Arrival

It is almost 1am in the morning here on Friday and I have arrived at Osan. Actually hit Korea about 163o local time. Fairly simple process to get through the airport to the shuttle to the base, though the cab drivers are very aggressive about trying to get your business as I was warned. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the chaplain assistants I will be working with that I knew from DC was also on my flight as he was returning from leave. Nice to have some company in a new country. A large part of our chapel team turned out to welcome me upon my arrival on the base. I am very happy that I have a room on base as many are staying at local hotels. I can tell already that it will be a very busy time but I am looking forward to the diversity and challenges here.

I will say that the dynamics of a 1 year absence from family is quite different from a four month or even six month absence. I think it hit us all harder yesterday when I departed than we anticipated. But thanks to Skype, I think we will survive.

Last Days

Last Friday I had my final funeral ceremony at Arlington, a full ceremony for a fellow Lutheran veteran of the US Air Force. At the start of the ceremony the wind was blowing something fierce and before it was over we had had a short but powerful downpour, but it was warm weather and somehow the scene fit with the ceremony. Following the service, I walked slowly out of section 64, a very meaningful section for me as this is where the victims from the Pentagon who were killed on Sept 11th are found. It was in those days following 9/11 that I started pondering, and looking back, decided to rejoin the military. My family was able to observe from a distance, their first and final time doing so. I was very touched by the kind words of blessing and farewell from honor guard folks who were out for that particular ceremony. I even had the LT who was so helpful to my wife when she catered the big luncheon for the Arlington Ladies commemoration serve as the Officer in Charge over the graveside portion of the honor guard.

I will truly miss Arlington. No doubts as to the truth of this fact. There is an extra special bunch of folks who serve there from those who serve in uniform to the civilian staff who work for the cemetery. As I said at my farewell, each person doing their job well makes it possible for each cermony to be perfect.

The pics are from my last ceremony.

Tomorrow is my last night at home with family for some time to come. It is hard to believe I'll be on a bird to Korea in 36 hours or so for a 12 month tour. I'm looking forward to the change of scenery and to the challenge of service and ministry in that location, but I will miss my family and my friends here. My wife and I went out and tried Korean food for the first time tonight in a local restaurant - very Korean, a bit of a taste in food and culture (including the fact that the folks who work/own the restaurant knew very little english). The food was wonderful. I even decided I like kimchee.

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