Ready Always

The last days have been very busy once again from assisting with financial planning for the Protestant parish to taking care of returning airmen from the desert. I have been up visiting sick airmen at Walter Reed and counseling with several different people.

This afternoon though, the pace slowed a little as I went out to visit with one of my squadrons, the 316th (formerly 89th) Civil Engineering Squadron. Their commander is leaving for a special school and was bidding them farewell, a sort of bitter sweet kind of event. This commander is something special too. He finished his farewell with a reminder to be "ready always", their motto. Why do we need this constant reminder? Coming home, I read in the news another reminder as to why we need to be ready always.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's number 2 man, had this to say today:

"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires ... . It is a Jihad for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq... We will attack everywhere."

"Rely on God and fight your enemies...make yourselves martyrs."

This is why engineers and chaplains, and indeed all airmen and even all Americans need to be "ready always". There are those whose religious zeal is so great they will kill in the name of their religion. Don't get me wrong, I will defend the right of people to be spiritual, indeed that is one great think about wearing the uniform and taking an oath to defend the constitution which guarantees the right for spiritual practice and faith. But I cannot sanction death and destruction with the purpose of imposing religion upon another. Faith is not created with point of the sword. To believe that God is dependent on human beings to create a society that imposes faith on others seems guided by something other than trust in a loving and merciful God. Faith is not about human coercion but divine persuasion of the heart. If I had to force my religion upon another, I might have to wonder about the veracity of my religion. Faith should have enough persuasive power in its own merit to accomplish its task, if it is true.

We in uniform stand in the gap to defend freedom -- to be spiritual or not to be -- and I'm ok with that -- because I believe faith is created by God as He operates through the hearing of His Word. God does not need me to create a world where faith is imposed or forced on people, but only a world with freedom for people to have the option of being spiritual. I am here to meet the spiritual needs of our troops, to meet their constitutionally guaranteed right to be spiritual, but also to defend that constitution as a commissioned officer of the United States, proud that here we have freedom concerning our practice of religion and are not part of something ruling from one sea to another imposed by the gun, the bomb, or the terrorist.

A place for chaplains in the desert

The picture is of Chaplain Captain Tate who was one of my instructors when I went through the Air Force chaplain orientation course at Maxwell Air Force base earlier this year. He is now in middle of the war providing pastoral are. The setting here is one of our emeds (an emergency medical hospital.) EMEDS are fully equipped and highly portable. They are what Hawkeye wish he had in MASH.

This is an important and vital ministry, one I shall have the opportunity to participate in someday soon. I found this link to a three part video series on how incredible the medical care is for our wounded called "The Lifeline". Remember too, that Andrews is the first stop on the return home for these guys. It is an incredible privlege and honor to serve and minister to the wounded as they come home. The link for "The Lifeline" is here. If you haven't already, I would encourage you to add these brave men and women to your daily prayer list.

Some changes

There has been a bit of a change around here at Andrews. I returned from CST to a new wing. I am now part of the 316WG rather than the 89th. Our wing symbol is the Griffon, which symbolizes the strength of the lion with the speed of an eagle. I also like to think it indicates that we are equally strong and able to accomplish our mission on the ground or in the air. I believe sometimes people have the impression the Air Force is not composed so much of warriors as the other services and that the only combatants are our pilots, but nothing could be further from the truth. I would stack our security forces against those of any other service. Our special forces units are often the first ones on the ground, setting up landing zones. Our people are running convoys and conducting operations just as other branches. The Griffon truly symbolizes the Air Force mission and our mission at Andrews -- warriors who are deadly competent and equally fierce on the ground or in the air.

The 316th is part of the AFDW (Air Force District of Washington) that has been formed linking the various Air Force assets in the captial region. I've also been assigned to a new unit -- the communication group here at Andrews, though the chaplain who is leaving this unit is still here for a bit yet. I'll probably pick up responsibilities for this unit in full shortly before I deploy. This illustrates the growing need for flexibility among our staff as incoming staff will have to cover for my units in my absence.

We have two chaplains who have arrived in recent days and another in bound in August.

The next couple of days will be especially busy as I engage in the reintegration process for a number of people who are returning from deployment to the Middle East from our 316 Civil Engineering Squadron of whom I am proud to be their unit chaplain. (CE ROCKS!)

Lots of counselings and visitations as well as some administrative taskings continue. Great work to do though.

You can read more about our new wing standing up here.

As conflict grows

As the conflict grows in the Middle East coupled with growing tension over certain states aquiring nuclear weapons and how the world seems shifted more and more toward sustained conflict, this passage came to mind.

And wars will break out near and far, but don't panic. Yes, these things must come, but the end won't follow immediately. The nations and kingdoms will proclaim war against each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come. -- Jesus (Matthew 24:6-8)

I am going to be preaching on this text and the following today -- I think appropriate for such a time as this.

For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. (Romans 13:3-4)

Valor -- the untold stories are told

A quote from a Stars and Stripes piece:

Valor.

For more than four years now, American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have been fighting the war on terror. While politicians and pundits argue the merits and demerits of strategy and prosecution, the military man or woman has been slugging it out, every day, with a foe who is often unseen. (End quote)

Read more here of the story and read about the stories of some of the heroes by clicking here.

Contingency Skills Training Completed

Contingency Skills training concluded with several days in the classroom learning more about how to counsel those with combat related stress and injuries. While some of this was a refresher of earlier training, there were new insights as well. I was glad when Friday rolled around so that I could join my family for a long 4th of July weekend. I took some leave over the holiday and we went to the beach, which is not far from Andrews. We needed some down time.

Here are a few pictures from our days in the field.

This is my chaplain assistant who will be going down range with me soon as we deploy.















Here I am geared up riding in a "hummer". It's amazing how fun it is to run around in the woods being shot at with simulated rounds while wearing 75 pounds in body armour, kevlar helmet, and other gear. The truly amazing thing is how fast one gets used to the extra weight.



















Here we are returning from the field and my fire team is getting ready to turn in weapons and vehicles. (Of course chaplains don't carry weapons.) You can see on of the Security Forces people from McDill who made up my fire team standing in the open turrent of the hummer.


















Here you can see a guard tower at a compound on Fort Dix that is now used for Fire Base defense training -- which reportedly was once used as a compound in World War II to house prisioners of war.