How the CV-22 Osprey Delivers the Gospel

The CV-22 is primarily used for infiltration (Infil), exfiltration (Exfil), and casualty evacuation (CASEVAC). The saying goes that helicopters are better at helicopter things, airplanes are better at airplane things, but when you need both the CV-22 can’t be beat.

Much of the USAF inventory is deterrence based; consider when the last time a nuclear weapon was used…if you said August of 1945 you’d be wrong, as they are being used right now to deter aggression and kinetic nuclear war. Our F-22 and F-15 fleet likewise are primarily deterrent, though they do get to shoot down the occasional balloon, drone, or missile.

The CV-22 on the other hand is regularly used in Infil, Exfil, and CASEVAC to save lives daily. I wouldn’t be surprised if one is being used to that effect at this exact moment.

Consider many past conflicts where you would be bleeding, out of ammunition, desperate for water, and needing reinforcements and consider the helplessness you would feel looking at the sky where only shells, cannon balls, arrows, and rocks could appear, matériel meant to hurt, not to help. Then consider today where you’re likely to hear the glorious whine of jet engines and prop-rotors coming to carry you to medical care, drop off supplies, and reinforce your position. It is not a stretch to say the CV-22 is the most useful (and coolest) aircraft in our inventory, especially if you’re the one in need!

The quote goes, “If you know anything about a good story, the hero doesn’t arrive until the world really needs him.”

Ephesians 2:12-13 tells us to remember the time when we were separated from Christ, alienated from the promise of redemption, having no hope and without God in the world: then remember when Christ Jesus, who was far from us and we were far from him, came near to us so that he could bring us near to him by his own blood, making peace between God and man, and man and man, and becoming our peace.

In leaving Heaven on his mission he endured great danger to himself, as evidenced by the shedding of his own blood, but for the joy set before him he endured the cross so that he could seek and save the lost and perishing. In this mission he pulls us out of the fire (Exfil), he binds wounds and heals souls and replaces dead hearts (CASEVAC), and he puts us back in the fight to continue the mission to seek and save those who are perishing (Infil).

In the words of Rend Collective:

            There is good news for the captive
            Good news for the shamed
            There is good news for the one who walked away
            There is good news for the doubter
            The one religion failed
            For the Good Lord has come to seek and save

And they continue:

            He is beauty for the blind man
            Riches for the poor
            He is friendship for the one the world ignores
            He is pasture for the weary
            Rest for those who strive
            Oh, the Good Lord is the way, the truth the life.

Travis Cottrell adds:

            I come broken to be mended
            I come wounded to be healed
            I come desperate to be rescued
            I come empty to be filled
            I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb
            and I’m welcomed with open arms
            praise God, just as I am

The next time you hear or see a CV-22 fly over, consider how much more it would mean to you if you were in desperate need of rescue, then set your eyes on Heaven and thank God that in Christ he provided that perfect rescue and take that message to someone who desperately needs it.

More:

Cottrell, Travis, and Lily Cottrell. Just As I Am. On The Kindness of the Cross. Nashville: Worship Together / Capitol CMG Publishing, 2022. Digital audio.

Eckholm, Sam. "My Thrilling Flight in the Air Force CV-22 Osprey." YouTube video, 15:47. October 8, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vzqhddVG7o

Rend Collective. Rescuer. On Good News. Nashville: Sparrow Records, 2018. CD.

U.S. Air Force. "CV-22 Osprey." Fact Sheet, U.S. Air Force, updated January 2025. https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104531/cv-22-osprey/