If a faithful catholic did a general confession, set his/her life straight and STAYED committed during deployment, can they be in a state of grace?

The context I'm asking is a USA soldier who may get called to action in conflict.

A couple variables too:

Can they ask to mercifully defeat their enemies?
Can any war or action be fought if they're directed to do so, or is it ONLY just wars?

Wonder if there is a place for "invincible ignorance" in this case ?    :detective:

I wonder, isn't a Just War only Just on one side? I mean, both sides can't be right, so the one that is right is fighting in a just cause, and the other isn't. But who's right and who's wrong is debatable.

Define soldier.

Hey, I know people from high school who joined the military because they wanted to kill people.

In a general sense, you should look at literature on the Church teaching on "Just War".

Quote from: Guest

Define soldier.

Hey, I know people from high school who joined the military because they wanted to kill people.

In a general sense, you should look at literature on the Church teaching on "Just War".

They would be guilty of mortal sin. To kill someone for the sake of
killing, and that they believe that the military will give them a license
to kill. In better times, these recruits would be screened out.

You think they would be screened out in better times ?

Because I graduated in the late 1980s when our military had its highest standards leading into the Gulf War.

Was Joan of Arc in a state of grace during her battles?

All young soldiers are victims of false propaganda that comes from
their higher ups that makes them to believe that they are in a righteous
cause.  

Absolutely!

As someone remarked earlier, there's a big difference between volunteering and being conscripted.  

This thread reminds me of a scene from Henry V, the night before Agincourt where the soldier ruminate on the morality of their involvement in the battle, what they are responsible for and what they are not, with a stranger (unbeknownst to them that he is their king).  Emphasis mine:

King Henry (incognito): I dare say you love him not so ill, to wish him here
alone, howsoever you speak this to feel other men's
minds: methinks I could not die any where so
contented as in the king's company; his cause being
just and his quarrel honourable.

Williams: That's more than we know.

Bates: Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know
enough, if we know we are the kings subjects: if
his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes
the crime of it out of us.

Williams: But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath
a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and
arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join
together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at
such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a
surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind
them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their
children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die
well that die in a battle; for how can they
charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their
argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it
will be a black matter for the king that led them to
it; whom to disobey were against all proportion of
subjection.

King Henry (incognito) :

    So, if a son that is by his father sent about
    merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the
    imputation of his wickedness by your rule, should be
    imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a
    servant, under his master's command transporting a
    sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in
    many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the
    business of the master the author of the servant's
    damnation: but this is not so: the king is not
    bound to answer the particular endings of his
    soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of
    his servant; for they purpose not their death, when
    they purpose their services. Besides, there is no
    king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to
    the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all
    unspotted soldiers: some peradventure have on them
    the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder;
    some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of
    perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that
    have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with
    pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have
    defeated the law and outrun native punishment,
    though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to
    fly from God: war is his beadle, war is vengeance;
    so that here men are punished for before-breach of
    the king's laws in now the king's quarrel: where
    they feared the death, they have borne life away;
    and where they would be safe, they perish: then if
    they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of
    their damnation than he was before guilty of those
    impieties for the which they are now visited. Every
    subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's
    soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in
    the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every
    mote out of his conscience: and dying so, death
    is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was
    blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained:
    and in him that escapes, it were not sin to think
    that, making God so free an offer, He let him
    outlive that day to see His greatness and to teach
    others how they should prepare.

 :drillsergeant:
Pacifism is not Catholic, period!  Pacifism is for cowards, fαɢɢօts, and sincere but mistaken heretics.  A good point was made about an enlisted man participating in an unjust war, however, who determines if a war or combat situation is just?  Is that the job of an enlisted man?  If so, there will be as many judgments as soldiers.  An individual soldier must determine whether his specific actions in battle are just.  Example, he may not obey an unjust command, ie. execute children in a daycare center belonging to the enemy to make him afraid. (That is murder.)  However, if the children are killed as the unintended result of a legitimate battle in the street outside, or the bombing of a known military target, no sin is committed.  Is it a terrible tragedy for which the enemy may legitimately seek recompense?  Yes, it is.  One must keep in mind that war is a punishment for sin, but God Himself is a Warrior.  
If the combat soldier goes into battle in a state of grace, obeys a just command, and commits no mortal sin (three conditions met) during the fighting, then he can be at peace that even if he is killed, he is in a state of grace.  There are no doubt countless Catholics who have saved their souls in combat, who, had they lived to return, may have fallen away and gone to Hell.
 :dancing-banana: