Invocations

At the Change of Command ceremony, 129th Rescue Wing

Have you ever called upon God to be present?

Over the many years I have served as a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve, the Air National Guard, and the Army Guard, deployments, etc. I have done literally dozens, if not hundreds of invocations.

And what is an invocation you may ask?

An invocation is a short prayer invoking, or calling upon God (or a deity, or the spirits) to be present.  It is done for blessings, protection, and other "good things".  And every religion in the world has invocations of one sort or the other.

At just about every military ceremony, a chaplain gives the invocation at the beginning of the ceremony, usually done right after the posting of the "colors" (flags), and the National Anthem.  

Giving an invocation at the 944th Fighter Wing, Luke AFB

Now it might seem strange.  Why do we do such a thing?  These are secular ceremonies.  Why does it include an invocation?

Changes of Command, Retirements, Airman or NCO of the Year, Luncheons, Staff meetings, promotions, awards, Dining In's, and more...all ceremonies & events that nine times out of ten have an invocation.

Well, the military may be "secular", but it has many aspects of religion & spirituality.  Think about it.  If you were taking command of a large unit, and might be called to deploy and go to war, would you not want God's blessing, wisdom and protection?

A few invocations I've done over the years especially stand out in my memory...

One invocation, or prayer that I did was with the air crew of a large refueling aircraft, a KC-10, that was about to go on a mission flying over Afghanistan.  The pilots and crew and I stood in a small circle and prayed.  They were going into the danger zone.   They could be shot down.  (Thankfully, all came back safe and sound.)

Rehearsing a ceremony with General Petraus

Another, I did the invocation for a change of command ceremony at the base in Arabia where I was deployed.  We were in a Muslim country.  Many of the the military air force people of our host nation were present, and very high ranks.  And there I was, up front, a female American chaplain blessing the occasion!

And another, at 1 am, when General Petraeus flew in to promote our newest
captains.  Again, at my deployed location at an airbase in Arabia.

When I was assigned to Luke AFB many years ago, it seems that I was called to be part of many retirement ceremonies.   So many in fact, it really got me thinking.  My "retirement" was still many years off, but I began contemplating,  what will it be like when I leave the military and retire?  How, and in what ways do I want to remember my years of service?  Will I have made a positive impact?  And so on.

Well, I am still serving, 24 years now.  I don't do very many invocations anymore.  Usually I have my chaplain team give them.  But last weekend we had a change of command of the Wing Commander, which calls for the Wing Chaplain to do the invocation.  And so I did, (see photo above, in blue uniform).

[By the way, for you non military types, a "wing" in the Air Force is an echelon of command, about 1400 people or so.  A wing can be as large as 5000 people, depending on the mission of the wing.  The Wing Chaplain, is the chaplain in charge, like a Rector or Senior Minister, and is usually the rank of Lt Col.]

One last story, this one I will never forget. It's quite humorous.  This was way back when I was in the Arizona Army Guard, and a brand new chaplain.  One of the first sergeants asked me to do an invocation at his NCO meeting, it was his first meeting as the First Sergeant.   Of course I was happy to do so.  Afterward, he asked me to pray for him, and asked for my business card.  I was so new, I did not have cards printed as yet.  So I wrote my name and number down on a piece of paper.  He put it in his wallet.

Chaplains and first sergeants work closely on many issues.   Usually it is the First Sergeant that calls the chaplain when there is an emergency with one of their people. So it is important that they have each other's numbers.

A couple of weeks  later, I was home.  The phone rang.  I answered the phone, and a female voice asked me, "Are you Laura Adelia?"  I said yes and asked who this was.  She responded with another question,  "Are you really a chaplain?"  I

As an Army Chaplain (the early years)!

said yes, and again asked who I was speaking with.

She told me she had found my name and number on a piece of paper in her husband's wallet, and was checking up on him! 

Wow, I thought, I bet no male chaplain has ever dealt with that one!

A few months later, at the unit's Christmas party, in walks the First Sergeant with his wife.  I said hello, and she was so embarrassed she would not look at me!


Let us pray...

Violence Begets Violence Sevenfold

Today's sermon is posted on the new St. Peter's Episcopal Church blog.  Click here to go there now.

Enjoy!

Land Nav in the Black of Night

I thought I would write about one of my adventures from O.C.S., (Officer's

Commissioning Ceremony ...becoming a 2LT, a long time ago!

Candidate School).

Now, to be sure, OCS was not at all pleasant.  In fact, even though it has been two and a half decades ago, I still wince thinking about it, have bad memories & post traumatic stress from this life experience!  Really!

Why I ever subjected myself to such emotional and physical abuse, I do not know, except that I really wanted to be an officer.   

And once I started OCS, I soon found that there was no turning back.  For if I quit, I would have to carry that the rest of my life.  And so, I endured it.

Over forty five "officer candidates" started out in our class, which included four women.  Most of us were in our mid to late twenties.  It was the Army National Guard, and OCS was fourteen months in length, and it was brutal.  Only eight of us made it to graduation and commissioning as a 2LT (second lieutenant). 

The first two weeks they took us all to Ft. Huachuca in southern Arizona.  As part of the training, we were taught "Land Nav"  (land navigation, also called orienteering).

Lots of walking & hiking out in the hills, being in nature, reading a map, using a compass, and finding your way from point A to point B.  These were the days well before GPS.  All map and compass and your own skills!

At first they taught us in small groups, then in pairs, and then we had to go it alone.  Actually, I really enjoyed land nav!

That is until when I was all alone out there and saw the largest, fattest rattle snake slithering under a bush about ten feet in front of me!  

Ugh!

It also became more and more challenging as the days went by, as we got only about 4 hours of sleep a night.  And throughout the days, we had so much physical activity, including morning PT, which usually was a 3 to 6 miles run.  And need I mention the "stress" they put us through with lots of mind games, in your face yelling, push ups, etc.

When you get very little sleep, it really affects your cognitive abilities.  It also affects your emotions.  But that's what they were trying to do, weed out the ones who could not stand up to all the "stress".

And then, test day came.  There were actually two Land Nav tests, one for the day, and one for the night.  And they had to be done alone.

They took us up to a desert area somewhere near Florence, AZ in helicopters. A dry desert area that was extremely hot, as it was July.  Much hotter than down at Ft. Huachuca.

Most of us passed the day Land Nav test with no problem.  With exception that it was extremely hot.  And running through the desert with all that military gear on (helmet, web gear, etc.) was even more difficult.

But night time was another story.  It was dark with no moon.  And going out there where there were snakes, javalinas and other "scary things" made it even more intense!  We really had to overcome our fears.

We were given our coordinates, and had a certain amount of time to plot our courses & on the maps & run to our five points.  Once at the point, we had write down the code or letter on the post.  Then run to the next post.

Amazingly, I was able to find my first four points without much problem.

But then, I came to may fifth and last post.  Upon arriving, there were two posts.  One was about 50 feet to the west of the other.

Which one was mine?

If I wrote the wrong one down, I would fail the lang nav test and be washed out of OCS.

No pressure here!

So, which one?   I knelt down looking at both posts.  Sweat was rolling down my face and onto the map.  The left, or the one to the right?

I looked at the map.  I noticed that "my post" had a small dirt road just to the east of it.  Now to see which one had a small dirt road.

I walked to each one.  It was black as the darkest night, so I literally could not see more than a few feet in front of me! 

On the way, I suddenly was walking on something very "smooshy".  I looked down, and I was walking on a bunch of tires lying there.  I nearly fell on my face.

I walked to the east of each one.  The first one, no dirt road.  I walked to the other post.  Then to the east.  There was a very faint dirt road!

I wrote the code for that one down on my test sheet!

I looked at my watch.  I had fifteen minutes to get back to camp, the finish line, or I would fail!

I ran all the way back through the dark desert!

I made to the finish line just in time, sweating like mad.

The test grader graded my test.  I waited.

Did I have all five points correct?  Would I pass?  Did I get that last post correct?

I passed!

What a relief!

Unfortunately, many candidates did not pass, and we lost just about half of the class that day.  

But passing Land Nav was only the beginning of getting through OCS.  For there was another 12 months to go...