ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. —
A Slidell U.S. Marine Corp. veteran and associate minister is hoping his message of loss will inspire.
From 2004 to 2012, Steven Cheek did three combat tours as Marine infantry in Iraq and another two tours in Afghanistan.
“I signed up, It’s something I had wanted to do since I was 12, 13-years-old, to serve my country,” said Cheek.
You can’t see them, but the wounds of war for the now 32-year-old run more than skin-deep.
“You (were) looking at the ground constantly because there are all of these IEDs to hurt you, maim you or kill you,” said Cheek. “All together I ended up losing 27 friends.”
Cheek remembers all of those lives lost but one attack in particular stands out. It was Jan. 7, 2006 in Fallujah. He’d lose three friends that day. including Lance Cpl. Jeriad P. Jacobs. who was killed by a sniper while conducting combat operations.
Jacobs and Cheek had worked a watch shift together just a few hours earlier.
“We stayed up all night talking to each other, for 12 hours keeping watch. And three hours after he got off watch, he was killed.”
The deaths of his friends would continue even after Cheek got out of the Marines.
“Since I’ve been out in 2012, I’ve lost another, I think, 22 or 23 to suicide.”
Cheek was almost one of them.
“I thought my life didn’t have purpose anymore, so one night I took my pistol and was going to go commit suicide. And I remember sitting on the edge of my bed and God telling me not to do it and I remember him telling me that I was going to serve many different roles but he still had a purpose for me,” said Cheek.
From there, Cheek finished up school to become a minister, something he says he always wanted to do but the wake-up call pushed him the rest of the way.
Today, he’s an associate minister at True Life Church, where he works to help struggling veterans by telling them about his journey and about his friends.
“Even though it’s difficult to talk about, I tell their stories so that other guys can have hope, so that other guys can push forward and so that my friends didn’t sacrifice for nothing,” Cheek said.
If you’d like to hear more about Cheek’s message, he’ll have a service on Sunday at True Life Church at 10 a.m.