Half-Day Schedule

Wow! It is hard to believe how much time has passed by since my last note and how much has happened. Here is just a quick “drive-by” on what has happened since then:
-Got moved into the house…pictures on the wall and all
-Enrolled Maya into a ballet class which basically gives her some playtime with other kids and some new dance moves for dancing with me
-Helped my come to the conclusion that The Three Amigos is one of her favorite movies…I frequently am asked “Daddy, can we cuddle on the couch, eat popcorn and watch the amigos?”…yeah, makes me melt, too.
- Planned and pulled-off my first marriage retreat
- Completed several invocations at deployment ceremonies and change of command ceremonies for my Soldiers
- Took a military tactical vehicle driving course, so that I can drive my Humvee while my assistant runs security with his weapon (I’m not allowed to carry a firearm)
- Counseled a lot of Soldiers
- Worn myself out exercising with Soldiers in the mornings
- Gone on a ruck march
- Watched the most amazing woman in the world go from pregnant to not pregnant as she delivered our first boy, Elliot (per Maya he was delivered through Mommy’s belly button)
- Got to spend Thanksgiving with my girls, my boy and my parents
- Got promoted
- saw my chaplain-assistant leave to deploy with another unit and got a new one, today! Seems like he is going to be a great assistant…19 year old guy from Illinois, I’m pumped!
- And, finally…got to spend a day and two nights with a real piece of work who I consider to be on a short-list of best friends

Lots of good stuff has happened.

My unit is now beginning to ramp up in a more intense fashion to prepare for our up-coming deployment and I’m beginning to work with a woman who works for Soldier’s Angels that helps to provide things for Soldiers…and Chaplains Please keep the coming deployment in your prayers.

 

Settling In

We have successfully made our trek from Fort Jackson to Fort Riley. En route I had a quick visit to Reno and got to see some of our good friends, hopefully a return trip will come soon with the Maya and Kim and our soon to be born son so that we can see everyone…including ones that I missed on the last trip. We had a lot of help from friends, Kim’s parents and mine with the move. Friends helped me pack the trailer, Kim’s parents helped us get out here and my parents and grandparents helped us get things moved in, cleaned up, fixed and put in place. One of our favorite pieces of furniture, our entrance table was cracked BUT my Papa was able to get fixed.
After arriving here we stayed in temporary lodging on the post, which was interesting but bearable. We were there for almost a week and then were able to move into our townhouse. I began in-processing on the 8th of September and that took about a week. I had my blood checked, got some more shots, turned in my medical and dental files, picked up all of my equipment, learned about opportunities on the post for my family and myself like hunting, the automotive center, family centers, pools, etc. After in-processing I took 10 days of leave that was given to me freely…meaning, it didn’t come out of my built up vacation days. My Brigade Chaplain, one of my bosses and my most immediate boss as far as Chaplaincy goes made sure that I took the ten days off in order to get my house situated and spend time with my girls. Then, when I reported to my Commander he made sure that I was going to take those ten days, too. So, we took the time off and got the house situated. At this point nearly everything in the house is put together…pictures on the wall, car in the garage, curtains up, etc.
My first day in the office official was Thursday (the 24th). So far, things have been busy but also a lot of fun. I have already counseled some soldiers, met a number of people and am trying to figure out what’s what. Things certainly happen efficiently, especially with my Chaplain’s Assistant.
One of my favorite experiences this past week at work was going to Cantigny…my brigades dining facility…every brigade has a dining facility that is run by their cooks but ours is known around the post as being the best one and it is really good. Not to mention really affordable. Kim and Maya joined me for lunch their on Friday. Some of the Soldiers a few tables behind us were joking around and one of the Soldiers thought it was getting a little out of hand and I heard him say “guys, come on…the Chaplain is right behind us and his wife is with him…” I thought it was pretty funny.
I will update the webpage with some pictures of our house and will talk some more next time about some of the really cool things I get to do and experience while taking care of Soldiers.

 

Honoring the Dead

Things have picked up here at the Chaplains school. The pace has not necessarily changed but the intesity level has. The past couple of weeks we have learned quite a bit about deployments and the stresses that come from it, talked a lot about evil and killing, learned about and witnessed a practice ramp ceremony (read this article to get a feel… http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=29422)(or check out this video of one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLs6fhywKD4&feature=related), learned about memorial ceremonies and services, funerals and grave side services for the military and counseling.

One of the most difficult and most honoring things I think I will do as an Army Chaplain is to honor the dead. The Army Chaplains common principle is that we “nurture the living, care for the wounded and honor the dead.” This Friday the entire day will be spent practicing our memorial ceremonies (patriotic in nature), our memorial services (faith based) and our hybrid services (faith and patriotic based), as well as our grave side service (2 min. message dependent on the background and desire of the family).

If your interested in a great movie that takes you through the process of what happens when a Soldier dies in combat to the point he is bured then check out the movie Taking Chance with Kevin Bacon…I would suggest that you watch it after reading the article and watching the youtube video that I mentioned above and pay attention to the Chaplains role, then you’ll have a little bit of an understanding as to what’s going on. In case your wondering how many of these I may end up doing…our senior training Chaplain has done more than 800 services to honor the dead…one of our instructors did 6 funerals today, while he was one of the Chaplains at Arlington National Cemetery for three years straight, hopefully I will not do as many as either of them.

Here’s a story I’ll leave you with that one of the Chaplains shared…the Chaplain was prepared for the grave side service of a Soldier who had died in combat with the 82nd Airborne Paratroopers. The dead Soldier’s seven year old son came up to the Chaplain and said, “you’ve got a lot of medals on your uniform.” The Chaplain didn’t know what to say, “thanks.” “Did the Army give them to you?”, the boy said. He didn’t know what to say, “yes, they did.” All the while he noticed the Purple Heart the boy had pinned on the shoulder of his shirt, next to the Bronze Star (a medal awarded to any person serving in the Army in combat with enemy forces who did something heroic). The Chaplain said, “You have some medals, too.” The boy paused and said, “Yes, but I wish Ididn’t have them.” The boy knew the sacrifices it took and knew the cost of his father’s service.

Honoring those who have given the highest sacrifice and the greatest love for the liberties and freedoms they believed in, with the hopes that their own sons and daughters wouldn’t have to will truly be an honor

me and some of my buddies

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The Differences

New Friends

The differences between being a “civilian” and being in the military are pretty, well…HUGE.  There are good things with that and bad things. I figured I would spell some of those out for you now…mainly by showing the differences between being an Officer vs. Enlisted and an Army Chaplain and a Pastor.

Before I start though, here are some basic differences to think about between being in the Army and being a civilian: to drive to work you have to show several armed guards your Military ID card, make sure they saw your military sticker on the windshield, drive through some barricades and drive ON the speed limit or under while on the post (Military Police or MPs have no mercy…one mile an hour over is easily justification for a ticket), you wear the same clothes everyday (well, you have at least 4 sets of the same clothes), your used to seeing people walk around with weapons…big weapons, you salute to people higher in rank than you and return salutes to people lower in rank than you, every Army guy or gal knows the mission statement of the post  and your all fighting for the same thing on purpose, every morning starts around 6am for morning excercises with all of your closest friends for the next hour, most lunch breaks start at 1130 and end at 1300 (1pm)…which leads me to my next point, everyone operates on military time and you learn not to try to get anything done on post during the lunch period because everyone shuts down…even if your waiting in line to get your blood checked, everyone knows that they will likely be deployed in the next two years and spend a year away from their families…

Now, the differences between being an Officer (Chaplains are officers) and Enlisted: The enlisted men and women make up the backbone of the Army…right now there’s about 420,000 enlisted Soldiers and almost 70,000 Officers (less than 2,000 of them are Chaplains).

- An Army Officer is responsible for leading violence during a war (coming up with the plans and making the big decisions, stepping on the field first and stepping off last) while the enlisted men and women are responsible for carrying it out under the leadership of the Officer.

-Every Officer has a Bachelors degree, some Enlisted men and women do, but its not required (unless you want help getting promoted).

-The lowest ranked Officer is higher in rank than the highest ranked Enlisted man or women…its a humbling thing to be walking around and have one of the highest ranked Enlisted men (almost 50 years old) on the post walk up to you and say “Good afternoon, Sir” and salute you…

-In a normal week I initiate a salute to a higher ranking officer once or twice a week and I return a salute from a lower ranking Officer or Enlisted man or woman at least a couple times a day…you don’t salute indoors, unless your reporting to a senior ranked person…generally just out doors walking to your car or something.

That’s good for now…the differences between a Chaplain (CH) and a civilian Pastor:

-A CHs congregation is huge…a lower ranking CH is responsible for a Battalion (about 600-1,000 Soldiers)

-A CH risks his life for the spiritual care of his Soldiers: Since 1775 24,000 CHs have served in the US Army. During WW2 the Chaplaincy Corps had the 3rd highest percentage of deaths among all of the Army Corps…the highest was Aviators, and 2nd highest was the infantry. Overall, the CH Corps has had a low kill rate…

-A CH takes an Oath from God, affirmed by the President of the United States and Congress to serve

-Has the responsibility of being an Officer: A responsibility of modeling what it means to be a gentleman, holding high regard and respect for all people and always staying on your “A” game.

-Holds a very high physical, intellectual and moral standard:

Physically: When was the last time you saw your Pastor or thought your Pastor could handle running several miles in the morning followed up by push-ups and sit-ups and then head to work…enough said.

Intellectual:Every Army Chaplain has to have a Masters degree in theology that is 72 credit hours or higher and is encouraged to pursue more education…in fact many seminaries will give you 1/3 of the credit hours needed for a Doctorate of Ministry degree just for finishing up your basic Army Chaplaincy training…usuallyafter you have been in for several years the Army will pay you to go and get more education…

Moral:You mess up in the Army over moral integrity and your careers down the drain…doesn’t matter what you do or how high your rank is…one of the highest ranking Officers in the United States Navy drove up to the base gate intoxicated and he was out of the Navy…if you have an affair in the Army then they’ll say “see ya.”

Well, there’s some of my biased opinions…please let me know what things you would like to learn more about…be it the Army or Chaplaincy Corps, my training or whatever else…I could use some help coming up with more article topics!

Shalom out…

 

The School-House

Here is where I do most of my learnin’…and also a picture of my best friend out here in training (a Presbyterian guy), Robby.

Robby after the gas chamber

Chaplain's School

 

A Bitter-Sweet Calling

I clearly am called to do what I’m doing right now. The stories I hear about Soldiers and their experiences tug something much deeper inside of me than patriotism. Those who know me would tell you that I’m not really all that patriotic of a guy. Sure, I respect my country and do things a good citizen would do (pay my taxes, honor the flag, etc.) but when it all comes down I feel like there’s a lot of things we do that are pretty messed up…that to say, the feelings and emotions that well up inside of me are not just about the things I’m really proud of with our nation (religous liberty, freedom and a desire to do the right thing), it is because these Soldiers need someone with them who can bring hope into hell. My faith tradition and background leads me to believe that these Soldiers and their families don’t just need help but they need a relationship with God strong enough to get them through a time-period in their life that will forever mark them, haunt them and change them. Driving on…

I met a Brigade Chaplain yesterday who is from Ft. Riley (i.e., he could be my future boss…Brigade Chaplains oversee 3-4 Batallion Chaplains, like myself among other things). He seems like a really great guy and already has shown me that he cares about me and my family and out of no personal gain. The negative side about meeting him was learning more about the deployment schedule at Riley…Riley is home of “The Big Red One.” The Army is huge on tradition and
“The Big Red One,” also known as the 1st Infantry Division (ID) is steeped in tradition and awards; if you get a chance you ought to google it and read about them. Anyhow, an infantry unit is going to deploy no question about it…the only question is when and unfortunately the answer to that question with the 1st ID is not a great one. There’s a chance that I could have to deploy very, very soon…right now the longest period until deployment that I  know of there is not even a year away…certainly not something I wanted to hear.

This is where the “bitter-sweet” part comes in…bitter for obvious reasons and sweet because I’m going to have the opportunity to help Soldiers when they need it most (at war). Also, bitter because I would love to do nearly anything other than be away from my Girls and Guad (our soon to be son) for a year and be in a life-threatening environment…the sweet part here is that I really feel called to this and for the first time I really dont think I could do something else, I’d love for that to change if for no other reason than deployments but it feels really sweet to have such a strong calling.

BTW, an Army Chaplain died yesterday from an IED explosion that he was in a few years ago while driving in his humvee after ministering to soldiers…he had been in and out of a choma, I believe since then…

Well, we would certainly appreciate your prayers…I’m sure you can figure out what to pray for just by reading these posts and it would be great if you did. In addition, please pray protection in Kim and I’s marriage, protection in my relationship with Maya and above those protection in our relationship with God.

The picture I’ve posted is of me (without hair), from a Christian worship concert that is held once a month during the summer-time at Ft Jackson. All of the basic trainee recruits are invited to come if they are interested…about 1,500 came to this one and a whole lot of them came up at the end of the concert to pray a prayer of salvation after an invite from their Chaplain …as Kim and I would say, “that is definitely PSA (pretty stinkin’ awesome)”…yeah, I know its corny and its another acronym.

Nice hair, Pedro

 

Nothing Romantic

Robinson and Guerrero

I have been running hard since my last post. Here is a glimpse of what we have done since then, as best as I can remember:

- learned a lot of “Warrior Tasks and Training”, for the Chaplain that includes learning how to aggressively pull your “sacred text” out of your cargo pocket and quickly pray for protection of your Soldiers and a string of curses against your enemy…then we learned how to operate a tactical radio, combat first-aid, marched a lot, map reading and land navigation skills, more information about training for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare and then day and night navigation (basically the “teachers” give you some coordinates and then you find them on a map, find the direction on your compass and measure the distance in meters…from there you start heading in what you think is the right direction and measure your steps…during the night you do it all without light, only your red lens flashlight minimally), field infiltration (following a Chaplains assistant under live fire and simulated mortars behind obstacles and then about a 40 yard crawl through the sand with 60 lbs on your back…it was really sandy, hot, exhausting and fairly high on the miserable factor…but there was enough competition to make it pretty fun).

Nearly everything we did was done out in the field (the woods basically) in the hot weather with sand sticking to my skin. In the middle of complaining about it all, to myself I was reminded that we have Soldiers over there living in the field every day with no respite from the above 100 degree temps, sand sticking to their skin, being away from families for LONG periods of time and having to deal with the horrors of war on top of it all…there is certainly nohing romantic about being a Soldier. It will be a tough task filled with a lot of intrinsic rewards like comraderie, purpose and RELATIOINSHIP and it will hopefully be combined with a stronger relationship with my wife, my daughter and my soon to be born son (until further notice his name is “Guad”).

 

A Humble Journey

I feel like I am trying to drink from a fire hose! I have learned and experienced a lot in the past couple of weeks of chaplaincy training. I’ve been on post nearly every morning six days a week by 520am and have gotten back to my room between 5-7pm. My battle rythm (the Army term for “daily routine”) consists of PT (physical training) around 530am until 700am and then meeting up with my plattoon (consists of about 30 guys) at 800am for a road march up to class…by the time we get to class I’m dripping with sweat. From then until around noon I’m in briefings about all kinds of things (combat first aid, using the radio, calling in medical evacuations, learning how to do field sermons also known as “sacred communications”, learning about our medical insurance, how to wear the uniform, the army ranking systems, how to salute, proper health and nutrition, and other things) after a morning of briefings I have lunch for about 30 min. to an hour and then either more briefings or some kind of practical learning (sticking my “battle buddy” with an IV and then having him do the same thing to me, team building exercises on obstacle courses, more PT and road marches) usually many of these things are immersed with push-ups, sweat and drinking lots of water…I’m easily drinking more than three liters of water a day.

Now for the important things I’ve learned…I am humbled by the journey I am on, I haven’t been around so many high quality guys in quite a while, just knowing that I’m on a journey with such great guys is certainly a humbling feeling. For instance, today I lost my wallet and three guys quit what they were doing and went out of their way to help me…they were re-checking cars, moving furniture in my room, going through bags and clothes and even praying that it would be found ( I found it by the way)…another example, I found out last nigt that I would not be going to Fort Campbell, my first choice but instead would be going to Fort Riley, in the middle of Kansas. I took the phone call while several other guys were with me…they quit what they were doing and immediately prayed about the situation not to mention the fact that they each showed sincere sympathy and really cared about how it would impact me and my family. There’s just a couple examples about the quality of people who are making up this new group of Army Chaplains where we share the common passion and desire to bring God to soldiers and soldiers to God.

I will be posting some pictures of some of my good friends and some pictures of what I’m doing out here in the next couple of weeks.

 

Chaplaincy Training

I arrived on Saturday night, 31 May, after taking Maya and Kim to the airport and driving six hours to Columbia, South Carolina. I pulled into the Fairfield Inn/Marriot, my “home” for the summer to begin the journey. That’s right…the Fairfield Inn! The officer’s quarters on base were packed out because of the number of officer’s training schools that are taught during the summer at Ft Jackson. Most of the chaplains are on post in officer’s quarters and 4o of us (The Fairfield Forty, as we are affectionately called) are off-post at the Fairfield. Saturday night I went to dinner with about 15-20 chaplains and met a few  guys that have been a great source of encouragment, support and friendship already.

Sunday morning I went to church with one of those guys, Robbie, a Chaplain Candidate (kind of like ROTC but for Chaplains, so he’s doing it while he is in Seminary and then will have to fulfill pastoral experience, more than likely before he can be on Active Duty). Oh, I also shaved my head…I’d show you, but there’s really not much to see…just imagine me bald, not a pretty sight. Since then, I’ve done a lot of in-processing stuff (dental checks, blood work, shots, basic physical, learned some marching, learned how to wear the uniforms, drug tests, car registration for driving on the post, etc.). This morning I was up at 4:40 getting ready to head to the post to be there by 5:45 an in formation to start the day.

It’s definitely not like boot camp or an officers training course outside of the “special professional” role of pastors, doctors and lawyers (we pastors, doctors and lawyers all have a similar training course)…from what many of the chaplains have said who have been to boot camp or other officer training courses, our course is much more “gentlemanly.” We learn the same things MINUS the yelling (for the most part) and everything having to do with weapons and combat, though I will be learning combat strategy, combat first-aid, self-defense fighting and will be involved in combat training exercises…which I’m really looking forward, too.

The main mission during my next few weeks here will be learning the Army way of doing things. Upon graduating from that, I will begin another class here focused on fulfilling the chaplain’s role in the Army. Basically, the first part is all about learning how to be an Army officer and the second part is learning how to be a professional minister (Chaplain) in the Army. By the way, at this training there are chaplains who are Chaplain Candidates, chaplains going into the Reserves and National Guard (to be part-time chaplains, one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer basically) and Active Duty Chaplains (going into full-time chaplaincy…aka, me).

The quality of guys and gals I’ve met has been pretty incredible, so far. We’ve got a West Point graduate Army helicopter pilot, infantry officer, Navy diver, Navy Chaplain, an Air Force Chaplain and several other guys and gals with prior military experience  who have decided to become Army Chaplains not to mention the high quality pastors I’ve met who have answered the call, too (some who have left successful churches of several hundred or thousands of  people to answer the call). I am the youngest going to Active Duty at 27 and the oldest is 47. The oldest has become a great friend and encourager already…he originally went into the Army out of high school and was headed to special forces before he got hurt in training and then hurt again to the point that he could no longer do special forces. He pastored for a long time and lost 70 pounds to get in!

This is it for now, I’m heading out for a run and a push-up and sit-up workout with my friend Robby (a major geek, just kidding he’s a cool guy, even though he was a wussy soccer player in college) and Steve, an ex-Navy diver-stud who worked with the SEALS!

Until later, I will leave you with an Army saying we learned, “have flexecution (the flexibility to execute…i.e., be able to do whatever any superior tells you to do)”.

 

Up to Speed

The preceding posts describe my process towards deciding on military chaplaincy, what I’m about to share now will bring you up on the last two years of the process to right now. Nearly two years ago I talked with an Air Force Chaplain who had recently returned from a deployment about his experiences as a military Chaplain. He spoke highly of it and the conversation excited me and pumped me up so much that I decided I was not going to push the idea into the background again UNTIL Kim and I had spent some time praying, fasting and really talking it out. We did all three of those and decided that I would start the process by pursuing the Air Force Reserves. As time went on we realized that it was unrealistic to pursue reserves given my education and the place in life where we were. So, we decided that we would plan on going reserves in May of 2009.

Those plans changed drastically. Though I was still able to complete my MDiv. by May of 2o09, I felt that the philosophy of ministry in the Air Force was much different from the Army and I liked the idea of what I would do in the Army much better. So, we decided to pursue the Army and instead of going the reserves route we decided to go the Active Duty route since it fit with the timing of everything and because we had both gotten excited about the ministry opportunities in the Army and had been affirmed a number of times through our mentors, friends and family and even our ministry at the time.

I started my process with my denomination, at the time, but was unable to get anything moving and by that point (September 2008) it was clear that I was at least going to pursue Active Duty Army, even if it was through another denomination or endorser. The denomination was unable to give me an endorsement, which they only do once a year given that the one time of year they endorse is in September. We decided to pursue endorsement with another Evangelical body and that process happened rather quickly.

By December I had filled out over about 100 pages of applications and security clearances, written an essay on why I desired to be an Army Chaplain, drove to Sacramento to take a military physical, flew to Seattle to have an interview with a senior ranking Army Chaplain (which was an incredible experience), wrote a few other papers, had a few letters of recommendations from a Marine Colonel, a Navy Chaplain, a Fireman and a seminary Dean put together, applied for ordination with Evangelical group I am with, drove to Sacramento to be interviewed for ordination, got ordained, applied for endorsement to be a military Chaplain, a board met to look at my application and accepted it THEN I sent the whole packet of things in (including a picture of myself among other things) to the Army Chaplaincy board to go over my application in December and was accepted! In the military chaplaincy world it’s called getting boarded and accessioned. All of this though, came to fruition after I resigned from my pastoral position and we had packed up the entire house to go east, on faith.

My first orders were to wait. So we did, a few months! Finally, in April I received orders to the Chaplaincy School in May of 2009 and to my first Duty Station (assignment) set for 4 September of 2009 at Ft Campbell in Kentucky about an hour outside of Nashville, with the elite 101st Airborne (the unit of soldiers who made up the Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan). After several months of not having our house rented, having little to no income because of hiring freezes on nurses, and not getting paid much as a substitute teacher, etc., etc. it feels really good to know we will be getting a paycheck and moving on with things!

And, that is where we are now! I have now had four days of Army Chaplaincy training out in the hot and humid state of South Carolina at Ft. Jackson, near Columbia. There is a lot more to the story than this, especially regarding Kim’s process of hating the idea of me going into military Chaplaincy to supporting it and being really excited about it. Because of the kind of woman Kim is I knew she would support me, I prayed she would become excited about it and there’s a lot to that process.