Shortly after I finished morning services, I began to hear a series of booms, felt my building shake, and later outside saw dark plumes of smoke rising from the city. Soon an assembly of important personnel was under way. I reported to our EMEDS to minister to any wounded that would come in. Sundays are often big days for insurgent activity as the suicide bombers prepare themselves over the Muslim holiday on Friday and Saturday then reaching out to stike on Sunday. It was an eye opening day to how serious this conflict is and how much difference it makes to the lives of so many people. Our medical folks were ready and able to handle all comers. So today, I ministered to wounded and their fellow soldiers here for the first time. It was a very touching and heartening experience to see the brotherhood, dedication, and courage of these soldiers. I found that my experiences as a hospital chaplain in a trauma center in Cincinnai provided valuable experience in addition to the training I've received as an Air Force chaplain to facilitate my provision of care for these folks.

This from Reuters describes the events of the day here.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-09-17T161408Z_01_GEO743062_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-worldNews-2

By Sherko Raouf

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Insurgents killed at least 23 people with a wave of vehicle bombs across Iraq's ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk on Sunday, one day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged Iraqis to embrace reconciliation.

At least 73 other people were wounded in the coordinated blasts caused by a huge suicide truck bomb and four car bombs which rocked oil-rich Kirkuk, a flashpoint city north of Baghdad disputed by Sunni Arabs, ethnic Kurds and Turkmen.

In the deadliest explosion, a suicide attacker driving a truck rigged with explosives blew himself up outside a police center and the offices of two top Kurdish parties, killing 17 people, mostly civilians, police said. The toll included 10 women and two children visiting relatives held by police.

Within an hour, a car bomb targeting a U.S. military patrol killed three civilians and wounded six other people. Minutes later, another suicide car bomber rammed into an Iraqi army checkpoint, wounding two soldiers. Two other car bombs struck the city.

The closed-off area where the truck bomb exploded also houses the headquarters of Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani.

Firefighters battled flames at collapsed buildings and charred corpses lay in streets littered with twisted car parts.

U.S. officials fear bloodshed may worsen with the holy month of Ramadan next week and have said car bombs could be a preferred tactic by al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgent groups.

Out on the Perimeter

Yesterday saw me out doing a ride along while our Security Forces folks took their positions during a "Guard Mount". Climbing the towers for visitation, I was able to see the city of Kirkuk up close and personal. We toured the main gates and were present when some locals processed through the gates, quite a careful process to say the least. Then we carried meals out to those who are manning various posts in one of the sectors. I know that thanks to the dedication and attention to detail of these airmen, that are perimeter is secured and we can sleep well at night.

Later in the day we received a call from our EMEDs (Emergency Medical Facility) that casualties were inbound. My fellow chaplain and myself arrived ready to assist in any way we could. The good news was that this was only a very realistic exercise.

There are abundant opportunities for minstry. I've assumed the Thursday evening Bible study group, quite a robust bunch of folks, including some Christians who are from the region who live on base here as contractors. Next Sunday I will be starting a Liturgical service as I've discovered there are a number of Lutherans here. Our protestant program is quite robust with two contemporary services, a Gospel service, and our soon to start Liturgical service. Army chaplains are providing assistance in the rotation with these services. The army offers a traditional service in their chapel. In addition there are a number of Bible classes and fellowship groups that are meeting.

We are preparing to move into our new facilty. The current facility has a common day room with television and capuccino machine flanked by 4 offices. Our new facility is a combined office, day room, worship facility. The worship facility is fairly large and the day room area is easily 3x what we now have. We have new furniture and more televisions. IN addition we are looking to install a game room, and classroom/multi-purpose room. This should help increase morale and also provide even more traffic through for us to interact with folks.

Of course we are getting out to where people work getting to know the lay of the land. Already I've had several counselings ranging from spiritual questions to people having some trouble adjusting to their new work environment. It looks to be a busy rotation.

Soon the weather will be cooling down and the rainy season coming on. In addition the Muslim holy season of Ramadan will be starting soon, which may have an impact on what we experience during our rotation.

First Report from Downrange

(<---my living quarters)

I have made it to my deployment location without major incident, though my travel was delayed by one day due to the contractor having some sort of conflict with having an aircraft available for the first leg of our journey. After 22 hours of travel I've arrived. I've been here long enough that my sleep schedule is starting to adjust to local time.

I was deeply touched at a stop in Bangor Maine by the numerous veterans and other people who were there waiting for our plane to say welcome to Maine and to thank us for our service. My stop in Germany was entertaining. We were not there long, and I went up to a small snack bar and ordered Ein Tasse Kaffee (a cup of coffee) only to have the lady tell me "I don't speak German". Arriving in the Middle East during transit I was pleasantly surprised. I had expected a blast of heat as if stepping into an oven, but it was actually quite mild -- an atypical experience I've been told.

Weather at my current location is not bad at all. Hot yes, but dry enough that it doesn't seem that hot. As September passes into fall we can expect it to begin to cool down. The heat has not been a great hindrance though. Staying hydrated has not been too bad as there is bottled water everywhere you turn around.

Today, September 11, I performed my first offical duties as I participated in the Change of Command of our Communication and Civil Engineering Squadrons. Five years to the day after the attack on our nation that began the Global War on terror, its seems fitting that I find myself doing my first official duties in the AOR. (Area of Responsiblity). These are some motivated folks ready, willing, and able to serve their nation in this time of great importance.

I've already began to work closely with my army counterparts here. I've consulted with my army protestant chaplain liason so that we are not duplicating our efforts, but providing the best possible spiritual servies to all our people here. Our chapel team has taken possession of a new chapel facility with a great deal more space which is a fairly hardened facility as compared to the tent we had. We've got a lot of work to do on it yet, but there is a great deal of potential here. As the only Air Force Protestant chaplain here, I find myself responsible for oversight of all the Protestant services in our chapel and there are quite a few. 2 Contemporary, a Gospel service, several Bible studies and I plan to begin a Liturgical Service. On the Army side I was pleased to discover that there is an LCMS chaplain assistant who is planning to go to the seminary. I hope to be able to work with him on some aspects of our ministry here.

So what does a deployed chaplain do? First and foremost arrange for worship services and Bible studies. Then also visitation, counseling, and just about anything to support our folks spiritually and equip them for the missions God has called them to. I'm on duty 24/7 and it is great to have so many opportunties for ministry and service.

What else can I tell you. Our base has some nice ammenities including quite an impressive food court and the dining facility offers a spread that reminds me like a scaled down Golden Corral. There is a small shopping facility and once a month the locals have a bazaar selling their wares. My living quarters are small but private where I share a bath with my fellow Catholic chaplain. The base itself is mostly basic buildings, tents, mods and pods, and a flight line. It's pretty basic, but laid out quiet efficiently. The gym is very well equipped. I'm able to call home to my family twice a week.

And yes for those of you who ask, sometimes things go boom boom. There is a hold in the ground about 30 feet from where I am sitting right now, but that was a rarity. Thanks to the fine efforts of our security folks and others my location is fairly secure. The only boom I've heard/felt was in the city where I am near and not targeted at us. But even if we are targeted, I feel fairly safe due to the many precautions that have been taken to keep us safe.

One last note, I have started to coordinate with my home location at Andrews to feed our major chapel project here: Operation School Supplies. This is where we collect various items which our troops carry out to local peoples to assist their children's education and to demonstrate what Americans value.

New Experiences

Today I had the first time experience of having an inner ear imbalance. I awoke at 0530 planning to go PT, but found myself tired and dizzy. I racked it up to not enough sleep since I was up a little late working through a CD resource reviewing training for my upcoming deployment. So I went back to bed. But upon rising and going in to work, I found it was getting progressively worse and so made my way over to our hospital. After a thorough going over (partly due to my resting heart rate being so low from my being in good physical condition), I was finally diagnosed with fluid behind my ear drum and sent home with some medication. It is amazing how inconvenient a little bit of fluid in the wrong place can be. The rooms I occupy are still spinning from time to time.

A couple of days ago, I received an order from Integrity music that I made for worship resources to take with me on my deployment. I was extremely touched to receive the card that is shown here included in my order and with some items to take with me to facilitate ministry to our military service members out in the world. I wanted to post it here to show that not only is support still strong for our military folks, but to demonstrate the quality of the ministry performed by these folks at Integrity music.

These are also new days for the chapel program at Andrews Air Force base. We have a new NCOIC, a Chaplain Assistant, two new Protestant chaplains, and a new Senior Protestant Chaplain. Next week our new team is having an offsite to discuss planning for future ministry. But I can already tell it is going to be an incredible and dynamic time. I see a great deal of talent in our team members and am most especially impressed with the new Senior Protestant chaplain. I am truly looking forward to the next couple of years as I deploy and then finish out my first assignment in the Air Force.

Next week I am going up to Crystal City to help test some software that has been developed for the chaplain corp as part of a special team, another first for me. This week I gave my first formal briefing to the IDS (Integrated Delivery System: a committee composed of representatives from the helping agencies on base overseen by the Vice Wing Commander) on the topic of making some adjustments to how we reintegrate our people when they return from deployment. Due to short staffing at the chapel this spring, I found myself responsible for this program even though I am somewhat junior as a chaplain. I believe the briefing was well received based on the feedback I received.

And I am truly looking forward to deployment -- another first for me. The last time I was in the military was during Desert Storm. I volunteered then, but all the Navy wanted me to do then was to go to California and help with ammunition supply. I like to kid that I volunteered to deploy and got sent to California.

Finally, to note, in the last few weeks I've had to say farewell to two fine chaplains. One was an IMA reservist who stepped in as our interim Wing Chaplain while our current Wing Chaplain was recovering from an illness. He was an outstanding leader and I was truly blessed by his mentoring. The other is a man I am pleased to say has become a friend. A fellow Tennessean who grew up not far from where I grew up is separating from the Air Force. I will truly miss serving with him.

Buffalo spit, attack ostriches and sunsets

The last few days of leave have been great. My smallpox blister is coming along now - about the size of a quarter and starting to get a little tender, but it shouldn't last more than two or three more weeks.

The last day of camping I took the family to a nearby safari park. I'm not much of one to plug advertising for places, but this place is first rate. I recommend this to anyone with kids or anyone who just plain likes critters. It is located near Natural Bridge. (Their Website) The animals run free here and come right up to the car and sometimes parts of them are "in the car"! It was great fun, especially watching my family trying to feed the buffalo which we found liked to slobber all over the car. My three year old especially liked feeding the giraffe. I found myself on the recieving end of an ostrich who when I ran out of food decided to try to taste various parts of the car. He quickly found out it was a drive through restaurant.

So it was great -- we went from the altitude of the Skyline Drive across the mountains into the depths of the earth in local caverns. We sampled local cruisine and cooked some of our own over roaring fires. We fed the animals and we even watched a beautiful sunset. We visited the creation drama at the Natural Bridge, where God provided His own exclamation point in sending a huge meteor from the Perseid Meteor Shower streaking by visible through the opening under the bridge.

Tomorrow back to work -- already have lots of my calendar booked up, including a three day evolution off site testing a new computer system we may be using soon. And of course the number one priority now is to get ready for my upcoming deployment.

On Leave

I'm taking a break from my incredibly hectic schedule of laying around and resting to write out a note. I'm on leave for a week between a couple of important functions related to my upcoming deployment. Just before I left, we went through an entire processing line. Most of my paperwork was able to be completed. And just in time for me to go on vacation, I recieved several vacinnations, including one for small pox. Having the scar from childhood does not count. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated, though it itches like crazy. So, off my family goes in our 14 foot camper. Actually so far the vacation has been mostly relaxing. The first night we had some heavy storms and our 3 year old was not sure how much she liked camping, but now she's loving it. We spent a day driving and hiking up on Skyline Parkway in the Shenandoah. Beautiful here. The little town of Luray is quite cosy as is also Front Royal.

Tonight we relocated to the Natural Bridge area. We are in a much more crowded and noisy campground. Before we were practically the only ones on our side underneath a beautiful canopy of trees. Now I have a beautiful canopy of adolescents around me. But I'm stretched out with my coffee (and it is coffee not motor oil as our new Senior Protestant Chaplain is fond of making) and a couple of good books. I'm reading The Ecumenical Luther and also Huntington's book: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. I'm trying not to be too involved in thinking about work issues after being soundly chastized by one of my NCO's (Non-commissioned officers) for responding to one of his emails. "No more emails!!!!" he said - "You're on leave!!!!!".

Been an adventure so far in some ways. Almost got the camper stuck in the woods trying to go up too steep of an incline. Having lunch at a populated stop, we suddenly were disrupted by a couple of babies and their mother walking through -- bears that is. Little later about 20 more miles down the road we saw another bear cub and about a gazillion deer. This morning, with about five minutes left in the campground we were leaving, I somehow, with great skill and luck, trapped a yellowjacket between my foot and sandal. Of course the bee was not too happy about it which meant that I wasn't too happy about it either. But my foot is the same size as the other -- which is a good thing. So tonight I'm going to be relaxing even more, but I am enjoying the slower pace right now.

Gear Up!

Gear up! The rally cry to get your gear and be ready for action. It is a constant cry in todays expeditionary Air Force with a high tempo for deployments. Everyone has the responsiblity to do their part. Now it is my turn.

Monday I started picking up gear for my upcoming deployment, uniforms and other associated "battle rattle" necessary for the location I will find myself in. Fortunately the Air Force has gotten wise in some regards and quite a bit of the gear will be there waiting for me.

The Air Force is certainly now an "expeditionary" force. We are on the move...constantly. The last few weeks I welcomed home troops from my Civil Engineering Squadron from Kirkuk, where the Air Force operates a fairly large airbase. These airmen were out of the wire doing convoys and repairing roads damaged by IEDs. (Read their story here)

This same day, I attended the change of command for the 316CES squadron here at Andrews. Lt Col Williams is moving on to a special assignment and Lt Col Duffy is taking command. And very soon more engineers will be heading for deployment. Lt Col Williams, in his last remarks to the squadron, mentioned how we are ready always, the CE rally cry here at Andrews. They are. We have to be, because we are always on the move.

CES is an amazing squadron. Last week I was contacted regarding a sick airman at Walter Reed who happened to be a Engineer from another base. This squadron has adopted this airman as one of their own. Family. These guys are family.

As I prepare for my own departure, I know my chapel team will be there for my family as will my neighbors on base. There a bunch of great folks at Andrews, a sense of closeness and trust that I think is fostered by an environment where loved ones go into harms way -- a sense of duty and dedication that extends beyond the service member to family. Today I also provided an invocation for an outstanding officer who received a well deserved promotion. The custom is to show appreciation to spouse with the gift of flowers, but he gave her something that spoke volumes more: he pinned her with rank one grade above his newly earned rank, to symbolize her importance to him.

Gear up! Its a call not only heard by the warrior, but by his or her family.

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.