander Patrick McLaughlin is the author of No Atheists in Foxholes: Prayers and Reflections from the Front.

One reader of No Atheists in Foxholes: Prayers and Reflections from the Front said, “Navy Chaplain McLaughlin has had a varied career in the US Navy, serving at Camp David, the Presidential Retreat, as well as in Iraq, serving the staff and patients at a Surgical Shock Trauma Platoon at Camp Al Taqaddum. This book captures reflections and prayers coming out of his experiences offering ministry to the people serving in these challenging locations.

The book is arranged in short chapters. The "Reflections" give insight into life in the military, sharing lessons such as the potential spiritual significance of Velcro to the importance of Red Bull. Intertwined between the "Reflections" are prayers written by the author which were offered to support and minister to his fellow troops.

I found reading this book to be a devotional experience. If you or a family member or friend is in the military, you will find this book very meaningful. You will garner a new appreciation of what military personnel and their families go through. Praying these prayers along with the Chaplain will help you develop a richer faith, a deeper compassion, and greater spiritual strength. You will find yourself praying for our military personnel and their families that God would grant them peace, strength and safety for their journey. You will also find yourself praying for the Iraqi people and the leaders of the nations of the world. Any book that prompts the reader to pray for others is an excellent book, in my opinion. What do you think?”

According to the book description of No Atheists in Foxholes: Prayers and Reflections from the Front, “Experience gripping wartime stories and honest prayers by this Camp David chaplain now serving in Iraq. When words mean less and less, but money talks more and more; when blasphemy is a best seller, and eternal war has replaced hopeful diplomacy; in times like these is prayer even possible? Patrick J. McLaughlin thinks so. McLaughlin is an active duty Navy Chaplain who has ministered to heads of state and to soldiers living and dying in the heat of Iraq.

No Atheists in Foxholes assembles Chaplain McLaughlin's experiences and prayers from e-mails, private notes, and personal conversations that take us real-time into realms of duty and spirit: from the quiet darkness of his infant son's New England bedroom on September 11, 2001, to the bombshelled medical tents and blistered Army Humvees of Anbar Province. Chaplain McLaughlin believes that prayer is not only possible, but critical. “We must all learn to pray for peace,” he says, “and then become an answer to that prayer.”