New day dawning

I feel as if I am standing on the edge of dawn with the sky starting to lighten in the east. In a month I will move to Arlington National Cemetery. Yesterday, circumstances actually had me participating in my first funeral there. An airman from one of my squadrons had passed away after a long battle with cancer, one I thought he had won, but it came back upon him and God called him home. I had gotten to know him before I deployed while he was taking his first round of treatments at Walter Reed. A very brave, strong willed young man dealing with some very difficult challenges, he tackled each one with gusto and a not give up attitude. I had met his parents a year and a half ago when they came to visit. Yesterday I saw them once again as I spoke with them about their son.

The presiding chaplain was kind enough to allow me to participate in the service. It was a true privilege to render honors to him there at Arlington. I got to know some of the honor guard I'll be working with a bit more. I already know the chaplains as they just came from Andrews, and have known the chaplain assistants from prior working with them at Andrews.

I expect to be running as I leave out the door. Lots of things to do from preparing for the quarterly CAIB meeting, IDS items, wrapping up the supervision and mentoring of one of our chaplain candidates, out processing Andrews, continuing to get our records in order for an upcoming unit compliance inspection (I have a great NCO who is shouldering a big share of this task), a dozen other smaller items to complete and as always counseling and unit presence. And OAS (my terminal illness) has interfered slightly.

OAS??? -- Old Age Syndrome. Sorry... have to laugh at myself sometimes. But old men shouldn't go from running 3 miles to trying to run 12 miles, something I used to do weekly, but haven't done in a good six years. My left knee has stiffened up on me, forcing me to postpone my PFT that I was planning to do tomorrow, but now will likely have to push off a couple of weeks.

Top half great so far

It has been a great week so far. It started with my chaplain candidate coming in. He is a seminarian who is finishing up his education. Chaplain candidates do two month long tours for training and exposure at various installations. The one I am supervising is off to a running start, largely because he is experienced already being prior service and having some time as a candidate already in place. I am going to truly enjoy the experience of mentoring him.

My endorser stopped in for a few days as well. We were able to spend some time talking over ministry yesterday evening at dinner. Today he met with my Wing Commander and my supervising chaplain. It turned out to be a very nice visit that I hope was as much a source of encouragement to him as it was to myself and the folks I work with.

I have a special briefing on Friday as the Air Force IDS Chief is here to hear what our IDS team is doing at Andrews. And Saturday looks to be great fun as a bunch of DC area AF chaplains are going deep sea fishing together. I hope to catch one this big: <:-----------------------------<

Hopefully not a <:----^------<

LOL

Blessings

Kicking up the pace

This week turned out to be one of fairly high tempo. I anticipate the next month and a half until I transfer to Arlington to be more demanding. Our staff has shrunk by two people and I have picked up additional duties. Plus we had some unexpected items pop up this week.

Our staff was a little thin as our Wing Chaplain had just transfered and the next ranking Chaplain was TDY. We had a request to provide support for a funeral for Sen. Craig Thomas. I serve as the chapel's coordinator for funeral services. With the help of our team stepping up and rapidly making things happen along with some excellent above and beyond help from other Andrews folks like our 316th CES squadron, the chapel was ready and shining for the event. My wife even had the privilege of playing for the service.

I will be supervising a Chaplain Candidate for the next month for his annual tour. I'm looking forward to this opportunity to further expose and mentor a future minister.

I will be running point for the IDS and CAIB. IDS is composed of representative of selected offices specifically directing resources to enhancing the lives of our airmen. The CAIB is a higher level commander driven organization which is briefed by the agencies of the IDS, but ultimately sets the direction and policy. The IDS then serves as the action arm carrying out the plan. The Chapel is in charge of facilitating the CAIB at the moment, which will give me busy few weeks getting ready for our July meeting.

On top of this there is housing privatization for Andrews. We were planning to just stay and I was going to take the Metro to Arlington. We like having neighbors who share a common lifestyle with us coupled with the convenience of the commissary and BX. But we found a house in Arlington that has twice as much space, is 4 miles from the cemetery, and whose school systems runs circles around the schools we would utilize here. So we will also be moving in July.

So I a full and fruitful six weeks to come.