Prayers, family help solider surrvive fierce clashes

ZAMBOANGA CITY - - Prayers and the love of his family helped a wounded army ranger to survive for the fifth time a major encounter, including the deadly attack by the Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu province last week, that left seven of his comrades dead and 24 others wounded.

Staff Sergeant Christopher Anino, an army ranger assigned with the US-trained 3rd Light Reaction Company (LRC), was among those who barely escaped but wounded from the barrage of mortar attacks the militants launched Thursday at sitio Kagay, Barangay Buhanginan, Patikul town.

The joint reconnaissance marines and LRC units were closing in on the bandits to rescue kidnap victims when they came under heavy volume of indirect fire from the Abu Sayyaf group.

Anino, although among those wounded, retaliated along with the other soldiers,  sparking gunbattle that left 10 Abu Sayyaf dead and 13 wounded, repelling the militants.

Anino, who sustained shrapnel wounds on his right leg and left forearm, was airlifted along with the 24 other wounded soldiers to the Camp Navarro General Hospital inside the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom).

Recuperating from his bed at the heroes’ ward, Anino said it was his fifth time to survive fierce clashes  shrapnel or bullet slugs embedded in the different parts of his body as a reminder of the battles he had gone through.

“But this will not stop me to serve and defend the people and the country,” the native of Bohol said, adding he is ready to go back to Sulu if given the mission again.

The soldier said he holds no secret amulet in surviving all the deadly encounters.

“It was all because of training discipline and whenever I am assigned for mission I always pray and think of my wife and children that I will return to them safely,” Anino said as he was among those awarded with wounded medals merit by Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, chief of Westmincom in a simple ceremony over the weekend.

Guerrero lauded the heroism displayed by Anino in protecting the rest of the latter's comrades and accomplishment of his mission despite being wounded.