Tuesday – 19 Jan

NO PT! We met in formation at 6:45 am. It was freezing 32 F. That is way to cold to be standing at parade rest for half an hour. They bused the whole class to the obstacle course for briefings of what we were to do. We were split up into our squads and began working on our station. Basically, these were scenarios where we had to work, plan, communicate, and execute a plan to accomplish the goal. The challenges were pretty neat, climbing walls, walking planks, swinging, etc. It was a fun morning and it was good working together to accomplish tasks together.

The afternoon had several simple sessions. Chaplain musuem tour, intro. to the humvee, and a convey ops briefing. I was there for the convey ops but then had to go to DEERS to have my status changed to active duty for my time here. I hate standing in lines, so i would have rather taking the musuem tour but these are things that have to be done.

Close out formation is stressful and hilarious! All of the NCO’s and SGL (chaplain instructors), basically all of the staff, come in to hear updates, changes in schedule, and the next days schedule. The person everyone fears is the LTC (Lt. colonel). I’ll say more about his part shortly. Daily mail is given out at closing. The names are called out by the NCO’s and the class has to repeat the name to be sure the individual hears it. Then he is to respond coming sergeant and run up there. It never fails that someone doesn’t respond correctly or does run up there fast enough and they get “smoked,” which means dropped for push ups. I finally figured out why some people were being dropped for no apparent reason. They were receiving love letters. It’s happening a lot and it is quite embarrasing to the person receiving because a big deal is made of it. I’m glad I didn’t give Rachel the mailing address! The pink envelopes are handed to the LTC. His facial response (and sometimes wild comments) to the love letters is indescribable. I really can’t put it into words. One time he smelled it and said, “does it smell like perfume,” and threw it on the floor while the student did push ups up in front of the class. Classic!! 

During mail call, the LTC (Lt. colonel) starts calling students up to the front and has them say the Soldiers creed, the Army values, sing the platoon song, or recite the army ranks both enlisted and officer ranks. This caught some people by surprise so they got smoked and embarrassed. One guy recited all the ranks correctly and the LTC said, “drop for being so smart.” Like i tell people, if you get called, your’re going to do push ups whether you do good or whether you do bad on reciting those things. I’ll say more about some hilarious things things later this week.

I’m writing this Tuesday post on Friday, so i can’t remember too much on what i did in the evening. The days are so long and they are blurring together. All i know is that i’m tired and don’t like getting up at 4:30 to go running. Oh that reminds me, we did have PT that afternoon but I can’t remember what we did!!

Monday 18 Jan

Had most of the day off because of MLK day. Rachel came up with Stephanie to eat lunch with me. It was really nice to see them. We went to the mall where Stephanie gave me a builder bear (camo style) for me to keep in my room. We had to say goodbye again. It was hard. Our platoon had a special drill & ceremony practice at 2pm. Then we had an accountability formation at 4pm. Not a whole lot to speak of today. Spent the rest of the night relaxing and getting ready for early PT (physical training) on Tues.

Sunday – 17 Jan

I went with my battle buddy to church. We have to attend a number of different denominational services and fill out some observations about them. We decided to hit two today. We began with a Jewish service and then stayed in the memorial chapel for the Protestant service. The Jewish service was more of a prayer service. I appreciated the way the Rabbi explained to us the different elements of their service and the meaning behind some of the traditional parts of it. He even put on the frontlets on his arm and on his forehead; he also showed us the tradition of touching & kissing the one on the door post of the chapel.

The traditional service was normal. Hymns, reading, sermon, etc. Overall I was glad to be at church.

The rest of the day was just a time to get all my things settled in, studying, working, and even sleeping. I even got some football in. I feel guilty, it was just too easy of a day.

Saturday – 16 Jan

Nothing on the schedule so i took advantage of sleeping in till about 8:30am. LOL. My body is just to getting up early now. I didn’t do much the whole day. Went with my battle buddy to do some shopping around the base, needed groceries. I also managed to do laundry and make some phone calls. Pretty uneventful, I’ll take it because I know it won’t always be this way. Most Saturdays will be busy with physical excercise.

Did some homework to finish out the night.

Friday – 15 Jan

We began the morning with our weigh-ins. For those who don’t make the standard weight, body fat is measured. Needless to say I have to be taped for body fat on these things. I haven’t been 168 since high school. Thankfully my body fat is not too bad. After this, we had to change into out ACU’s and sit in the classroom for Tri-care and some other briefings. At 11:00 am, we had to make it over for the PT test. This was just an assessment consisting of push-ups, sit-ups, and a 1 mile run. This is half of a normal PT test. I came ready to pass a full one if I needed too, so hearing that this was only half of a normal test was welcome news. It was a nice day outside to do this, around 60 degrees. Most everyone ran their best times in the mile, there was a lot of enthusiasm to get this done. I ran my best mile ever 7:43. We will be having two a days starting next week, a lot of physical training but I’m looking forward to making good strides and losing some weight.

After the testing we had to meet back at the chaplain school for D & C (drill and ceremony). Basically marching in formation. I really enjoyed this. Now we’re learning real soldiering. Saluting, marching, drill seargant barking commands. We just kept on turning directions and marching all over the parking lot. We were done at 3pm and surprizingly they called it a day and let us go. MLK weekend so we have several days off.

I had to go to Sumter to do my house closing. That did not go so well. I really don’t like unprofessionalism or the way some people do business. That’s all I want to say about that!! At least we don’t have to worry about our home in Sumter anymore, I hope!!!

The good news is that I got to see Rachel and Stephanie. That was great seeing them again. We had a great dinner as well and talked plenty, with plenty of hugs. It’s only been a week but it seems like several. It was sad to say goodbye, again.

Thursday – 14 JAN

The morning was spent with more medical in processing, which means more waiting around. The good thing  about waiting around is that you get to talk (quietly) with other chaplains. Getting to know each other in this environment is extremely helpful. It is always neat meeting people from different parts and with diverse backgrounds. The other advantage to waiting around is it gives you time to learn things that they throw on us.  We have to memorize and recite when called upon, the Army values (Loyalty, duty, respect, selfless sacrifice, honor, integrity, personal courage), the chaplain values (spirituality, accountability, compassion, religious leadership, excellence, and diversity), the Army song, the Chaplain song, and our platoon song. I’m in 3rd platoon and we are modeling the 3rd ID. We’re broken up into 4 platoon, with squads and teams, to teach us how the army units are formed and operate. Anyway, we have to know these things by Monday. We will be called upon to recite these things or we can strengthen our upper bodies by doing push ups.

This in processing brings you up to date on all your shots. I got two on each arm. I thought the medical sergeant was playing darts with the needs, at least it felt like he was throwing them in there. It only took about 5 seconds to get all four done. Then we had to go back after lunch and take the hearing and vision test. This made us late for some sessions at the chaplain school but those were mostly dealing with drugs, addiction, sexual harassment, etc.

The afternoon ended with all top brass introducing themselves to the class. We heard a lot of good stories and the importance of our ministry. One thing that really stuck out is the seriousness of what is expected of us. A line I will remember is one LTC said that most of us will be deployed over the next 24 months. That’s just a reality with the current needs. We have to be ready physically, mentally, and spiritually. It was nice hearing from the commander of the school and the other seasoned chaplains. You can tell they really love what they do.

My battle buddy is a great guy. I’m so thankful for who I have. We have so much in common and have the same outlook about ministry. We’re quickly becoming good friends and really helping each other out. As a battle buddy, we pretty much have to stay together wherever we go. I told him i’d be bringing home with me as soon as we are granted weekend leave in a couple of weeks. As much as I like it here, I am looking forward to spending some time at home with my family.

Personal note: I got good news that there was not much damage to our house from the water pipe break. A friend will go on Friday to fix it. I also was told that the house will close on Friday. I asked permission from the program director to be able to leave base for this. He granted it. The chaplains here are really good guys on a personal level, they just have to come across harder in front of the class in order to get us where we need to be.

After a two-hour nap, I decided I just needed to keep sleeping. Hopefully, I can wake up to a hot shower.

Wed. – 13 JAN

We were given some free time in the morning to get personal stuff done, like buy things we need, register our POV (vehicle). I spent the morning trying to figure out solving my house water leak problem. I had to call the insurance company to see if I still had a policy. Since our house was supposed to close in Nov. i was in the process of canceling our policy and it looks like there is a chance i can’t make a claim if there is major water damage. A friend of mine will go on Thursday to assess the damage. I had to make a number of phone calls and try to make arrangements for the house closing on Friday. Difficult timing, a water pipe freezing a few days before the closing. Not sure how it will work out but I’m praying for the best.

The afternoon sessions were pretty good. One cadre reviewed the culture of saluting, when and when not to salute. It’s a great tradition and emphasizes mutual respect between soldiers. Hooah!! Late in the day was our first mail call. This ended up being hilarious. The cadres started calling out names for mail and it quickly turned into a push up bonanza! The first one was a friend who got dropped for no reason at all that we could figure, other than the envelope was pink. He didn’t do his push ups right and kept getting yelled at by several people, including the LTC (lieutenant colonel). He looks like someone that you don’t want to get on his bad side. One of the funniest things happened to one soldier. We have been taught that when our name is called we immediate responsd a certain way and quickly get to the front. Well this one soldier was called and he enthusiastically responded, “cooommmminggg sergeantttttt” in a very loud voice. This was immediately taken as disrespectful and he was dropped by the colonel, with the cadre bending over and giving him personal instructions in his ear. Not nice ones either. What was even funnier was what the colonel said, “what do you think this is Stripes? are you Bill Murray or Eddie Murhpy?” As the soldier walked back to his seat, i head the colonel say to him “Einstein.” It was so funny, I still am laughing about as I remember back to it. I wish I had a video of it.

We had to go finish picking up our TA-50 gear in the afternoon. This was our helmet and kevlar. It went pretty quick but I’m noticing that standing in formation hearing instructions from our student led platoon leader is not may favorite thing to do. I was assinged a battle buddy, someone who we are supposed to be with most of our time here. This is good encouragement and accountability. We went to Subway’s and had dinner together. It is very neat that he is also a baptist pastor. We have very similar views and experiences. I’m very thankful and think we will be a good help to one another.

I went running this evening at 8pm at the actual PT track so that i can see what it is like. No fun running when it is in the low 30′s but i still ran two miles–in shorts! Getting used to it now. Took a luke-warm shower again, no fun. Missing hot water but am thankful I have water. Notice the positive attitude. So far it is working, we’ll see when things get tuff if i can convince myself to stay postive. I know next week I will need God’s grace. Many challenges to face like the gas chamber. The rest of the short night was studying.

Side note: I enjoy hearing the buggle calls throughout the day and night. Yesterday we took time to learn several different songs like retreat and saluting the flag. Good stuff! The calls remind me of why I’m here to serve God and Country.

Tuesday – 12 Jan

Had to go to dental this morning to do the usual waiting in line (or in the lobby). I was worried, by the look at my x-ray, that I would need my wisdom teeth (4) taken out. The dentist said that they were so far in there, there was no need to disturb them. Good news I guess. I didn’t want to get profiled from the surgery and miss the PT (physical training) assessment on Friday. I did however have to go back at 12:30 pm for an appointment to get some filings done. This went well, mainly because of the three shots in my gumline. The dentist, surprisingly, did a great job with four fillings. I was so relaxed after the three shots in my gumline that I almost fell asleep on the chair for that 1.5 hr. 

This doctor appointment made me miss the 1 pm session at the chaplain school but i didn’t miss too much information. Everyone helps each other out as much as possible, so I got a quick two-minute update at the break. Why can’t the meetings be that long, instead of an hour??  Later that afternoon, we went and got our TA-50 equipment. The TA-50 is our field equipment that is issued during our time here at CHBOLC. This was interesting because when we arrived we had to form our first formation by platoons. I quickly noticed that the cadre’s or NCO’s (like drill sergeants for us) started getting a little tougher on everyone for not paying attention to detail and operating quickly. As it got colder, the cadre’s got more aggravated. A friend of mine noticed that his water proof bag did not have a chord in it and asked the cadre for a replacement. He got dropped for pushups because he waiting too long to say something about. I’m sure most in the class didn’t notice whether they had one or not. Even if I don’t, I’m not saying anything about it. LOL! There was several things handed out so it did take sometime but I was glad when this was done. We were done for the night.

Went and had a chicken and salad dinner with three other chaplains, another baptist, a presbyterian, and a roman catholic chaplain. It was good just unwinding from the stress and laughing at some of the things we’ve had to go through.

Important note: the cadre’s can be real tuff but I notice right away that they are fair and do care about helping us. They want to push us to be successful in what we will do. I’m glad they are human.

Miss my family and hot water!!

Monday – 11 JAN

This morning we met at the school at 6:45 am and got directions to our first priority this morning-dental x-rays. All I can say about this experience is that I will never complain about waiting at a check out line in a Walmart again! Those of you in the military understand what I am talking about. My group had to play catch up the rest of the day for missing other sessions at the school. We had a steady day of filling out all kinds of forms. At the end of a long day, we split up into our plattons and assigned different positions of leadership for entire class.

We have 105 chaplains in our class, with an incredible assortment of ethnic and denominational diversity. I think the Army is doing a good job making sure they provide religious ministry for the wide diversity of soldiers in the forces. It’s great meeting new people with a passion to serve God and country. We are made of many parts with a common cause, ministering to the soldiers of the Army.

The emphasis today-be in the right place, at the right time, wearing the right uniform. As a way to enforce this principle, some chaplains are volunteered to demonstrate the importance of the principle by being “dropped” and doing 10 pushups.

A bit of bad news to add to an already high stress level. I had two catastrophic phone calls tonight. We had a water pipe burst somewhere in our house (sumter) and Melanie (daughter) had to go to the ER. God is still good! I’m so thankful for His sovereignty and I rest in knowing that He knows what He is doing!!

Sunday – 10 JAN

I was excited to get to Ft. Jackson and report to Chaplain school early Sunday morning. I arrived around 9am only to find out that we were not allowed to check in until after 2pm. Even though we were told to check in early, many students could not check into rooms. Several had to stay in hotels the night before. Needless to say, clothing & sales was full of chaplains when the door opened at 10am. We are the first class that had to report in full ACU uniform. C & S was not ready for the storm. Our first session was at 1:45. The meeting was pretty basic, with introductions and basic expectations of our time in CH-BOLC. At the end of the session, we participated in our first class unity excercise. The proper method of counting off military push-ups!! There was plenty of sweating and grunting!!!

After the session, many of us had to check into our rooms. I was a little disappointed that I had to stay in Kennedy dorm and not Dozier. Dozier has kitchenttes and are like hotel rooms. Kennedy is not as nice. Having a good attitude was stressed in our session, so I began to practice that immediately. My outlook–It could be worse, I could be staying in barracks. That’s basically it for the first day. It was good meeting fellow classmates.  There will be good friendships made during our time here and I’m excited about how the Lord will work to prepare us for our new ministry to soldiers. My goal is simple, to become stronger physically, mentally, and spiritually.