Help on the way

Thursday I rose early while darkness still cloaked the base and donned my uniform to go out and provide encouragement to some very young men and women who are at this very moment reaching out to people devestated by hurricane Katrina. Work continues there, and Andrews people are right in the middle of it. I visited and prayed with some folks from one of my squadrons who volunteered to go forth into the midst of it all. Some are food service folks; there was even a mortuary support person. Brave, determined to make a difference, and young -- we sent them forth to represent our community and to help those who are beyond being able to just help themselves. Keesler AFB is testimony to what trained military professionals are able to do. They are still digging themselves out -- but already they are providing significant support to the people around them. And they are getting help from all over the Air Force. Some of our medical folks are there. Other bases have sent chaplain teams there to help people deal with the emotional trauma. READ more about it

This Sunday, our the worshipping community on base will take a collection that will specially earmarked for our brothers and sisters in arms at Keesler whose homes and possessions have been wiped out.

I am preparing for two significant events coming up for me personally. First my endorser, the representative of my church body who says yes - send Reedy, will visit with my chain of command. And secondly, I have been tasked with attending special training related to add to my counseling skills to hone them for a military environment later in September.

And Sunday, we remember 9-11. The horror, the heros, the cost, the struggle, and the call to honor those who serve and those who gave all. Pray for our airmen, our soldiers, our sailors, our marines, all who wear the uniform and go in harms way. Pray for safety and pray for peace.

Welcoming victims from Gulfport

Today a chaplain's assistant and I traveled to northern DC to the large veteran retirement facility operated just to the north of Capital Hill. There we assisted in offloading the 250 residents whose home was destroyed in Gulfport to their new home here in the DC area. I'll just say these were people whose determination to not let this tragedy get the best of them was readily apparent. Military personnel from many of the area bases were on hand to assist with the transition to new living quarters. It was a great privilege to be of assistance to these men and women who have served our nation in the past at some of its most profound moments such as WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

Here is a quote from one of the people evacuted to us:

"There were strangers lined up, and they all clapped and greeted us and said, 'Welcome home!' And that's just what it was," she said. "So this is like coming home to friends and family, although we didn't even know them. They were wonderful, and they even prayed for us. So I'm very touched. It's just a heartfelt thing to think that you're part of something so great as all these service people together care about each other." (read full story)

On a side note, I have one member who attends the service I conduct who as on the USS Pennsylvania during the attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7.

Responding to Katrina

This is a picture of the commissary (grocery) at Keesler AFB in Biloxi. Hurricane Katrina has had a devestating impact. Air Mobility Command, to which I belong as part of the staff for the 89th Air Wing, has been put on alert to provide assistance. (read here)

Andrews personnel and facilities are being utilized right now for the relief efforts. 400 members of an Air Force retirement home will be housed temporarily here. (read more) In addition, several of our aircraft and crews are being utilized to assist with transport.

Today, I recieved a briefing to prepare me to serve aboard various medivac flights. Andrews is the reception point for every single serviceman or woman wounded in Iraq as they fly in from Europe. From Andrews they transition to the medical treatment facility where they will recieve their more extensive care. Not only are our chaplains assisting on board the flights, but providing pastoral care during their hospital stay here.

For those of my readers who are brothers and sisters in the LCMS, one of the chaplains at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, which was very hard hit by Katrina, is an LCMS chaplain. I have yet to hear how he is, though reports from Keesler say that while they have major damage, they survived without casualties. Interesting story here which I quote in part.

"For the first time since Hurricane Katrina forced them into shelters, 6,000 people at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., ventured outside for a breath of fresh air. That was late in the day on Aug. 30, just after eating their first hot meal since the devastating hurricane nearly blew the base and that section of the Gulf Coast off the map."

Month of August

I have to say that this month has flown past. On the 29th of July I departed Maxwell AFB to arrange for movement of my household goods to Andrews AFB near Washington DC. The past weeks have been very busy unpacking, going through in processing, and getting established with the chapel. Our chapel team is in great transition at the moment with the arrival of a new wing chaplain and with the absence of several of our chaplains TDY to various places. In addition we are loosing several seasoned enlisted folks with a few more losses to come soon. I have been impressed by the professionalism of the staff and look forward to working with them.

This week was my first week of being more or less on the job. I had several walk in counseling sessions that reminded me just how important the chaplain is not only for the lives of people but also for helping to maintain the operational readiness of the various units. I'm looking forward to getting settled into a work routine once all the appointments associated with in processing are completed.

My family is acclimating well to the new area and new life.

Training Complete

Shew... the past 23 days were more of a handful than I anticipated. I was unable to make timely updates to this blog due to my very limited access to the internet and the policy that I was not to use government computers for personal useage. The training was of exceptional quality and very demanding both physically and intellectually. I was teamed up with 14 others, a chaplain, a psychiatrist, several medical students, a couple of doctors and dentists and even a biohealth engineer. Most of them were serious about being there. One, I'm not still not sure about why she wanted to be there. But we made a great team.

I was appointed the student Wing Chaplain which provided me with an opportunity to exercise some leadership during key events such as our deployment exercise. We spent 3 days in a simulated tent city out in the heat. The high point of the exercise was a 2.5 hour simulation of a mass casualty event. I coordinated the creation and operation of our chapel in the field. The most interesting point of the deployment exercise came when a terrorist tried to blow up the chapel, causing us all to dive out the back door of the tent we were using and scrambling for cover. As Wing Chaplain for the student wing I was honored to give the invocation for our graduation yesterday.

I was also surprised to find that I had been awarded the "Distinguished Graduate" award. Staying up late to study and getting 3 to 4 hours of sleep along with all the pre-training physical conditioning added up, as the award was based on a combined score related to academics and physical conditioning.

The first weekend we were there we got to experience first hand depending on MRE's for our meals. The hurricane came through causing the base to button up tight. The new MRE's (Meal ready to eat) are actually much better than the old ones.

One key event was totally unplanned. I had strained my back and been told to avoid running for a few days, so one morning I was returning to the dorm from the conditioning center rather than going for the group run. I noticed a flight mate collapsed on the ground outside the dormitory with practially no clothing on. He had over heated and returned to the dorm, realized he was in trouble, and struggled outside. With the help of several flight leaders from a different program and several students we were able to get him cooled down and call for help. Real world -- when training gets applied to something real rather than simulation.

My flight commander, an officer tasked with providing us with our primary training, was of top quality. In truth, I was very impressed with the quality of the staff, the integration of the curriculum, and the overall experience. The only real criticism is that they compressed the program to 3 weeks instead of 4 to accomodate some medical students, which I feel limits the program efficiency too much and hinders it from accomplishing what it needs to accomplish. 4 weeks is a minimal amount of time for the training that needs to be given.

I'll close by stating I'm very tired but very satisfied and eager to get to Andrews and get to work. While one of the greatest challenges I've had in life, I am glad for the experience.

TD 2-3

TD-2 & 3

Friday July 8, 2005

Training is progressing at amazingly fast pace. Was great confusion on meals yesterday. Most of my flight did not get lunch and with errands and work to accomplish, we skipped dinner. But snacks are fine. We have our first physical fitness diagnostic tomorrow at 0500. Sunday we are buttoning down as hurricane Dennis comes through. This may very well impact our training schedule and cause us to loose free time over the next weekends. The pace is amazingly quick and the curriculum in my opinion is of a superior nature and very pertinent to the task at hand in forming Air Force officers.

I am very pleased with our flight, as it appears to me that we are getting our act together in good time. I remain most impressed with our flight commander in his professional and supportive decorum which he exhibits toward us.

The program is very heavy on academics and application of theory as well as development of basic military skills and bearing. There are lots and lots of young men and women who have no prior experience at all. I am amazed at how well they are developing already to the high standard of expectation leveled upon us.

There is one other chaplain in my flight, a reserve officer who has been in for 1 year, so he has some prior experience with the military as well.

I continue to be pleased by the fact that I am able to bring to bear my previous experience in both ministering to people and in the military to help my flight continue to make the transition.

I have hardly had time to speak to my wife for more than a minute or two on the phone. Hopefully, as the entire class becomes more organized, we will be able to have more time for these types of things with proper time management.

I find that I am quite rusty on some things like marching, but other things, like military bearing, return as second nature. I am beginning to enjoy the experience, and not just be stressed out by the expectations. I wish that factors beyond our control were not causing difficulties with our schedule, but God determines the weather. All in all, I have confidence the staff here will get this class to graduation giving us the tools and resources necessary to accomplish our mission.

God's richest blessings to all.

Training Day 1

Training Day 1; July 6, 2005

Training began bright and early this morning at 0400. There are over six hundred students here for the four week course, most of whom are in the medical profession. I have only met 1 other chaplain. I have already had the opportunity to speak with and provide encouragement to some of the younger students who are very new to the military environment and find this program overwhelming already. The program is stressful these first few days, and very busy during the entire program. The focus at this point is on equipping everyone with the skills, basic knowledge, and tools such as curriculum materials and uniforms so that they may accomplish the purporse of their training. Also we are doing in processing such as filling out necessary paperwork and moving through medical evaluations. We will soon be moving from this first phase of inprocessing to a stress on academics, some of which has already been introduced.

I am assigned to Falcon Squadron Q flight. The class is called a "student wing" and is seperated into three squadrons composed of 6-7 flights. Each flight has around 16 people. I have had the opportunity to speak one on one with our flight company commander, the officer assigned to overseer the training of our flight, and am very impressed with his professionalism and concern for his personnel.

Today weather complicated our training to some degree as a tropical storm is coming through and we had tornados in the area. I spent a great deal of time trying to secure my remaining uniform items, which was a slow process due to the number of students processing. I missed the evening meal taking care of this, but fortunately had some protein bars in my vehicle, so that worked out ok. Soon we shall have two important events, in a whole mix of events. One is called "Crossing the Blueline, a sort of initiation ceremony. The second is our first PFD or physical fitness diagnostic. This is what I have been training for for the past six months with my emphasis on working out.

We have been informed that due to the abbreviated nature of our program, we will not have weekend liberty as normal. So for instance, this Saturday is a full training day and Sunday is a 1/2 training day. We are up around 0430 and awake and working until midnight.

Three weeks remain to accomplish many things.

Preparing for Active Duty

In a little over 72 hours I shall be reporting for active duty with the Air Force. I hope to be able to have enough access to the internet to post updates on the experience during the next four weeks of training. The next four weeks will be quite busy while I attend Commissioned Officers' Training at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. The typical schedule begins at 5:30am with physical training and concludes sometime around 9pm that evening. In addition there will be a weekend deployment field exercise which should be quite a bit of fun actually. I must admit I look forward to wearing BDU's for training as opposed to navy dungarees. I never cared much for this uniform while I was in the navy. My wife has been good enough to sew the name tapes and patches onto my BDU's so they are ready to go.

Last Sunday, Chaplain Schreiber (Navy Captain), head of the LCMS' Board for Armed Forces Ministry, commissioned me as a representative of that board as a chaplain to the armed forces. It is truly an honor to be entrusted with this responsibility not only by the Air Force but by our Synod. He shared some poignant words with the congregation, particularly that the board looks for men who can represent Christ and cooperate to accomplish the mission in a pluralistic environment without compromise of the Gospel. Military chaplaincy is a dual service. On one hand we represent Christ and make the public proclamation of the Gospel and on the other we serve the needs of the Air Force by helping personnel function at the highest possible level, which is also of benefit to personnel in their own lives for their well-being. Chaplain Schreiber has two key piece of advice to share with the new chaplain: he would not be politely ignored and he would strive to be relevant.

Having been through boot camp once before, there are aspects of the upcoming training that I do not relish reliving. (Lack of sleep for one.) However, I look forward to being back into uniform and the camaraderie of brothers and sisters. I will miss this area of Tennessee and my many friends both in my former parish and beyond it. But I look forward to the exciting opportunities to make a difference in the lives of our service men and women at this most important juncture in history. I truly believe these are paramount times for our nation and for humanity as a whole as well as for the church. I believe the chaplain is in a unique role to be leaven in the military to touch the lives of people and so touch the direction of our times. I also believe the job is worth doing to assist our service men and women in these most difficult and trying of times. I will be most happy to have my family settled in DC at Andrews and to be getting to work. Right now, though I am focusing on getting through these next weeks. I have been preparing for training. The last month or so I have been exercising 3-4 hours per day. I believe I am in physical condition for these next weeks thanks to lots of biking, weight training, and some intense aerobics classes at our local YMCA.

I have been most encouraged and touched by the support given by friends from our former parish who have promised to keep watch over my wife and family in my absence. I won't name them, as they know who they are. I would only share that for those who have given so much of themselves to us in these past few months, you have my and my wife's greatest appreciation and thankfulness. In the midst of trying times, friends have been a great blessing to us.