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Our Heroes |
Praying for and honoring our Heroes: US Army Captain Mihai Sofronie
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| Mihai is a Captain in the Army and is currently serving on his 2nd tour in Iraq. He was born in Bucharest, Romania and is proficient in the language and has a complete understanding of the culture and customs. He went to Drexel University where he graduated in 2002 with a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in International Business, Marketing and Economics.During his studies at Drexel, Mihai completed two internships with companies in the greater Philadelphia area. While working at Southco Inc. and C&D Technologies he worked on various projects in both marketing and sales departments as well as assisted senior management with research into overseas expansion into Asia. During his 4 ½ years in the Army he's served as an assistant Operations Officer, Platoon Leader, a Company Executive Officer (XO) and his current position as the Battalion Maintenance Officer (BMO) of an Armor Battalion. His various assignments had him plan training and various operations for his Battalion in preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom II. As Platoon Leader of 18 Soldiers in Tikrit, Iraq he participated in combat, peace keeping operations and "nation building" exercises with Iraqi Security Forces and government agencies.
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As a Company Executive Officer he was tasked with re-building a tank Company under the strict constraints of a budget and with only 65% manpower strength. After his successful tenure as an XO he was chosen above three other peers to become the BMO. As the BMO he revamped maintenance operations and prepared vehicles and over 80 mechanics for yet another deployment to Iraq. In Ramadi he inherited a miss-managed maintenance program from the previous unit and immediately implemented a plan to bring all vehicles within Army standards. His hard work brought over 200 vehicles to standard, re-distributed over 10 million dollars worth of vehicles to other army units and government agencies and achieved an Operational Readiness (OR) rate of over 95% in the high operations tempo combat environment. |
| In the summer of 2005 then 1st Lieutenant Sofronie was hand selected by Colonel Marich to be his special assistant during the ROMEX 05 army exercise in Babadag and Constanta Romania. The purpose of this exercise was to forge relations between new NATO allies as well as scout new bases and training locations for the army. During this month long exercise he worked with other officers in assessing local and nation-wide infrastructure, education levels and medical coverage. On numerous occasions he translated conversations and meetings between high-ranking military officers and politicians, to include the President of Romania. Based on the success of that exercise the army is currently building a base in Romania and will be moving in several thousand troops this year. |
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| Disclaimer: The information on this page was provided by Mihai's father, Mr. Mircea Sofronie. |
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| Not so long ago, Fr. Michael Lupu from St. Mary's Orthodox Church (Calgary, Alberta) compiled a "prayer list" of known orthodox soldiers from Canada and United States (under jurisdiction of ROEA, ROMARCH, ROCOR, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Antiochian Archdiocese, or The Serbian Orthodox Church in America) currently serving in the Army. The list was sent to all priests in United States and Canada to "pray our boys home". |
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| You can do the same thing! Click on the banner below to download Fr. Lupu's "prayer list" (the list will open in a separate window using Adobe Reader - please make sure you disable your pop-up blocker if you have one). Print it out. Spread it out. Pray our boys home. Give the list to your parish priest if he doesn't have it already. Let anyone know you have a list of orthodox soldiers you need help to pray them home.
May our good Lord Jesus Christ keep them safe, grant them safe return to their homes and families, and preserve them many years! Amen! |
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