During a night patrol in Afghanistan, Sergeant Medrano and his team are caught in a fierce ambush. Separated from the lead element and running low on ammunition, they wait for aircraft and artillery support. With the team looking to him for an answer, Sergeant Medrano makes a desperate promise to those around him:
"The birds are coming!"
But the aircraft he promised never arrive.
What arrives instead is an unexpected illumination round that helps the platoon find a way out. In the years that follow, Sergeant Medrano carries the fear of that night, the guilt of the lie he told to keep his teammates fighting, and questions he cannot easily answer.
Through his family's roots, the heritage of the military unit he served with, and the quiet pull of something he had drifted away from, he begins to understand the light differently.
A personal memoir of combat, brotherhood, service, and faith, The Birds Are Coming: A Soldier's Story of War, Intercession, and Mercy, bears witness to the battles fought overseas, the ones carried home, and the faith that can remain even when the help we expect never comes.