The White House

Through some connections made at Arlington National Cemetery in my time there, we were invited to the White House today to visit the West4Wing where the president, vice-president, and senior officials have their offices as well as the location of the infamous Navy Mess and the press room that is the most commonly viewed room in the White House on television. We also visited and signed out names on the walls of the old swimming pool below the press room not far from where Laura Bush signed her name in 2007. After leaving the White House we explored some of the executive office building next door including the very ornate Indian Treaty Room. Quite a number of the offices are undergoing renovation for the new staff. And they are doing considerable work on the outside of the building as well as evidenced by the scaffolding in place around the entire exterior. The press room in the White House has already been re-done and is quite cozy if small. Saw the infamous large teleprompters in their storage space.

Some things surprised me. It was very quiet. Not much going on on the weekend, though there were a few folks around.

The walls of the West4Wing are covered in pictures and paintings. Some are quite old and famous from well known authors, some from lesser known. Many of the walls are covered in large pictures of the current president and many of the tables have digital frames flashing various pictures of the current president. Outside the oval office was my favorite decoration - two live and very productive red pepper plants in decorative planters. The oval office still boasts President Bush's decor with blue gold stripped chairs and his oval office rug, though I was informed new rugs and furniture have been ordered. It was special to see the Roosevelt room has TR's medal of honor and his nobel peace prize.

The rose garden was very nice and well cultivated though smaller than I expected. We also saw the place on the patio where the "beer summit" was held last week. Again I was surprised at how humble the patio furniture was. But it is a very beautiful and peaceful area. Very little street noise there nor can you see the pedestrians that walk the perimeter outside the grounds due to the heavy vegetation. The garden would provide a nice get away or place to gather one's thoughts.

All in all it was a special treat to wrap up my DC tour in this last weekend for me to be with my family before I depart to Korea with a visit to the people's house.

Vulcans Memorialize Reedy at Arlington National Cemetery

(Federation of Planets News Service) Stardate 072909.2200

The entire Vulcan contingent of the United States Air Force Chaplain Corp beamed in to memorialize the final days of Chaplain David Reedy of Arlington National Cemetery, as seen in the photo of the ceremony above. The Senior Vulcan Chaplain, Chaplain Colonel Charlak Stukks presided over the laying of a memorial stone on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery assisted by Chaplain Captain Brain Swock. In attendance were Chaplain Assistants Mistok and Megalak as well as C.Leeok, the High Assistant to the Vulcan Administrator. Sources tell us that never before have Vulcans conducted services at Arlington. We are told that it is a well kept secret that Vulcan Chaplains serve with the United States Air Force, but demonstrate the Air Force Chaplain Corp's commitment to meeting the needs of their air and space forces.


Now for the rest of the story. It is well known around the office (especially since my version of our database that I designed is a star trek LCARS interface that utilizes the voice of the computer from the original series) that I am a Star Trek fan, so the staff got together and presented me with a framed photo that had a few adjustments as seen above. You can click the photo for a larger version. Check out the wording on the stone but especially the ears. I love it!

My official going away was Tuesday at lunch, though I have funerals Thursday and Friday yet and Friday is my last day in the office. Tuesday works best for our get togethers as we don't have ceremonies on that day. It was a great send off and I was deeply touched by many kind words and gifts of thoughtfulness from my co-workers, the Arlington ladies, as well as the cemetery staff and folks from the 11th OG and 11th Wing. I will truly miss my time here at Arlington. It is a very special place to serve our nation and her grieving families and it is made even more special by the extra special people I have worked with.

I'm on a bird to Korea in one week.

Wrapping Up

As my tour at Arlington comes to a close, I can hardly believe how rapidly the last two years have passed. I find myself with mixed feelings as I prepare in these last couple of weeks to transition to my assignment in Korea. I am looking forward the challenge of base level ministry once again, but I find that I will miss the unique, powerful and special ministry here at Arlington as well as the folks I have been working with, for they are truly exceptional.

I will also miss the ability to take time to visit with family in Tennessee and visit the land in which I grew up. My family and I had the joy of spending a week in a cabin on top of Ole Smokey - that is down in the Smoky Mountains. We got to know some great folks who are local there including a couple of dulcimer players who were incredible. We made a special trip into Gatlinburg just to listen to them play during the evening hours.

Mostly we just relaxed but we did have a very good day leisurely exploring Craftsman Valley outside the main strip in Gatlinburg (I highly recommend leaving the chintzy stores of downtown Gatlinburg behind to visit the craftsman loop.) We also traveled over to Cherokee North Carolina, the first time I've been there in many years. Sufficient to say we were highly dissapointed. The moutains were serene and refreshing, as they usually are.

My replacement is here and will be a great addition to the team. I'll be working with him this week to finalize his training and have him out on his first funerals.

This past week

This past week has been quite busy from returning from leave to prepare for a high visibility funeral, to arranging for my move to Korea, and more. We had the staff over one morning for an early morning breakfast to celebrate our boss's birthday. It was a beautiful quite morning with birds singing and was quite a nice and relaxing time together. But a few hours later we were hopping for a major funeral.

I had the incredible honor of facilitating chaplain functions for the funeral for Major General David Wherley and his wife Ann who were victims in the DC metro train crash last week. You can read a bit about the service here. These two were incredible people. He was the former commanding officer for the DC National Guard and was responsible for scrambling fighter cover over DC during 9/11. You can learn more about them from a very nice site the DC Guard has put together here. It was a huge ceremony. I went out to await the arrival of the family by formal procession and already Memorial Drive which leads into the cemetery was triple stacked with vehicles for the ceremony. This was easily the largest funeral I have seen held at Arlington in my two years of serving there.

Flag Day

I was invited to offer the invocation at the Air Force Memorial this past weekend for the annual flag day celebration. It was a beautiful cool day with enough of a breeze to make Ole' Glory stretch out her colors. My wife took some photos. May favorite is the one that just happened to catch my daughter celebrating her freedom in her own way.

I also caught this beautiful rose bush in Arlington.





Click the picture on the right to read a quote about why excellence is important in our Air Force.

New Duty Station

I've known my new duty assignment for a few months now - but come August I am heading to OSAN Airbase in South Korea. My family will remain here as I travel there unaccompanied for a one year tour. I wasn't 100% positive I was going to be able to keep these orders as I have been under the weather the past month or so with pancreatitis and then the flu this past weekend on top of it. (My entire family had the flu - none of us had the energy to get out of bed for very long last weekend.) I was so sick Saturday night I would have called an ambulance, but I couldn't get to my cell phone. But toward the end of this week I have started feeling much better.

Now OSAN is coming over the horizon and that right quick. I already have my plane tickets and was pleasantly surprised to find it is only a 14 hour flight. I expected worse. I will fly direct out of Atlanta which is nice not to have to deal with connecting flights oversees.

I'm trying to take some leave around my birthday to get down to see my Mom before I take off, but will have to see how busy we are as one of our chaplains also seeks a week off at that same time and my replacement will only have been here for a week or so, so it would be way too soon to throw him into the formal ceremonies at Arlington solo. I'll have to wait and see.

The above photo is captioned on the original sight with the motto from Osan - ready to fight and win tonight.

D Day

It is 65 years since that fateful day on the coast of France when forces of the United States, Britain, Canada, France and a number of other allies stormed ashore German occupied France to begin the liberation of a continent from the tyranny of the Nazi regime. Some 12,000 airmen were killed in the months prior to D-Day taking our crucial points in preparation for the invasion including securing air supremacy. John Eisenhower, General Eisenhower's son recounts the following conversation with his father:

The roads we traversed were dusty and crowded. Vehicles moved slowly, bumper to bumper. Fresh out of West Point, with all its courses in conventional procedures, l was offended at this jamming up of traffic. It wasn't according to the book. Leaning over Dad's shoulder, l remarked, "You'd never get away with this if you didn't have air supremacy." I received an impatient snort:

"If I didn't have air supremacy, l wouldn't be here."

(http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/AAF-H-DDay/)

Air superiority is crucial to winning a military campaign. Many factors go into play to secure such starting much earlier than the actual battles. First there is the long range planning and technological development that creates the aircraft that gives our airmen the ability to engage the enemy in a decisive way and survive the encounter to come home to their families. Then there are long hours of training for those airmen prior to battle to learn and keep skills sharp. Then there are all the hard work of other airmen providing crucial to the combat pilot.

In my time at Arlington I've buried many World War II veterans, including many veterans of the Normandy campaigns. I've buried a couple of men who stormed the beaches and later found themselves in the Air Force. I've buried some of the pilots who opened the way for the invasion. I even buried a cook this week who prepared the meals for the pilots in those days in 1944. Heroes all. All shining examples of service and commitment to freedom.

May we never forget their service nor their sacrifice.

May we never forget the lessons of that great war.

May we never surrender to nor ignore tyranny.

• President Reagan's two magnificent speeches made on the 40th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion. Click here to watch
• read the complete transcripts:here and here
• General Eisenhower's speech to the troops the day before: Click here
• President Roosevelt lead the American people in prayer on the day of the invasion: click here
• powerful speeches by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: Click here and here
• is a video with D-Day footage and speeches from Reagan and General Patton: here

“Now this hallowed ground receives a new generation of heroes — men and women who gave their lives in places such as Kabul and Kandahar, Baghdad and Ramadi,” he said. “Like those who came before them, they did not want war, but they answered the call when it came. They believed in something larger than themselves. They fought for our country, and our country unites to mourn them as one.”

-- President George W. Bush
Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Day 2007

Observance

One does not "celebrate" Memorial Day. Rather, one observes the day and keeps in heart and mind those who paid the ultimate price for the freedom that we enjoy in the United States. Memorial Day will always hold a more particular meaning for me given my experience of the last few years. I've carried the bodies of young men on their first steps back home. I have buried airmen lost in the current war here at Arlington. All veterans of our many wars to secure our freedom will tell you one thing, freedom does not come on the cheap -- there is always a price to pay to defend our nation against evil and tyranny. I was especially reminded of this as I have had the opportunity to see a couple of times at various events these past weeks, the family of one of those airmen I buried in the past few years. Their young children have grown, but they are still very much young children.

As I head for my next duty station, I will treasure the opportunity to have participated in "flags in" while here in the D.C. area. These past years I've served at Arlington, the chaplain team has gathered and placed the flags on chaplain's hill, a place reserved for military chaplains here at Arlington.

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That TAPS had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

- Kelly Strong

Laying a Hero to Rest

Yesterday I had the distinct privilege of escorting the Chief of Chaplain for the Air National Guard and participating in the funeral service for Major General David Baker.

As a Captain and pilot he was shot down during the war in Vietnam over Cambodia and was held with 7 fellow Americans as a POW. It was not an easy time for him. I had the honor to meet several of his fellow POW's in that camp, as they were here for the funeral. After his release, he would later become an F-15E driver and instructor and would participate in the bombing runs of the Iraqi forces as they attempted to regroup in Southern Iraq following their rout from Kuwain during Desert Storm.

You can read more about him in this news story about the funeral here.

I encourage you to view the photo album here of this incredible Air Force Airman and especially read the captions.

Arlington Ladies 60th Celebration

Tuesday saw the culmination of several days of hard work on the part of many, including my wife, to celebrate 60 years of service by a group of Air Force spouses known as the Arlington Ladies. These ladies are present for military honors funerals at Arlington to represent the USAF Chief of Staff.

The day itself included mini concerts by various groups of the USAF band including Max Impact, Airmen of Note, and the Strolling Strings. Then it was on to the USAF Honor Guard for demonstrations from the drill team, the firing party, and a chance to meet with the various elements that work together to conduct a funeral including the Bearer teams and Color Guard. I went along for the tours as I took over the coordination of the event in its last week to tie up the various loose ends and my main job that day was to make sure everything was coming off the way it was supposed to when it was supposed to.

The picture to the right shows the Air Force drill team formed up and about ready to kick off their spinning routines. I was talking to one of the Officers in the Honor Guard and asked him if it was as dangerous as it looks and he said yes, the make frequent trips to the ER to have lacerations sown up and that most of these young men carry scars on them from the bayonets. But this day, they didn't miss a lick.

Then it was back to the Chapel center for the luncheon festivities. My wife oversaw the orchestration of the meal for over 150 people with the Cinco De Mayo theme. I can tell you when we went shopping over the weekend we left the commissary with four carts of full of food - and she was just preparing the mains. We had incredible volunteers from Honor Guard, Band, and command element of the Operations Group that provided the sides and desserts. Debbie spent all day Monday cooking with some Honor Guard volunteers who together formed the kitchen crew. Their picture is to the right.

I took a selection of pictures I had taken, that have been provided to me by friends, and some found off the internet and created a video tribute to a song "Arlington Ladies" that was provided to us through one of the ladies. I also had the privilege of narrating the day's events.

During the Commander's comments at the end of the luncheon he had her come out and she was coined for "excellence" by the Commander and presented with a card of appreciation and a flowering plant. This was a special day for us as my wife truly enjoys opportunities to be part of the team and the ladies we honored are truly a special bunch.

Springing Up

It has been a busy spring. I had a week of leave during which my family and I visited East Tennessee. Early in the week we hiked part of the Appalachian trail on Roan Mountain making our way through four foot snow drifts. The next day we were in almost 80 degree weather at Dollywood for the festival of nations.

I love going down to Dollywood. These is a centering aspect to the experience, visiting places were old fashioned home town values and religion are still central to people's experiences of life, unlike so many other place I frequent these days. I was blessed to be reminded too, that while where I am faith in Jesus is considered quaint and out of date, that for much of the world the Gospel is still very much alive. There was a group of vocalists from an african nation that in the midst of doing their traditional vocal chants suddenly broke out into very traditional gospel songs - common ground between the simple folk of Tennessee and the surrounding area visiting the park and these wonderful simple people of faith from a land far away. God is good - all the time!

Last week I had a church conference at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. The topic of the day concerned the intersection of Just War Theory and pastoral care as well as Constitutional Law and the military chaplaincy. I learned a great deal on both fronts and will say that following a straight forward and clear exposition from a strong legal standpoint on the latter topic that I am much reassured about the future outcome of legal efforts to oppose or even disband the chaplaincy. I even had the blessing of doing my PT run on the beach with the seagulls - had the beach pretty much to myself that afternoon.




Coming home spring has come full bore. All our flowers are in bloom, as well as my neighbors Tulips. I am quite blessed to have a neighbor with such a green thumb.

My funeral schedule is robust and I am starting to complete items for my upcoming move out of the country to my next duty station.

Yesterday our team made history for the Air Force at Arlington. We had our first full honors ceremony for an enlisted member of the Air Force. TSgt Phillip Meyers was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan on the 4th of April. It was incredible to see the huge turn out from Congressmen, to flag officers of several services, to cabinet secretaries, all the works - it was heartening to see so many seek to bring what comfort can be brought to the grieving family. May God bless them today and always.

I've done three active duty services, all from Iraq. Each one was very special to me as I have tread some of the same sand. But each one is unique though the cost is the same - the ultimate price for our nation and for freedom. I go back to those graves from time to time to offer a small prayer that God keep their families in His keeping.


Now that warmer weather is here, (it was hot today) I've been getting up at 5 am and walking or running in our nearby park, what is becoming a time of great refreshment for me. The park is filled with wildlife including a nesting park of some kind of hawk, a nesting pair of Mallards, innumerable turtles, and bunches of wood peckers. For city living - it ain't bad.

Life Renews

It may seem strange for a cemetery, but as spring advances the entire grounds echo with life. The grounds are full of color, the flurry of wildlife, and beauty of deep rain cleared skies. Here are a few of several hundred photos I've taken in the past few weeks. I've decided to share some photos of the columbarium and our primary chapel as I haven't shown much of these here.

Fort Meyer has two chapels. We primarily use the older historic one for our chapel services, as it has a nice parking lot and is in close proximity to the back gate into the cemetery. It is very traditional inside with stained glass windows reflecting many aspects of honorable military service.




One day last week we had huge downpours in the morning that began to clear by early afternoon giving way to huge billowing clouds in a pristine blue sky.



On my way home out of the cemetery I happened by one of the army's caisson teams making their way from a late afternoon ceremony.


This black and white picture reminds me that sixty years ago, when burials of active duty casualties from WWII were conducted, the scene would not have looked that much different.

Here we make our way into one of the columbariums. I had several ceremonies here this week. For military members the ceremony starts under a covered portico where honors are rendered and concludes back in the niche area. For dependents, we do the entire ceremony back at the niche.

































Inside the admin building, where families gather prior to ceremonies, there are two large planters that flank the marble steps going downstairs. The contents change according the season of the year. Now they are filled with Easter Lillies, a silent bright reminder with their trumpet shaped blossoms that the trumpets that ring over the fields of Arlington are not the last trumpets of those we bury, but that a final trumpet will ring that belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ and in Him all will be summoned from the grave on that final last day.



Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't share a close in shot of one of the beautiful cherry blossoms that fill the DC area.