1st Lt Jeremy Dillard is a former paratrooper and a current intel officer who has had one constant in his life:

As 1st Lt. Jeremy Dillard prepared to jump into Iraq…during Operation Iraqi Freedom, he carried only one personal item with him: his Bible.

During spiritual fitness training event at Joint Base Balad in Irraq, Lt Dillard explained the importance of spiritual fitness: 

During his first deployment to Iraq, Dillard met regular contact with enemy forces and went nearly three months before being able to change clothes…

Dillard said it was his Bible, and his fellow soldiers beside him, that helped him stay strong through his deployment…

“There are going to be times when you get homesick, when you have a bad day and can’t go back to the ones you love or even talk to them,” explained Dillard. “Those are the times that you have to rely on your spiritual strength, and the strength of those around you to make it through.”

The Army article notes that “spiritual fitness” is not confined to any individual set of beliefs.

Everyone has different experiences and strengths, and everybody can contribute to building up one another, [Chaplain (Capt.) Darrell] Burriss said.

Rather, spiritual fitness is whatever internal support system upon which a person relies to sustain them, both through the easy and the difficult times.