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.