A wonderful reader of ND Nice – and a retired master chief petty officer of the Navy – has become my pen pal. He sent a few reflections on his time serving overseas, and has given me permission to share it with all of you (with a wish to remain anonymous).

February 4 is Four Chaplains Day, and it felt appropriate to post today for those of us to think upon tomorrow. In the words of my pen pal:

“I’m picturing in my mind, the four chaplains.

I see them standing in a circle facing each other with their arms around each of their shoulders, with their heads bowed, softly praying as their ship slips beneath the waves of the icy Atlantic.

‘And the Lord said, whom will I send, who will go for us, and I said, here I am, send me.’ Isaiah 6:8.”

---

MEMORIES OF A FORWARD AREA

Celebrating holidays in a foreign country can be challenging. Travel and resources are always a consideration, especially when the location has issues, including mission requirements, security and accessibility.

My location was in northeast Afghanistan at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in 2006-
2007 with access limited to convoys or rotary wing assets and often dependent on
weather and seasonal conditions.

Our holiday season was from Thanksgiving through Easter and included religious
observance, as best we could, for all faiths and denominations. Our cooks at our dining facility (DFAC) did the best they could with available resources to provide a special meal for special or holiday occasions. Often times our pastoral care was limited to the availability of chaplains and ordained in varying faiths. A comment was once made that a religious observance was officiated by a chaplain whose faith was not common to many of our service men and women. I commented that we were indeed lucky to have any pastoral care at all, owing to weather, staffing, security and flight conditions. Most could accept that.

We also did our best to remember holidays including Memorial Day, Independence Day
and Veterans Day.

One event that will always stay in my memory was a service that was early in our tour for
three fallen soldiers. All units were placed in formation facing three sets of boots, rifles
and helmets. The chaplain provided a prayer and each soldier was remembered for his
sacrifice. Individuals from each rank walked smartly to the first set of boots, rifle and
helmet, saluted smartly, left-face, two steps, right-face to salute the second set of boots,
rifle and helmet, left-face, two steps, right-face to salute the third set of boots, rifle and
helmet, left-face to salute the commanding officer of the fallen soldiers and back in ranks.

That’s the point where we all knew that serving in this area was serious business. I will
remember that service for the rest of my life.

Initial arrival to our Area of Responsibility (AOR) was a combination of excitement and
bewilderment. It was exciting to finally be at our mission location for which we had
trained but a little bewildered at the enormity of our task that lay ahead of us while
getting accustomed to our base, quarters, climate, daily activities of living and mission.
I’ll never forget the expression of relief from the men and women that we replaced.

Departure at the conclusion of our mission was combination of relief and satisfaction.
We were relieved that our replacements had arrived and we had completed our
replacement-in-place and transfer-of-authority (RIP-TOA) requirements and the overall
satisfaction that we had successfully completed our mission. Our replacements had the
same look of bewilderment that we had when we first arrived. It was now their mission.

We arrived at a staging area awaiting transportation back to our base in the United States which included three days to reset. Everyone was amazed at the dining facility where we actually ate from plates with silverware, glassware and porcelain coffee cups. This was quite different from eating on paper plates with plastic flatware. Due to my rank I was allowed a private room. I sent an email home to family that I was out of Afghanistan, washed my uniform and found a barber at a mall. I fell asleep in the barber chair. The barber whispered that I was safe and could relax. I finally realized that we were out of harm’s way and heading home.

We departed our theater of operations on a chartered aircraft for travel back to the United States. When we were wheels-up everyone cheered. I didn’t. When we entered United States airspace everyone cheered. I didn’t. When we finally landed on United States soil everyone cheered. I didn’t. While everyone was celebrating and cheering while waiting to disembark the aircraft, I sat quietly thinking about our mission and the promise made that I would do everything I could to get everyone home safely to their families and loved ones. We completed our mission, we made a difference, we kept the faith and we made it.