Monthly Archives: October 2009

October 12, 2009 · 23:59

Bring Out the Brooms: Dodgers, Angels, Yankees and Phillies Advance to League Championship Series

So far the MLB playoffs have not disappointed unless you are a Cardinals, Twins, Red Sox or Rockies fan. There was a lot of drama, great play, and miraculous comebacks and for the shear sake of humanity some bad calls by some of the umpires. But that’s why baseball is so much better than football; it is human and not clouded by the artificial attempt to impose “fairness” by reviewing up to 12 plays a game at the request of coaches and more for “mandatory” reviews. These four series plus the one game

The human drama of baseball was played out before our eyes. The stories were amazing and every game had stories within the story of players and teams doing amazing. As my readers know I made predictions about the divisional series over at https://padresteve.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/padre-steve%E2%80%99s-mlb-divisional-playoff-picks/ So far with the exception of the Cardinals being swept by the Evil Dodgers, the divisional series went pretty much as I expected as to the winners though I did not expect all of the sweeps. I gave the Twins one game and thought the Angels and Red Sox would go five with the Angels winning. The Phillies and Rockies series went very much as I expected and the Rockies almost brought in back to Philly.

In this Divisional series six games were decided by one run. Five games were decided in the 9^th inning or extra innings. Six games were comeback wins where the winning team gained the lead in the 7^th inning or later. With a few exceptions the games were close even late in the game. There were a number of plays that the umpires blew the call on, sometimes badly, oh well, humanity strikes again. That is no reason to implement the insanity of the NFL’s replay policies or anything like them.

Let’s go back to my picks. I picked the Cardinals in four over the Dodgers. The Cardinals, who were not even picked for the playoffs dominated the NL Central but Tony La Russa, one of the outstanding managers in the game has a way of making things work. My expectation was that Chris Carpenter and Jonathan Wainwright would shut the Dodgers down at Chavez Ravine and then go back to St Louis where their hitters had been awesome throughout the season. Their major weakness was their bullpen. A lot broadcasters and experts predicted a Cardinals sweep. Having seen the Dodgers perform miracles in past playoff series, including in 1981 and 1987 I did have a sense of unease in picking the Cardinals, but I went with logic and this time it failed. The Cardinals pitching was shaky and their hitting died. The turning point was in game two where with two outs that the Cardinals up 2-1 Matt Halliday lost a fly ball in the lights allowing a runner and the Dodgers then finished them off. I think that it was a finish that could only happen with the Dodgers in the playoffs. I owe my Dodger fan nephew Joe a beer the next time I get to San Diego as I promised in my prediction of the Cardinals lost. What is more interesting now for the Cardinals is what happens in the off season as Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan’s contracts expire at the end of the month. If I had my choice Billy Beane would bring him back to Oakland a move which would be good for him as La Russa has many connections and business interests in the bay area.

The Angels and Red Sox were a tough call. I picked the Angels in five because the Red Sox have not been the same team as they were the past few seasons. Some of their key players are showing the signs of age and losing a step or two. Additionally their starting pitching staff was inconsistent during the season and had some key injuries. I also picked the Angels because they are a better team than they have been the past few years and there was the “X” factor of Angels’ pitcher Nick Adenhart killed after his first start in the second game of the season. The amount of unity on the team was something that I have not seen in a long time. In their sweep of the Red Sox the Angels pitchers shut the Red Sox down until game three when Boston made a got out to an early lead which they reinforced in the bottom of the 8^th. What was surprising was the manner in which the Red Sox lost. Jonathan Papelbon gave up not only his first ever run in the playoffs but blew the save and got the loss. Previous to this he had pitched 27 innings of shutout playoff baseball. The Red Sox have some decisions to make during the off season to see if they can get their edge back.

The Twins and Yankees series was the classic “David versus Goliath” story. The Twins came from nowhere to overtake a Tigers team that faltered at the end winning the one game playoff at the Metro Dome. The Yankees played all year with a chip on their shoulder and won 103 games, the best in the Majors. They had an attitude and played all year as a team, they had very few injuries and every part of the team was strong. The Yankees have played all year like they wanted to win the whole thing. I didn’t think that the Twins had a chance; they had lost all seven games to the Yankees including three in a row at Yankee Stadium on walk off hits. The Yankees clubbed the Twins in game one and C.C. Sabathia got his first playoff win and like Rodriguez shook off the demons of playoffs past. In game two the Yankees had to come back to beat them as usually reliable closer Joe Nathan blew the save when Alex Rodriguez hit a two run homer in the bottom of the 9^th. Mark Teixeira hit a walk off shot in the bottom of the 11^th. I thought that the Twins might win one in the twisted hell of the Metro Dome, but the Yankees came back to win there with Alex Rodriguez Jorge Posada teamed up in the 7^th with single homers off former Yankee Carl Pavano and Mariano Rivera closed out the game. Throughout the series Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and a host of other Yankees played solid baseball getting the key hits and making the key plays to win the series. The Twins had a remarkable season but were simply outmatched by the power, pitching and speed of the Yankees. Even so the final two games were dramatic as the Twins led by Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer played a great series.

The defending World Series Champion Phillies and amazing Rockies series was great. I expect the teams to go to five games with the Phillies winning at home in game five. The Phillies won game one in a walk, but the Rockies showed great character and surprised the Phillies in game two. Game three had one of those only in Denver moments when it was postponed due to winter weather and snow. Why the heck the Rockies wouldn’t have built Coors Light Field with a retractable dome like Milwaukee beats the hell out of me. The game was made up Saturday and the Phillies won a nail biter in which the lead changed often and the Phillies winning on a Ryan Howard sacrifice fly. Game four tonight looked like the Rockies had the Phillies reeling when in the bottom of the 8^th they scored three runs to go up 4-2. The Phillies came back as Ryan Howard had a 2 RBI double with 2 outs in the top of the 9^th and was driven in by Jaysen Werth for the winning run. Beleaguered Phillies closer Brad Lidge saved both game 3 and 4, Carlos Ruiz, Chase Utley and big Ryan Howard were all clutch hitters for the Phillies. The acquisition of Cliff Lee by the Phillies

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Tagged as alex rodriguez, boston red sox, carl pavano, cc sabathia, chavez ravine, chris carpenter, colorado rockies, dave duncan, david versus goliath, derek jeter, drama of baseball, hubert humphrey metro dome, joe mauer, joe nathan, jonathan papelbon, jonathan wainwright, jorge posada, los angeles angels, los angeles dodgers, marinano rivera, mark teixeira, matt halliday, michael cuddyer, mlb divisional playoffs, new york yankees, nfl replay rules, nick adenhart, philadelphia phillies, st louis cardinals, tony larussa, yankee stadium

October 11, 2009 · 01:33

Major League…Jake Taylor, Ricky Vaughn and Me…

major_league1 Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen in Major League

Today after doing some work around the house and hanging around with Molly the dog as the Abbess has been away most of the week, I set about working on my first week of preparation for the comprehensive exams in my Masters is Military History program. After having finished all course work with a 4.0 GPA I want to kick this thing in the ass and get a “Pass with Distinction” on the exam. So as I sat down this afternoon without a baseball game in sight I switched to a college football game. I don’t mind college football, in person I like it better than the NFL, but it is not baseball. Football in all forms is a war and with the war comes a lot of noise and it seems to me that no matter how low I put the sound, with the exception of pushing the mute button, that I get a headache. It happened last week too. So as I collected my thoughts I decided to pick out one of my myriad of baseball movies Major League. This has been one of my favorite movies ever since it came out and I probably watch my DVD of it a couple of times a year. If I see it as I’m channel surfing I will watch it. Today was no different. With Molly at my side and Judy out I began to work on five separate thesis statements within my concentration area, which happens to be World War Two. If you have noticed my site has a decent number of military history posts and this is because I never really stop studying, reading or writing. A find lessons that are often applicable to the present when I do this type of research and analysis.

molly and daddy Molly Giving Me Advice on My Work

Anyway, back to the movie. Having been on some really bad softball teams and having my share of emotional moments even before my encounter with PTSD I really appreciate the movie. I really like the characters of Jake Taylor played by Tom Berenger and Ricky Vaughn played by Charlie Sheen. I kind of relate to both more like Ricky Vaughn in my younger days, though occasionally as people who know me well can attest I can be like “Wild Thing.” Mind you I have been tossed from ball games and tossed from the Army Chaplain Officer Advanced Course. However, now I relate more to Jake Taylor, the old worn out catcher with bad knees. Like the character Crash Davis in Bull Durham Taylor is the glue that helps keep the team together even though he is struggling with his own life, past failures and uncertain future I find myself wrestling with those things while still continuing to play the game to the best of my ability and eke out a few more seasons, in this case one last promotion so I can stay in a few more years and do what I love doing. I have no aspirations for much more on the Navy side because I’ve had a great ride and have gotten to serve far longer that I thought that I would when I started.

Of course the movie ended just in time to watch the Dodgers sweep the Cardinals in the National League Divisional Series. To say the least I did not expect a sweep. The Dodgers played extremely well while the Cardinals hitters couldn’t hit water if they fell out of the boat. The Phillies and Rockies were postponed due to winter weather conditions in Denver….of all the places that should have built a stadium with a retractable dome, Hey Denver can you spell Dome? I knew you couldn’t.

So I watched as I wrote and looked at the baseball fields and felt peaceful. The noise of the movie didn’t bother me, it wasn’t disruptive or intrusive. There is a song in it that touches me because of how much time I have spent away from Judy over the years. It is Most of all You by Bill Medley.

Woke up one day, what did I find Holes in my pocket, memories on my mind

So many things I lost on the way but most of all you

Pennies and dreams carelessly spent

Pieces of time and who knows where they went

Is there a chance to pick up the pieces and try for it all again

Sometimes you’re just so busy running, running round in circles

You never see you’re going nowhere.

Sometimes you get so tired of chasing, chasing after rainbows

You look around your life and find no one’s there

No one’s there, nooooooooo one’s there

If there’s a time everyone sees they may have missed the forest for the trees

How could I let the best things roll by and most of all you

You knew me better than I knew myself

Somehow you always knew there’d come a day I’d put my toys away

I was a fool traveling so far only to find that home is where you are

You are the way there, just let me stay there

I’ll have it all, if most of all there’s you……….

Now we do have a good marriage but I always have a tendency to get consumed by my work and when I let that get away from me as I often have in the past I miss really important things with Judy. Like Jake Taylor who is trying to recover a blown relationship with his one true love Lynn Wells played by Rene Russo I find that I have had to make up for lost time over the years spent on deployments, travel, exercises or duty. So anyway with that said it is time for me to get my ass to sleep.

Harrisburg 1 Judy and I in Harrisburg PA on our 23rd Wedding Anniversary in between trips and deployments

Peace, Padre Steve+

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Tagged as bill medley, bull durham, but most of all you, charlie sheen, college football, colorado rockies, crash davis, deployments and separations, jake taylor, los angeles dodgers, major league, nlds, philadelphia phillies, rene russo, ricky vaughn, st louis cardinals, tom berenger, wild thing

October 10, 2009 · 02:55

Unequal Allies: Lessons from The German’s and Their Allies on the Eastern Front for Today

patton with french tank Patton with French Renault F1 Tank in WWI

One of the problems that any coalition of unequal partners as is the case in Afghanistan is the role of the lesser partners, their capabilities and limitations imposed on them by their own governments. When NATO joined the US led effort in Afghanistan a number of NATO allies contributed troops to the effort. The same was true of the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq. While obviously the US appreciated and continues to appreciate the efforts of its allies in both theaters the unique problems associated with coalition warfare are often not appreciated until the strengths and weaknesses of each junior partner in the coalition are shown to include the effect of each nation’s choice of units sent, logistics capability and rules of engagement. Thus when some Americans are critical of the contribution of some allies, or the limitations imposed by their governments they should remember that in the First World War the United States was dependant on France and Britain for the majority of the Artillery, all of the tanks and aircraft as well as instructors and training facilities for the rapidly recruited American Expeditionary Force.

US Ace Eddie Rickenbacker with French Supplied Nieuport 28

Every nation works within its own national interests and domestic political situation as well as its military capabilities. Unfortunately many people do not look at history to see how a coalition of a major power allied with a number of minor powers each with their own limitations as well as motivations for entering the war execute that war after the initial plan is foiled. This is something that has happened in Afghanistan after the initial success disappeared with the corrupt and ineffective Afghan government, the resurgent Taliban and the resiliency of Al Qaida in their bases in the remote border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

nato_france_a_0403 French Troops in Afghanistan: The French, British and Canadians have the most Robust Rules of Engagement of Non US NATO Forces (Time Magazine Photo)

One of the best places to find such an example is the German relationship with their allies on the Eastern Front. The question of the German dominated European Axis alliance in the Second World War is one of the more neglected subjects of World War Two II. In most accounts of the war, the relationship of the Germans to their coalition is minimal. This includes the works of B.H. Liddell-Hart, Williamson Murray, Chester Wilmot and David M Glantz. Italy usually receives some attention in the context of the campaign in North Africa and Mediterranean. Hungary, Romania and Finland receive scant attention from anyone except as to how their armies were overrun during the Stalingrad campaign. Popular German memoirs provide little substantive help. Field Marshal Albert Kesselring’s memoirs and Erwin Rommel’s papers give some views of the Italian efforts in North Africa and the Mediterranean and Erich Manstein gives a limited amount of attention to the Italians, Finns, Hungarians and Rumanians in Russia.

Finland-Hitler Conflicting War Aims: Hitler with Finland’s Field Marshal Von Mannerheim

In his essay The Dysfunctional Coalition Robert Di Nardo examines the relationship of Germany to her allies on the Eastern Front where the Germans due to their own limitations were forced into a coalition war with weak allies of uncertain reliability. This is a subject that Di Nardo expanded on in his book Germany and the Axis Powers: from Coalition to Collapse (University of Kansas Press, 2005). Di Nardo believes that there are important lessons to be learned from the failure of Germany and its coalition. Unfortunately we in the west are more often than not content to judge coalitions by the success of the Allies in the Second World War. Di Nardo’s work on the subject is something that the United States must learn from as it works with coalitions whose members have significant military weaknesses often magnified by the domestic political climates in their own country. The situation, especially in Afghanistan places he United States in a similar position to Germany in relation to the current wars on terror and campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Italian M 13-40 tanks were the mainstays of Italian Armored Units, Slow, Undergunned and Poorly Armored they were No Match for Soviet T-34s

Di Nardo asserts “the way in which Germany conducted coalition warfare was reflective of the manner in which Hitler and the German military looked at the world, as well as the war in general.” Germany often displayed a haughtiness toward its allies and even knowing their weaknesses was both unable and often unwilling to do much to strengthen them for the fight against the Soviet Union. Di Nardo believes that the German attitudes were “a significant factor that contributed to the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany.” (p.712) In the essay Di Nardo notes the few successes of the coalition. In particular he looks at the German work with Rumanian air defense around the Ploesti oil refineries and the German-Finnish Winter Warfare School. Apart from these instances he characterizes Axis coalition warfare on the eastern front as “poor” with “failures at every level.” (p.713)

italian troops stalino

Di Nardo analyzes the problems with language barriers, the wide differences of modernity of the armies and levels of technology and training of the coalition partners many of which are common to the war in Afghanistan. Germany’s failure to become the “arsenal of Fascism” which the United States became “the Arsenal of Democracy” for its allies hindered the Germans in their relationship to their poorly equipped allies. Likewise, the lack of understanding of all the partners regarding the “relationship between national objectives, strategy and the morale of soldiers of officers and soldiers alike”(p.713) was a major obstacle.

finnish at gun

Di Nardo provides a good description of the German liaison detachments allotted to the coalition armies. These teams functioned as advisors to their allies as well as liaisons between the German army and the allies. These teams dealt with language, tactical communications weaknesses and often displayed the generally haughty attitude that the Germans displayed to their partners. There is an excellent illustration of this in dealing with the failure of XLVIII Panzer Corps at Stalingrad when the German Liaison to the Romanian 1^st Panzer Division was wounded. At the operational and strategic levels Di Nardo describes the German policies and attitudes toward their allies as “imperialist.” (p.718)

He examines the wide gap in transportation capabilities of the various armies and the failure of the Germans to better provide for the needs of their partners in contrast to the United States assistance to her allies. Germany provided obsolete captured Czech and French weapons and vehicles to her allies. They refused to supply the Romanians and Hungary with the plans to build German tank and aircraft in Romanian and Hungarian industrial concerns capable of their manufacture. (pp.718-719) Di Nardo notes how this lack of modern equipment impacted the allies operations against the Red Army and their defeat at the hands of the Soviets. Although Di Nardo alludes to how even elite German formations had substandard equipment he does not explain principle reason for this. This was due to the fact that the Germans did not go to a “total war” footing in regard to industrial production until Albert Speer took over as Armaments Minister in 1943.

spanish blue divsion

The number of troops contributed by the German Allies was substantial. Hungary began Barbarossa with two corps, including its Mobile Corps and in 1942 supplied their 2nd Army which was composed of 1 Armored and 9 Infantry Divisions. 2nd Army was crushed by the Soviet offensive against Stalingrad. The Italians began with an expeditionary corps of 2 Semi-Motorized and 1 Light Infantry Divisions. In early 1943 they added 4 Infantry and 3 Alpine Divisions and a number of other smaller formations. This force became the 8th Army. It fought well during the advance toward Stalingrad but spread out over a wide front with little armored or air support was decimated by the Soviet offense against the city. The remnants were no longer battle worthy and were evacuated to Italy. Most of the Finnish Army was engaged in the war but after September 1939 made no major offensive contribution to the war. In 1944 following a major Soviet offensive which forced them to withdraw from the territory that they had captured in 1941 the Finnish government sued for peace. The Russians occupied a number of border provinces and islands and Finland was obliged to expel German Forces. This resulted in the “Lapland War” between the Finns and the Germans with the Germans adopting a scorched earth policy as they withdrew from the country. The quality of the Finnish forces was generally higher than that of Germany’s other Allies.

romanian r35 Obsolete French Built Romanian R-35 Light Tank

The Romanians contributed 19 divisions organized into 3 Armies to Barbarossa. They were limited by their equipment and logistics. The 3rd and 4th Romanian Armies were shattered at Stalingrad forcing a major reorganization as they continued the war. In August 1944 with the Soviets pressing their border King Michael led a coup to overthrow the Fascist dictatorship of Antonescu. The Germans elected to fight and the Romanians changed sides and joined the Russian advance to the end of the war with their 1st Army taking part in the Prague offensive. Another contributor of troops was Franco’s Spain although it was a neutral country. Spain provided a division of volunteers which became the famous “Spanish Blue Division” or the 250th Infantry Division. It was outfitted as a German unit and received additional training from the Germans before it went into action. The division fought near Leningrad and was engaged in many tough fights. A Spanish “Blue” Fighter squadron allotted to and equipped by the Luftwaffe also distinguished itself. In October 1943 Spain under allied pressure withdrew the division from the front although many soldiers volunteered to remain and fight on as smaller units attached to German formations. One volunteer company became part of the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division Nordland at Berlin. One thing that probably was a factor in the Spanish effectiveness as well as commitment to to German cause was their genuine loathing of the Soviets following the Spanish Civil War.

The final part of Di Nardo’s essay deals with the strategic goals and conflicts among the Axis coalition which were never worked out. Examples of this include how the Finns never signed a formal alliance with Germany and how their national strategy did not allow them to deeper into the Soviet Union instead settling on recovering territory lost to the Soviets in 1939 with a few minor gains. There was also the problem that the Romanians and Hungarians distrusted each other so much that they could not work together over their own territorial disputes. The Italians joined the campaign late and their 8^th Army participated in the German advance toward Stalingrad protecting the German flank. While the Italians provided their own equipment including armor and aircraft they and their weapons were woefully suited for the war that they faced on the Eastern Front. Di Nardo finishes his essay noting morale problems in the Hungarian, Italian and Romanian armies, the lack of understanding and general lack of motivation for the campaign.

Romanian_Me109-px800 Romanian ME-109 E4, The Romanian Air Force Was One of the Axis Success Stories

This article is well sourced. Di Nardo uses histories, archival sources, operational orders and analysis by the various armies as well as interviews with participants. Of particular note is that he goes to sources of the coalition partners and not just German sources. This allows him to be far more nuanced and detailed in his discussion as opposed to others who simply ignore the contributions of the Axis partners. His footnotes provide added detail and provide and lend support to his arguments.

The importance of this essay is twofold. First it provides a look at the relationship of German to her coalition partners on the Eastern Front. This is important from a historic standpoint simply because it is such a neglected topic in most histories of the period and gives added depth to the reasons for Germany’s defeat. One has to ask the “what if questions” in regard to had the Germans better treated, equipped and recognized their allies’ contributions to the war effort.

The second and probably more important for Afghanistan is that it provides lessons to any nation which has to engage in coalition warfare. In particular it has lessons for the United States which has found itself as the senior and vastly superior partner in a war which has multiple coalition partners in several theaters of operations. Each coalition partner has certain military strengths and weaknesses in relationship to the United States, national interests, geo-political and economic relationships with competitors to the United States and internal political realities which impact their cooperation in the war. As such the United States cannot allow itself to be cast in the role of a haughty imperialistic senior partner as did Germany. The US instead must cultivate an attitude of assistance, respect and trust among its partners to assure their full cooperation and assistance in relation to U.S. goals in the war. This is particularly important now was it appears that the Afghan war is reaching a point where the deteriorating situation on the ground could invite the early withdraw of allies and necessitate either the addition of more US troops or a strategic withdraw which would be for all intents and purposes a defeat for the US and NATO. The consequences would not be good and while the Taliban may be able to be contained they undoubtedly would invite Al Qaida back and provide them with a sanctuary just as Pakistan has stepped up its efforts on the border.

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Tagged as adolf hitler, afghanistan, al qaida, Albert Speer, american expeditionary force, antonescu dictatorship, b h liddel hart, britain, chester wilmont, coalition warfare, david glantz, eastern front, erich von manstein, erwin rommel, field marshal albert kesselring, field marshal von mannerheim, finland, france, german wwii allies, germany, germany and the axis powers, hungary, iraq, italy, king michael of romania, marshal horathy, nato, nazi germany, pakistan, ploesti oil refineries, robert di nardo, romania, russo-finnish war, soviet union, spanish blue divsion, spanish blue fighter squadron, stalingrad, taliban, the dysfunctional coalition, united states, us military, williamson murray, world war i, world war ii

October 8, 2009 · 23:59

The First Aircraft Carriers Part One: The First American Flattops- Langley, Lexington and Saratoga

Aircraft over Saratoga

Note: This is the first in a series on the early aircraft carriers. Two others will follow on the British and Japanese carriers. My dad was a Chief Petty Officer in Naval Aviation. As such I grew up around Naval Air Stations, Squadrons and of course Aircraft Carriers. My dad retired off of the USS Hancock CVA-19 in 1974. I spent two weeks underway on USS Coral Sea CV-43 as a NJROTC Cadet in the summer of 1976. It was an experience that I will never forget. While on the Cruiser USS Hue City CG-66 we deployed with the USS John F Kennedy CV-67 for Operation Enduring Freedom. There is something about the power and majesty of the modern carriers at the same time there is a sense of timelessness in the first aircraft carriers. Three of the first four American ships were converted from other platforms. As a kid, a young adult and even now I am fascinated by all things Navy, especially ships that made history. Here is my look at the first American Aircraft Carriers.

The United States did not invent the aircraft carrier although Eugene Ely flew an aircraft onto and off of the Armored Cruiser USS Pennsylvania on January 18^th 1911. It was the British Royal Navy which first built and operated aircraft carriers beginning with the HMS Furious which had been converted from a light Battle Cruiser. The Royal Navy would covert the sister ships of the Furious, the Glorious and Courageous as well as the auxiliary ship the Argus before building their first carrier that was designed from the keel up, the HMS Hermes. With the British building carriers and the Japanese following suit the United States began a program of aircraft carrier production and operation unmatched in history.

USS Langley CV-1 The “Covered Wagon”

The first US carrier was the USS Langley, CV-1. Langley was converted from the collier USS Jupiter beginning in July 1919. She was commissioned as USS Langley CV-1 on 21 April 1920. Displacing 15,150 tons fully loaded Langley embarked 34 aircraft and had a maximum speed of 15.5 knots. Langley was primitive but groundbreaking. She was the first carrier equipped with catapults and on 18 November 1922 achieved the first catapult takeoff by an aircraft. She served as an invaluable training platform for Naval Aviators and helped provide the fleet with highly skilled flight crews that would operate from the USS Lexington and USS Saratoga.

langley as av-3 Langley after conversion to AV-3

Nicknamed the “Covered Wagon” she served initially in the Atlantic until November of 1924 when she was transferred to the Pacific Battle Force. She served as a carrier in the Pacific until 1936 when she was converted into a Seaplane Tender AV-3 and assigned to the Pacific in September 1939 based in Manila. She was in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked and was sent south to Australia. She was assigned to the ABDA forces defending the Netherlands East Indies and was sunk by her escorts after being bombed and disabled by Japanese aircraft while delivering fighter aircraft to Java with the loss of 16 sailors.

USS Lexington CV-2

The second two American Aircraft Carriers were also conversions. Unlike Langley the Lexington and Saratoga were converted from a new class of large and powerful battle cruisers whose construction had been canceled by the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty. Commissioned on December 14^th 1927 Lexington was 880 feet long and displaced 38,746 tons. Saratoga was commissioned on November 16^th of the same year and of similar dimensions and displacement. Both of these ships could steam at 33.25+ knots and had a complement of 90 aircraft. They were armed with eight 8” guns mounted in 4 turrets at the behest of more traditionally minded officers who felt that the armament might be needed for surface actions.

Saratoga underway USS Saratoga CV-3

They were the largest American carriers built until the Midway class appeared inin late 1945 and early 1946. Of other nations pre-war carriers only the Japanese Navy’s Akagi and Kaga, converted from a battle cruiser and battle ship for the same reason as a the Lexington’s were comparable in size, air group capacity, protection and speed. Saratoga’s 8”battery would be replaced by twin 5” 38 caliber mounts in 1942.

lexington sinking Lexington Burning and Sinking

Both ships were used to help develop carrier doctrine and the concept of the carrier task force. Future leaders of Naval Aviation including Marc A. Mitscher trained aboard or flew from these ships. Of particular note was that during Fleet Problem XIX in 1938 Saratoga launched a surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor from a point 100 miles off Oahu, setting a pattern that the Japanese copied in December 1941.

Saratoga 1945

During World War II both helped hold the line after Pearl Harbor along with Enterprise, Yorktown and Hornet. Lexington was the flagship of TF-11 during as series of raids on Japanese outposts in the Solomons. TF-11 joined Admiral Frank “Jack” Fletcher’s TF-17 at the Battle of Coral Sea, the first Naval Battle fought outside of eyesight of the respective forces. Lexington’s aircraft helped sink the Japanese light carrier Shoho on May 7^th 1942 and heavily damage the fleet carrier Shokaku the following day. However aircraft from Shokaku and Zuikaku hit Lexington with two torpedoes and 3 bomb hits which her damage control parties seemed to have under control when vapors from ruptured aviation fuel lines were ignited resulting in a series of explosions which ignited uncontrollable fires. Her crew was evacuated by escorts and she was torpedoed by the destroyer USS Phelps.

Saratoga served throughout the war. She engaged in patrols after Pearl Harbor and while enroute to joining Enterprise was hit by a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-16. After repairs she was rushed to Hawaii to join the American Task Forces at Midway but arrived in Hawaii the day after the battle. Following this Saratoga operated in the Central Pacific in the first offensive at Guadalcanal. She participated in the landings as the flagship of Admiral Fletcher and then at the Battle of Eastern Solomons sank the Japanese light carrier Ryujo and damaged the seaplane carrier Chitose. Following this battle she was hit by a torpedo from the I-26. After repairs she again went to the Solomons joined by the light carrier USS Princeton. On November 5^th the two carriers conducted a brilliant strike on Japanese ships and aircraft facilities at Rabaul which were threatening the landings at Bougainville.

saratoga 1944 Saratoga September 1943

Following these operations Saratoga operated in the Gilberts and then with the British in the Indian Ocean. She then was used as a training carrier for new pilots and aircrews at Pearl Harbor before being brought to Iwo Jima to operate night fighters against Kamikaze raids. While conducting these operations she was attacked by Japanese aircraft in which 6 Japanese aircraft score 5 hits on her in 3 minutes. Her forward flight deck was wrecked and she suffered great damage below decks and she lost 123 sailors.

saratoga kamikaze 2 Saratoga burning after Kamikaze hits in 1945

Following repairs she resumed training duties and after the defeat of Japan was involved in Operation Magic Carpet to bring Servicemen back from overseas. Surplus to Navy needs at the end of the war Saratoga was sunk in Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll by an underwater atomic blast in the “Baker” bomb test a mere 500 yards from her position. She sank 7 hours later.

saratoga sinking The End of an Era- Saratoga goes down at Bikini

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October 7, 2009 · 23:52

I Won’t Eat Tripe…Especially the Religious Kind: An Encounter on a Social Networking site

I’m at home on leave dealing with some unexpected family concerns which will work out but necessitate a couple of days off. As a result I am trying to make the best of things working around the house and watching the first of today’s MLB Divisional Series games between the Phillies and the Rockies, although the Rockies are looking more like crushed gravel right now. But As I take this little break I digress.

Wanting to charitable and not wanting to appear to an arrogant condescending ass of oedipal tendencies and questionable parentage, I have to say that I did just that on a social networking site today. Once again it was after making a correct comment about a religious article that a friend posted. Another friend, coincidently another Iraq vet and fellow Priest added to my comment. Both of us pointed out the logical and historical problems with the article and I was a bit coarser in my view of the author who on his web page bio calls himself “a prophetic voice.” I think I said that when I read that I knew that he was full of rhymes with hit. I’m not going into the gory details because I don’t feel like it right now. What I will say is that it dealt with this man’s hyper-individualist view of the Christian faith in something that he calls “reimagining church.” Actually the point is to him that we don’t need church we just need Jesus. No I agree that we all probably need Jesus especially me even if he is no help with hitting a curve ball. However the Christian faith is much more than me and Jesus, or you and Jesus or even that particular author and Jesus. It’s actually more about the relationship of “us” and the Holy Trinity, which if I recall somewhere reading includes the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit.…it is both individual and community, much like a baseball team. What I am going to do is discuss a comment that another person put on the site after us.

Both of us are probably overly educated intellectuals and if I recall something from the Conservative Bible movement that intellectuals are like the liberal spawn of Satan. Both of us have also discovered the richness of the faith inadvertently in a Southern Baptist Seminary. Maybe we studied a bit too hard? Whatever, the response to our critique of the author of the article was priceless and actually kind of made my day.

The exchange is funny and obnoxious enough to post here:

Padre Steve: This is not church or community…it is yet another “me and Jesus” deal. When somebody’s bio describes them as “A prophetic voice” I know that they are full of….

Padre David: The Church is relationship/community…relationship with Christ and with His people. To pretend that it is Him and only Him is to deny much of what “Him” said. We are is Body. It is Christ who established “it”, His Church.

Bertha (name changed not to humiliate the guilty): Steven @ David……is it? really? have you gone beyond the “christian” relationship/ community to know for sure? how far have you studied to know, to really know that what you know is so true that there’s no other truth? that this you know as truth is truth? uhmmmmm interesting people. WOW!

Padre Steve: Bertha, I hate to sound uncharitable but I can be an ass. Just because you’re an ignorant idiot doesn’t mean that you need to attack two people who actually have some real knowledge of the faith and history as opposed to this numb-skull who posits himself as a ‘prophetic voice.” It’s easy to be a self taught experiential expert on things, you don’t have to be accountable to anyone. David and I on the other hand live and work in an ecumenical and inter-religious world that you cannot fathom. Most of the people we work with and love you would not consider Christians; in fact many are not, especially those Jews and Moslems. But they are part of our flock. So get out of our face when we make observations on the Prophet Frank. We don’t claim to have the truth, but we do that since the Apostles it has been faithfully passed down, even when those doing it were idiots. Like I said I can be an ass and proved it here. You want to play in the big leagues you got to do better than that.

Padre David: Studied? Perhaps too much, if there is such a thing. Gone outside the community? As Steve said, we serve all kinds, all those created in His image–regardless of where they are in there faith at the moment or in the future. And yes, loving those who don’t yet have a clue; as God loves us. Peace.

Padre Steve: David, God’s humble and wonderful servant, you are just so much nicer than me. I just have such hard time not acting as an oedipal man of questionable parentage…

Padre David: Thank you for the complement. I think we make a good team. Good Cop/Bad Cop. It is easier to be nice following someone speaking passionately from their heart.

Padre Steve: So I’m just passionate and speaking from the heart and not an arrogant ass of oedipal tendencies and questionable parentage?

Padre David: All of the above are not mutually exclusive 🙂

Later Bertha continued: wow guys all I did was ask questions b/C I am searching for truth, I never said I agreed or disapproved, I read it you made a comment and I ask some questions……….thanks for the “positive” feedback you proved my point. If asking questions makes an ignorant______ then all I can say to you once again is WOW!

And then Bertha added: @ Steven AND you didn’t answer one of my questions you cussed me out like a good “christain” does.

Padre Steve: Bertha, I compliment you for searching. However, you were pretty snarky in response to our comments about the Prophet Frank. I see the little @ in front of my name and I wonder just what you mean and had you simply asked nicely. “Hey I saw your criticism of the Prophet Frank and wonder what’s up with that?” and you might get some answers rather than sarcasm. Chalk my snarkyness up to seeing lots of people getting deceived by guys like this as well as the reaction to your sarcasm with the accusatory nature of your questions and the WOW! at the end. Read your questions and see if someone hit you that way what you would think. BTW Padre David and the both have advanced degrees requiring years of study in theology and ministry. We have also been dealing with life and death in the practice of ministry to God’s people, be they Christians, Jews, Moslems, Wiccans or even Dodgers fans for in my case about 20 years. By the way I didn’t “cuss you out” I gave an observation of how you sounded. I probably should have said “you sound like an ignorant idiot” less personal that way. Your sarcasm about me cussing you out like a “good Christian” a claim which I make no claim to be is also kind of snarky. If you want to ask nicely what I believe I will reply in kind. You attacked Padre David more than me as he pointed out something absolutely essential to the Christian faith. The Prophet Frank will make you feel good. Guys like Padre David and me will make you think and maybe just possibly help you in your journey, which I hope you find what you are looking for. So as they said when I was your age, Peace….

Bertha: LoL giving me your resume still doesn’t answer my questions but peace to you to Steven and Padre David.

Padre Steve: Bertha, Here’s the deal. I really am trying to figure out what you are seeking. Here’s why. I saw that you liked the link about the Prophet Frank. My criticism has nothing to do with you liking or disliking what he wrote. My point is that the Prophet Frank in the things he is writing is talking a lot about Jesus by interpreting the Gospel through a very narrow personal experiential hermeneutic (hermeneutic is the interpretation of Scripture.) When you do what he does you end up with a faith more reflective of you than Jesus. The Christian life and theology is done in community and takes place over 2000 years of the church…which does not need to be “re-imagined.” The Prophet Frank uses the humanness of the people of God against them. Now how do I know this. The Gospel is “Incarnational” because far from shunning humanity Jesus took on human flesh, to live and die as one of us to reconcile the world to God. Fully God and fully human Jesus through his incarnation, life death and resurrection reconciled God to humanity. We know this through the Canon of Scripture in the Old and New Testaments. Second we understand through the teaching of the Apostles and their successors. Third we understand through the lived out faith of the church in the Ecumenical Councils and Creeds, the faith of the Martyrs and all who served Christ in the Church. We know it through the frailty and sometimes the ugliness of God’s people who live in a world in need of God’s love. How do you find this? You study the Bible in the community of the faithful, you read the early Church fathers, you find out what the Church actually believed back within the first couple of hundred years of it being birthed and through the richness of the Creeds and the lives of God’s people, sometimes referred to as the Saints. So how do I know what I know? First through the witness of people who were willing to challenge me and help deepen my faith. Second and more importantly nothing I believe is something that I re-invented or imagined. It is the testimony of the 2000 years of Christianity as well as the people of
Israel. It is also enriched by the experience and faith of those who are not Christians. Some of my most profound experiences include spending time dialoguing with Iraqi and Jordanian military officers about what our faiths have in common without trying to prove who was right. The problem with the Prophet Frank and others like him as they are doing this in isolation without any depth of theological, philosophical or historical training that allows them to do this in real community which in effect just makes it their opinion based on a very limited experience and understanding of the faith which ultimately falls apart leaving their followers disappointed. I hope this is some answer to your questions. When I act like an ass to make a point it is always for a reason. Thus I encourage your journey and do hope that you will find what you are looking for. Please feel free to contact me or Padre David any time. Peace, Steve+

So all that being in the mix I was a bit of an ass, but it was a nice break from the present reality, with of course the exception of baseball which the Phillies as I mentioned made gravel out of the Rockies with Cliff Lee pitching a complete game as the Phillies who won the game 5-1 and the Yankees dominating the Twins at the new Yankee Stadium.

So anyway, I have seen my share of tripe peddled by folks who claim to be prophets. Real prophets don’t need to tell everyone that they are prophets. People know it because they tell the truth, especially when it won’t earn them a buck, and real prophets tend not to be popular because they dig at us. Likewise real prophets try to keep the message central and not them. Thus when I see someone posits (God I like that word) to be a prophetic voice I get a tad suspicious and actually take a little time to read what the guy is saying. It’s my view that those who think they are prophets are playing with fire and often destroying the lives of God’s people who wait for what God is saying through them rather than seeking it themselves or taking stock of 2000 years of the Christian faith. It is people like Bertha who pay the price in the long run. The Tripe salesmen, often claiming to have a “new revelation” or special knowledge that runs contrary to 2000 years of Christian teaching prey open people like Bertha and I have hit the point in life where I will throw the bull pucky flag when I see it. I refuse to buy tripe especially by those who prey upon God’s people, especially those like Bertha who are seeking God, faith and answers.

As for me I understand that Christians and the Church exist in a world where we have faith but seek understanding, which for me is found in the Scriptures, Sacred Tradition and Reason.

Well this has been interesting, the Los Angeles and St Louis are in the 7^th inning so I shall end here.

Peace, Padre Steve+

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Tagged as boston red sox, christian orthodoxy, colorado rockies, creeds and councils, early church, ecumenial councils, faith seeking understanding, los angeles dodgers, new york yankees, philadelphia phillies, re-imagining the church, religious tripe, social networking sites, st louis cardinals

October 6, 2009 · 22:50

How Padre Steve’s Teams did in 2009 and What a Game…Twins Win in 12

1972 Oak Park AL Rams The 1972 Oak Park Little League Rams, American League Champs, Padre Steve’s One and Only Trip to the Post Season

Well, I gave my divisional playoff picks last night and as I start this post the Twinkies and Pussy Cats are going to the 12^th inning tied at 5. As I said last night I hope the game goes as long as the Braves-Astros NLDS game that went 18 innings back in 2004. While I’m waiting and watching to see who wins I need a bit of a review to see how my teams in the major and minor teams do this year?

Well…let me change the order of things here, the Twins just won the game actually fulfilling my prediction. It was one of the best baseball games that I have watched in a long time. Jim Leyland and Ron Gardenier both did a great job of managing and both teams played really hard. There were some amazing plays and the Twins pitchers came up big when they needed to in difficult situations often aided by outstanding defense including a play at the plate with the bases loaded with one out in the top of the 12^th. It ended with one out in the bottom of the 12^th when Alexei Casilla singled to right off Tigers closer Fernando Rodney to drive in Carlos Gomez. As I predicted the Twins had the advantage of the 10^th man in the Metro Dome. To win the AL Central they won 17 of their last 21 games and overcame a 7 game Tigers lead. Even more amazing they came back from 3 three game deficit with only four games left in the season to force the playoff against the Tigers. When they did that I knew that they would win tonight. There are some things in baseball that you can feel and no matter how many times the Tigers took the lead I knew that it wouldn’t last. On a side note, Twins reliever Bobby Keppel got the win. Keppel pitched here in Norfolk when the Mets were the Tides major league affiliate. It was good to see one of the Tides come through in the clutch to deliver the win. What a game, I hope every playoff series is this exciting.

As anyone who knows me can tell you I love the game of baseball. So unlike most people who live and die with one team I can honestly say that I have a number of favorite teams, often for different reasons but always because I like something about them. This doesn’t mean that they are all winners as is evidenced by some of the records this season, or maybe the past few seasons. Likewise it means I get conflicted sometimes when two of my favorites play one another.

Of course my favorite team is the San Francisco Giants. They came out west the year before I was born across the Bay in Oakland. I cannot forget all the greats who have played there and how close they have come to winning the World Series but not doing so. Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichel, Bobby Bonds, Gaylord Perry and the list can just keep going. I saw my one no-hitter back in 1975 at Candlestick when Ed Halicki no-hit the Mets. I won’t forget watching the 1989 World Series when the Bay Area was rocked by a major earthquake or when I saw Barry Bonds hit 756 when sitting in a Army Dining Facility eating breakfast at Camp Victory in Baghdad.

I also have liked the A’s, well I was born in Oakland and even though my dad hated Charlie Finely and never was a fan of the American League I enjoyed the freewheeling A’s of the 1970s, the teams fielded by Tony LaRussa and Billy Ball. We saw a couple of games in the A’s and Tigers Championship series. It is really amazing to think that back then you could get field level tickets for a decent price on game day. There is some tension here because I have a soft spot for the Anaheim Angels who happened to be the California Angels when my dad took us to a huge number of games at the “Big A” before Disney redid everything. I really came to love the feel of a ballpark in the confines of the “Big A.” I still have a Angels hat signed by a number of the players from that era including Jim Fregosi, Sandy Alomar, Jim Spencer and Chico Ruiz. I have pictures of my brother and I with Angles Manager Left Phillips and 3^rd Base Coach Rocky Bridges. Back in those days’ players and managers still had interesting nicknames like Lefty, Rocky, Catfish and Mudcat.

I also liked the Orioles because when we moved to Stockton California they were affiliated with the Stockton Ports of the California League. I had an Orioles cap that I got there for many years afterward. I visited Orioles Park back in 2004 and fell in love with the place. When the Orioles affiliated with the Tides in 2007 I renewed that affection for the O’s even though they have not been very good the past few years. This year was great to see a number of Tides go up to the majors and do well.

In 2003 I came to follow the Atlanta Braves after seeing their AA and AAA affiliates on a regular basis beginning when I saw the AA affiliate when they played Jacksonville in the Southern League and the Richmond, now the Gwinnett Braves play Norfolk in the International League. In 2004 when they had the year of the “baby Braves” I had seen all play in the minors that same season.

So how did my teams do?

San Francisco finished 3^rd in the NL West despite having an 88-74 .546 record. The Braves had a very similar situation finishing at 86-76 .531 behind the Marlins and Phillies. Both teams were in contention for the NL Wild Card until the last week of the season. They had the 6^th and 7^th best records in the National League.

My American League Teams did not do well with the exception of the Angels. The Orioles had a bad season topped by a dismal September. They were able to pull off a 4 game win streak to end the season and keep from losing 100 games. They finished 64-98 .395 and 39 games out of first place. They have some positives to build on as they had a very young and fluid roster. I expect them to be significantly better next year. The A’s also had a bad year, not as bad as the O’s but bad. They finish last in the AL West at 75-87 for a .463 winning percentage 22 games behind the Angels. The Angels though won the AL West with a 97-65 .599 winning percentage. They had the second best record in the American League.

That is why there is always next year. Besides I still have the game and this post season could be a great one if tonight was any indication. I’m sorry but the battles on the gridiron cannot compare to the drama that happens on the diamond. That is why I belong to the Church of Baseball, Harbor Park Parish and this is my view from 102.

Peace,

Padre Steve+

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October 5, 2009 · 23:00

Padre Steve’s MLB Divisional Playoff Picks

steve on top of the rock Looking Forward to the Playoffs

Well sports fans it is October and with the exception of the 163d game in the AL Central between the Twinkies and the Pussy Cats we are ready for the playoffs to begin. Tomorrow’s one game playoff in the soon to be history Hubert H Humphrey Metrosexual Dome should be a pretty good game that hopefully will go longer than the 2005 NL Divisional series game between the Braves and Astros that lasted 18 inning. If it goes that long the winner will be the Yankees. Wait, that’s when they play whoever wins between the Twins and the Tigers. My guess on this is that the Twins take them down hard in the inhospitable confines of the Metro Dome and go on to the playoffs where they will lose to the Yankees in 4.

With that in mind let’s take a look at the divisional series. First the National League:

Cardinals vs. Dodgers: Cardinals in 4

The Evil LA Dodger’s (95-67) have the best record in the National League backed into the playoffs after starting like they owned the world. Manny has been cold as a Boston night and the starting pitching has been suspect. I like St Joe Torre but I don’t think that the Evil Dodgers have the Schlitz this year. They will be playing the St Louis Cardinals (91-71) skippered by St Anthony La Russa who have some awesome hitting with Matt Halliday and Albert Pujols. The Cards are stacked with great pitching and I think that they will take the Dodgers in 4. Now to be fair under St Thomas of Lasorda the Dodgers pulled off some pretty amazing playoff wins, however I don’t think this is the year for that. If it happens I owe my nephew Joe the Dodgers fan dinner next time I’m in San Diego.

Phillies v. Rockies: Phillies in 5

The Rockies (92-70) had an amazing season, going from worst to almost first in the National League West and taking the Wild Card berth. Everything has been working for them and Manager Jim Tracy is attempting to become St James of Denver. They could potentially win this series but I am going to go with the Phillies (93-69) because I like their offense. When the series moves to Coors Light Field I think that Ryan Howard’s wrecking crew’s bats light up the cool Rocky Mountain High nights when they get out there. The Phillies pitching has not been as good in the past few weeks and closer Brad Lidge is seeking redemption after a miserable season which followed last year’s phenomenal performance. As for the Rockies I think that Cinderella departs from the ball early.

The American League looks like a whole lot of the same with the exception of the Central. What I would do to see the Orioles and the A’s back in the series like in the 1970s and 1980s. The teams in the American League playoffs, at least the ones currently in and not the Central Division Champs regardless of who that is, are outstanding teams all with a decent shot of advancing to the ALCS. First I’ll look out to Anaheim.

Angels vs. Red Sox: Angels in 5

Most experts are picking the Red Sox to once again knock the Angels out in the first round. The “Wild Card” Red Sox (95-67) have owned the Angels every year in recent memory that they have matched up in the ALDS. However that being said this year’s team is not the Red Sox we have known the past few years. They still have a lot of good players but they are showing signs of age and just don’t seem to have the same ability they did in past years despite their great record. They were eaten up by the Yankees in their last two series with them and took a while to secure the Wild Card. The Angels (97-65) played in a weaker division but still have done very well. Unfortunately with the exception of 2002 they have regularly choked in the playoffs. This year there seems to be something different about the Halo’s and I think it is related to the commitment of the team and dedication of the season to rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart who was killed by a drunk driver after pitching his first Major League start. I think it will be a tight series but the Angles end the Red Sox dominance of this series. I go Angels in 5.

Yankees vs. Central Division Champs: Yankees in 4 (Twins) or 3 (Tigers)

The Yankees (103-59) are my odds on pick to win it all. This team is deep at every level and playing with an attitude after missing the playoffs for the first time since 1995. They will face either the Twins or the Tigers either of which will be 87-76 when they win Tuesday night. The Twins are the hotter of the two teams and their playoff run has been outstanding but helped by the ineptitude of the Tigers. However I do not think that either does well against the Yankees who seem to be healthy and hitting on all cylinders. Yankee haters may not like it but the Yankees are a solid team and a middle relief corps that is home grown and not bought. I think the Twins might steal one game but expect that the Tigers should they win Tuesday will go down faster than Apollo Creed in Rocky 4.

So we’ll see how I do as compared to guys who make a living at this.

Odds and Ends

A couple of notes on the personal side my job focus is shifting more to our Pastoral Care Residency program and out of the ICU. I will be functioning in some manner like an attending pnhysician for our residents on all of their wards. Likewise I will be working more on training for the entire department and more work with the ethics committee and the Special Psychiatric Response Intervention Team (SPRINT). I will be moving my office back to the main pastoral care department offices this week. I still have the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

I started the preparations for my comprehensive exams for my Military History Masters at American Military University. It is an eight week course which is finished off with the actual exam. I want to finish with the highest marks on the exam “Passed with Distinction” to cap my perfect record in my classes.

I had the undead tooth show its ugly face again. Well not the tooth itself, it is dead but it still haunts me. I was notified on Friday that I was on what we call a “Dink” list for Dental. This is not good, the Naval Dental Corps is like the Gestapo in tracking down Sailors and Marines who miss appointments or regular screenings. When you get “dink’d” you are skylined, an open target with you name hanging out for the command to see. You don’t want to be a “dink.” Those who have been reading this website since the summer know all about The Undead Tooth of Terror. See my post Killing off the Undead Tooth of Terror https://padresteve.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/killing-off-the-undead-tooth/

As a result of the Undead Tooth of Terror I spent much of the summer in the Dental Department or with the Oral Surgeons who I get to see again tomorrow. I was told that I needed to take care of the problem with personnel. After several perplexed looks by disbelieving personnel specialists I was directed to a back office and the young corpsman there looked me up and was able to tell me that I was “dink’d” but couldn’t say why. So I went to Dental after another meeting where a young corpsman and I think that they are all young assisted me. He told me that the computer said that I was delinquent on a root canal. Well, not only had I had the root canal, but when it failed I lost the tooth as well. Informing the polite young man that said tooth was no longer in my head he looked for an explanation. When I mentioned that I was being evaluated for an implant he told me that he would be right back. He came back quickly with my record which had never been returned to records and was sitting on the Oral Surgeon’s desk. He removed the “dink” from my records and the world is right again.

Tomorrow I have a couple of ideas as I have been working on an article about the first US Navy Aircraft Carriers, one on the Congregation of the Church of Baseball at Harbor Park and some reflections on the 2009 baseball season.

Peace,

Padre Steve+

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Tagged as 2005 nlds, albert pujols, alds, american military university, anaheim angels, baltimore Orioles, boston red sox, brad lidge, braves and astros game 4, colorado rockies, coors field, detroit tigers, dink list, hubert humphrey metro dome, icu, jim tracy, joe torre, los angeles dodgers, matt halliday, minnesota twins, mlb divisional playoffs, new york yankees, nlds, oakland athletics, pastoral care residency, philadelphia phillies, picu, ryan howard, sprint team, st louis cardinals, tommy lasorda, tony larussa, undead tooth of terror

October 4, 2009 · 23:51

This is Nuts…The “Conservative Bible Project”

left wingers I Guess Bible Translations Fit Here Too, Maybe the Conservative Bible Project will make Him Happy

I ran across this initially on Blogger Polycarp’s site and initially thought that it had to be some kind of joke as it sounds like something that one might read in “The Onion.” Unfortunately it is part of the conservapedia.com movement which was founded by Andrew Schlafly, the son of Phyllis “I won’t censure my associates who suggest a violent revolution” Schlafly. I found the whole thing amazing as I would have never looked to seek to “translate” and interpret the Bible through a political and economic hermeneutic than a theological one. But this is what the folks at the Conservative Bible Project have done. What they have written is simply so rich in contradiction, irony and mixed with enough hubris and heresy to make it almost as fun as the New World Translation. If they weren’t serious.

Admittedly the bias of any team of translators shows in any Bible translation, it cannot be helped. Translators are human and their theological and preferences can be seen in the translation of passages in which they may differ with other camps. This does not mean at all that any of these folks are being dishonest but rather they are seeking to best interpret the words of Scripture but are guided influenced by their theology and underlying hermeneutic. Likewise there can be differences due to the translators attempting to communicate the idea and meaning versus trying to make a close word for word translation. However these translations, excepting the Jehovah’s Witless New World Translation, actually can claim that their translators are attempting to be as forthright as possible in their translation attempt within the limits of their theology and interpretive hermeneutic.

Yet now there is the Conservative Bible Project. This is a brazen attempt to re-write the Bible based on a political and economic basis rather than on any kind of theological principle. The project is shameless as it seeks to re-interpret or exclude passages of Scripture that have been believed as Canonical by the Church since the Canon of Scripture was finalized. If it is bad for “liberals” to take liberties with the Biblical text it is equally wrong for so called “conservatives” to do so. So before I keep ranting, which I would like to I will let the creators of this alleged “translation” speak for themselves. If you don’t believe me the link is here: http://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_Project

Before you read any of the rest of this you need to read the prologue to the Conservapedia site and if you need to check the link is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservapedia

The Introduction to Conservapedia

Conservapedia is an English-language wiki-based Web encyclopedia project written from an Americentric, conservative Christian and predominantly young earth creationist point of view. It was started in 2006 by lawyer and social studies teacher Andy Schlafly, son of conservative activist and Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly.^[3][4] He stated that he founded the project because he felt that Wikipedia had a liberal, anti-Christian, and anti-American bias.^[5]

Conservapedia is one of many conservative and Christian-themed Web sites imitating the format of mainstream sites to provide a right-wing or fundamentalist Christian alternative.^[3][6] The site has been the subject of criticism, both inside and outside of the United States, for bias and inaccuracies.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The following is the article from Conservepedia verbatim. I have made no edits and even included their hyperlinks. I begin with their underlying presupposition which comes from their “notes” section. I had to highlight the last part because it shows the depravity of the thinking of these people:

Why They Are Doing this

The committee in charge of updating the bestselling version, the NIV, is dominated by professors and higher-educated participants who can be expected to be liberal and feminist in outlook. As a result, the revision and replacement of the NIV will be influenced more by political correctness and other liberal distortions than by genuine examination of the oldest manuscripts. As a result of these political influences, it becomes desirable to develop a conservative translation that can serve, at a minimum, as a bulwark against the liberal manipulation of meaning in future versions.
↑ Additional less important guidelines include (1) adherence to a concise and dignifying style, such as use of “who” rather than “that” when referring to people and also use glorifying language for the remarkable achievements and (2) recognizing that Christianity introduced powerful new concepts that even the Greek and Hebrew were inadequate to express, but modern conservative language can express well.

The rest of the article follows:

Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations. There are three sources of errors in conveying biblical meaning:

lack of precision in the original language, such as terms underdeveloped to convey new concepts of Christianity
lack of precision in modern language
translation bias in converting the original language to the modern one.

Of these three sources of errors, the last introduces the largest error, and the biggest component of that error is liberal bias. Large reductions in this error can be attained simply by retranslating the KJV into modern English.^[1]

As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines:^[2]

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, “gender inclusive” language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level^[3]
4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;^[4] defective translations use the word “comrade” three times as often as “volunteer”; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as “word”, “peace”, and “miracle”.
5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as “gamble” rather than “cast lots”;^[5] using modern political terms, such as “register” rather than “enroll” for the census
6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
8. Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word “Lord” rather than “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” or “Lord God.”

Thus, a project has begun among members of Conservapedia to translate the Bible in accordance with these principles. The translated Bible can be found here.

Benefits to participants include:

mastery of the Bible, which is priceless
mastery of the English language, which is valuable
thorough understanding of the differences in Bible translations, particularly the historically important King James Version
benefiting from activity that no public school would ever allow

How long would this project take? There are about 8000 verses in the New Testament. At a careful rate of translating about four verses an hour, it would take one person 2000 hours, or about one year working full time on the project.

Possible Approaches

Here are possible approaches to creating a conservative Bible translation:

identify pro-liberal terms used in existing Bible translations, such as “government”, and suggest more accurate substitutes
identify the omission of liberal terms for vices, such as “gambling”, and identify where they should be used
identify conservative terms that are omitted from existing translations, and propose where they could improve the translation
identify terms that have lost their original meaning, such as “word” in the beginning of the Gospel of John, and suggest replacements, such as “truth”

An existing translation might license its version for improvement by the above approaches, much as several modern translations today are built on prior translations. Alternatively, a more ambitious approach would be to start anew from the best available ancient transcripts.

In stage one, the translation could focus on word improvement and thereby be described as a “conservative word-for-word” translation. If greater freedom in interpretation is then desired, then a “conservative thought-for-thought” version could be generated as a second stage.

Building on the King James Version

In the United States and much of the world, the immensely popular and respected King James Version (KJV) is freely available and in the public domain. It could be used as the baseline for developing a conservative translation without requiring a license or any fees. Where the KJV is known to be deficient due to discovery of more authentic sources, exceptions can be made that use either more modern public domain translations as a baseline, or by using the original Greek or Hebrew.

There are 66 books in the KJV, comprised of 1,189 chapters, 31,102 verses, and 788,280 words.^[6] The project could begin with translation of the New Testament, which is only 27 books, 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, and less than 200,000 words.

Retranslation at rate of 20 verses a day would complete the entire New Testament in about a year. With 5 good retranslators, that would be an average of only 4 verses a day per translator. At a faster rate of 20 verses per day by 5 good translators, the entire New Testament could be retranslated in less than 3 months.

First Example – Liberal Falsehood

The earliest, most authentic manuscripts lack this verse set forth at Luke 23:34:^[7]

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Is this a liberal corruption of the original? This does not appear in any other Gospel, and the simple fact is that some of the persecutors of Jesus did know what they were doing. This quotation is a favorite of liberals but should not appear in a conservative Bible.

Second Example – Dishonestly Shrewd

At Luke 16:8, the NIV describes an enigmatic parable in which the “master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.” But is “shrewdly”, which has connotations of dishonesty, the best term here? Being dishonestly shrewd is not an admirable trait.

The better conservative term, which became available only in 1851, is “resourceful”. The manager was praised for being “resourceful”, which is very different from dishonesty. Yet not even the ESV, which was published in 2001, contains a single use of the term “resourceful” in its entire translation of the Bible.

Third Example – Socialism

Socialistic terminology permeates English translations of the Bible, without justification. This improperly encourages the “social justice” movement among Christians.

For example, the conservative word “volunteer” is mentioned only once in the ESV, yet the socialistic word “comrade” is used three times, “laborer(s)” is used 13 times, “labored” 15 times, and “fellow” (as in “fellow worker”) is used 55 times.

Advantages to a Conservative Bible Online

There are several striking advantages to a conservative approach to translating the Bible online:

participants learn enormously from the process
liberal bias – and lack of authenticity – become easier to recognize and address
by translating online, this utilizes the growing online resources that improve accuracy
supported by conservative principles, the project can be bolder in uprooting and excluding liberal distortions
the project can adapt quickly to future threats from liberals to biblical integrity
access is free and immediate to the growing internet audience, for their benefit
the ensuing debate would flesh out — and stop — the infiltration of churches by liberals pretending to be Christian, much as a vote by legislators exposes the liberals
this would bring the Bible to a new audience of political types, for their benefit; Bible courses in college Politics Departments would be welcome
this would debunk the pervasive and hurtful myth that Jesus would be a political liberal today

References

↑ The committee in charge of updating the bestselling version, the NIV, is dominated by professors and higher-educated participants who can be expected to be liberal and feminist in outlook. As a result, the revision and replacement of the NIV will be influenced more by political correctness and other liberal distortions than by genuine examination of the oldest manuscripts. As a result of these political influences, it becomes desirable to develop a conservative translation that can serve, at a minimum, as a bulwark against the liberal manipulation of meaning in future versions.
↑ Additional less important guidelines include (1) adherence to a concise and dignifying style, such as use of “who” rather than “that” when referring to people and also use glorifying language for the remarkable achievements and (2) recognizing that Christianity introduced powerful new concepts that even the Greek and Hebrew were inadequate to express, but modern conservative language can express well.
↑ The NIV has supplanted the KJV in popularity.
↑ For example, in 1611 the conservative concept of “accountability” had not yet developed, and the King James Version does not use “accountable to God” in translating Romans 3:19; good modern translations do.
↑ For example, the English Standard Version (2001) does not use the word “gamble” anywhere in translating numerous references to the concept in the Bible.
↑ http://www.biblebelievers.com/believers-org/kjv-stats.html
↑ Quoted here from the NIV.

Wow! That was a lot of fun huh? The fun continues sports fans, here are the guidelines that they list for their project are below and the link is here, again I make no edits: http://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible

The Conservative Bible is the product of the Conservative Bible Project. This is uniquely built on two bedrock principles:

online translating using the collaborative wiki software improves the final result if guided by good rules
the rules guiding this translation are to use and be informed by conservative insights and terminology

To the best of our knowledge, this project is the first to utilize either of the above principles in translating the Bible.

Here lists the 66 books of the Holy Bible to be translated in this project, with the ones having links already being works-in-progress:^[1]

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

You have been warned.

And yet there’s more

Sorry that part was so good I had to highlight it. In light of what you see next you have to love the quotation out of Revelation that they use in the passage above. I love irony, that’s why some of my clothes go to the cleaners and the rest are permanent press. I think they’ll need to get some plague insurance and maybe even get their tickets ready for their all expense paid trip the Lake of Fire Resort and Eternal Time Share. Just so you can read a few of their “translations” in John’s Gospel I have pasted them here. If you need to see them the link is here: http://conservapedia.com/John_1-7_%28Translated%29

In the beginning was Truth, and the Truth was with God, and the Truth was God. (John 1:1)

And the spirit was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only child of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

And from Mark: http://conservapedia.com/Gospel_of_Mark_%28Translated%29

“I have baptized you with water, but He shall baptize you with the Divine Guide.” (Mark 1:8)

The intellectuals watched Jesus to see if he might catch and accuse him of healing on the Sabbath. (Mark 3:2)

The intellectuals then fled from the scene to plot with Herod’s people against Jesus, and plan how they might destroy him. (Mark 3:6)

Final thoughts

So just a cursory examination shows that though they are serious that this cannot be taken seriously as a real translation, but it should if it ever comes to fruition be condemned. Liberal or Conservative this kind of behavior is repugnant….I wonder what Pugs have to do with it anyway, but this is dangerous stuff and a paradigm shift in how some Conservatives who could always be counted on to have a high view of Scripture do violence to the text for the sake of buttressing an American centric ultra conservative political and economic ideology. This shows incredible hubris on the part of these guys first to make these assumptions and then to recommend removal of parts of the Bible that they deem objectionable because the verse is only in one Gospel. Likewise the use of “powerful conservative words” is only understood by their definition of such terms found here: http://conservapedia.com/Essay:Best_New_Conservative_Terms

Putting it kindly these guys are hacks that are so fearful of anything that they don’t agree with that they have to redo the Bible to make it fit their beliefs. I’m sure that they are well meaning, well at least some of them, but still these guys are nutty as fruit cakes to play this game. I do think it is funny that they rename the Pharisees as “the Intellectuals.” That is rich. Likewise referring to the Logos as the Truth is really taking liberties as are the “Spirit being made flesh” sounds a little heretical to me, as does calling the Holy Spirit the “Divine Guide.” That actually sounds a little “new age” to me.

At the same time if these guys were not deadly serious it would be funny as hell. As I initially noted when I first read about it I thought it had to be some sick joke put out by a satire publication like the Onion. I had some conversations with Polycarp and some of the other guys commenting on his site and find this simply amazing. The link to his article and the comments is here: http://thechurchofjesuschrist.us/2009/10/get-the-liberal-stuff-out-of-our-bible/

Anyway, the topic did energize me just because of its malignancy as well as the fun I had with it. As you guys know I’m pretty much a want everyone to get along kind of middle of the Road Anglo-Catholic who happened to graduate from a pretty solid Southern Baptist Seminary. That means that for Andy Schlafly and his bunch I’m definitely on the Highway to Hell so I’d better change my default ring-tone on my cell phone to it just to remind me of where they have me going every time someone calls me.

Peace Baby and Rock on,

Padre Steve+

molly and daddy Molly Looking over My Shoulder to defend me if Needed

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Filed under Political Commentary, purely humorous, Religion

Tagged as andrew schlafly, anti-american bias, anti-christian bias, bible, biblical interpretation, conservapedia, conservative bible project, conservative principles, gospel of john, gospel of mark, hermenuetics, holy spirit, king james version, liberal, liberal bias, living bible, new international version, New World Translation, niv, phyllis schlafly, socialism, wikipedia

October 3, 2009 · 11:33

Quick Thoughts and Thank You’s

steve on top of the rock

Milestone Birthday

Well friends, today is going to be a busy day as I get ready for the final part of the Abbesses’ milestone birthday celebration. Tonight we are having friends over to celebrate and it should be nice. Only problem is that I have to do some more housecleaning and then go get all the food. My original plan for food fell through when Primo Pizza began their move to a new location a couple miles away and are not available this weekend as they get the new restaurant set up. I’m on “Plan B” which simply means finding food in sufficient quantity and quality for the event. Good thing that I plan ahead right?

The Pig Flu aka H1N1 is No Joke

Despite what many naysayers are saying the H1N1 is no joke. I know one patient in our hospital who contracted it and died. Likewise I know of a hospital chaplain in our area who sings in the same choir as the Abbess who has it and a really good friends’ daughter is currently in hospital after having contracted it and getting pneumonia. While this may not be like the 1918 outbreak it still has potential to cause a lot of problems and maybe kill a lot of people. I remember the 1968 outbreak, I was the only one in my family not sick. That outbreak was quite severe. Unlike the naysayers and critics of preparation I find the fact that health care workers and others refusing immunizations to be idiotic. In the 1976 outbreak in Toronto one half of the deaths were health care workers. When H5N1 the Avian flu hit China it caused significant causalities to health care workers to include some of the top Pulmonary specialists in the country who wanted to be in the front lines treating the outbreak. My old Commanding Officer at 3rd Battalion 8th Marines had what he called a “You might be a Dumb Ass if” list which was kind of like Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a Red Neck if” list. I think that not getting immunized, especially if you are a health care worker makes the list. So “You might be a Dumb Ass if you are a Health Care worker who refuses to get immunized against something that has the potential to kill you or make you very sick.” ‘Nuff siad.

Baseball

The Orioles are keeping Manager Dave Trembley for next year. I have made a number of posts here and my other sites that I said that I thought that he should go. After hearing the interview of him after the Orioles drubbing of the Blue Jays last night I do think that it is the right move. My single argument against him was that he was too nice. He made the comment that next year he “will drop the hammer” more often and not simply be the nice guy teacher. I do expect that the young talent on the team will respond to this and that with some good off season acquisitions that the O’s will have a lot better year next year. I’ll do more on this later.

Thank You

I want to thank all of my readers for your response to this blog. For those who began with me and those who have become regular readers you know that this is part therapy for my PTSD as well as a place that I can actually wrap my brain around a lot of things that interest me. Likewise I have made sure on occasion that some of my posts have irritated those on both sides of the ideological spectrum. This has occasionally made my life interesting as a few folks have insinuated that I am not a Christian or that I am a traitor to the country because I do not swallow their party line. I have made sure not to delete those comments.

However, many of my readers have known me for years, and somehow still like me, I am as I say on my “about” page all about friendship and when it comes to friendship religion, politics and Dodger fans I can still be friends with those that I may differ with. That is part of the joy and richness of living for me. My friends are a diverse group of people who I probably could not have together in the same place without it looking like a recent “town-hall” meeting.

I have many new readers as well, a large number who have found me through Alphainventions.com a very good referral site to get your blog seen in real time. I have had a number of sites now link me to their site because they first saw me on Alpha Inventions. Most recent was Mark Dowe whose “Journal from Scotland” is very interesting and the USS Houston site which has linked to me.

To all my readers I thank you for reading and your comments. If there is a subject that you would like to see me write about sometime let me know, I might just take you up on it.

I do plan on continuing my “Going to War” Series as well as writing about my life with and recovery efforts for my PTSD. Likewise I will always be giving my “View from 102” on Baseball and other sports subjects, military history, faith in the public square and all the other stuff on my subjects list.

Most of all I thank you for reading, thank you for your kind words, thoughts and prayers and for occasionally challenging me with good questions. Likewise thanks to those who question my salvation, patriotism or parentage, you all enrich my life.

As always keep me in your prayers, especially for my dad and his Alzheimer’s disease, those that I work with as we deal with life and death every day, those afflicted with the wounds of war both physical, psychological and spiritual and those who serve in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world in harms way.

Blessings to you all!

Peace,

Padre Steve+

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Tagged as 1968 swine flu, abby normal abbess, alpha inventions, alzheimer's disease, avian flu, baltimore Orioles, birthdays, dave trembley, going to war, h1n1, jeff foxworthy, mark dowe journal from scotland, PTSD, swine flu, thank you's, uss houston, view from 102, you might be a dumb ass if

October 2, 2009 · 23:09

Going to War: Building Blocks for Success at TQ

Note: This is the latest chapter of my “Going to War” series which documents my deployment with RP2 Nelson Lebron to serve as the Religious Support Team for all advisors in Al Anbar Province. Previous posts of this series are located in the “Tour in Iraq” link in the topics section on the left hand column of the website. If you have friends or family who are serving in Iraq or Afghanistan and a little bit of an idea of what they might be experiencing or might have experienced feel free to read and share. Peace and Blessings, Steve+

TQ: The Chow Hall is on the Right

It was about 0400 when I got to sleep after our flight to TQ. About 0900 I woke up with the sun shining through the small holes in the metal shade over the window of my can. I was still pretty groggy when I got up, went and got another shower just to try to wake up. Even at 0900 it was close to 100 degrees and the sun beat down on me as I walked the 100-150 yards to the shower trailers in my PT gear. After waking up and getting myself together I knocked on Nelson’s door and woke him up. Nelson looked pretty beat as well and after this I walked over to the only non-military food outlet the “Green Beans Coffee” trailer and got me some coffee before I walked over to the Chapel. The Green Bean is interesting; a couple of guys from California started with one store in Saudi Arabia and now is located around the world with U.S. Forces. They have a program to buy a cup of Joe for a Joe.” The company website is here: http://www.greenbeanscoffee.com/ now I have to admit I never got a free cup but it was good coffee.

I kind of surveyed the area. My “can” was located not far from the chapel, the gym and MWR facilities. A bit down the way a hundred and fifty yards or so was the Marine Corps exchange which though not bad was often like shopping in East Germany, long lines and limited quantities of merchandise. If you needed something and waited to buy it there was a strong likelihood that the exchange would not have it on your next trip. About 400 years past the exchange was the main chow hall which was pretty large and covered with a canopy designed to cause high explosive shells from rockets or mortars to burst before they could penetrate the roof of the actual facility. The chow hall was staffed by contractors, mostly workers from the Indian subcontinent of Sri Lanka and like other areas inside the perimeter guarded by a contracted Ugandan security force.

I walked over to the Chapel and was met by RP1 who introduced me to Fr Jose Bautista Rojas, the Group Catholic Chaplain and the Apostle of TQ. Jose and I instantly hit it off. He is out of Los Angeles and really has a good way with people. On his first tour and first deployment he was having a huge impact around the base. His support and prayers would be greatly appreciated by me and by Judy in the coming months. Not long afterward, Chaplain Pat McLaughlin came in after a meeting. Pat was a fairly newly promoted Commander who was the 2^nd Marine Logistics Group Chaplain and was on his second one year tour in Iraq. He had previously served as the Chaplain at Camp David. He immediately gave us his full support and put his staff to work helping us get settled and to link us up with all the support staff that we would need to conduct operations. Without this our tour would have never have had the success that we had.

05_Flatbed_1 - NOVEMBER Southwest Asia Huts or SWA Huts at TQ I stayed in one of these at the end of my tour

TQ was a major air and logistics hub perfectly suited to operate from to support advisers around the entirety of the province. We had access to rotor and fixed wing aviation assets, excellent telephone and internet, secure and non-secure access, a place to call home and excellent support. This is critical when you are operating independently and supporting multiple organizations. Other Army Chaplain teams had gone into areas where they were given little or no support by the Army teams that they supported. Unfortunately from a chaplain perspective the talk that I heard had more to do with the Army Chaplains than the units that they supported. Part of the problem was that most of the Army teams were reservists with minimal training or preparation for a mission type that they were never taught about in chaplain School. I know of a Navy Chaplain with Marine experience who had no significant problems when he was placed with an Army division level team in Mosel. There were probably a number of reasons for this, and to be charitable I will chalk it up to lack of experience, but lack of support was something that we never had to face.

Lebron, Bautista, McLaughlin, Dundas 2 A Great Team: Nelson, Jose, Pat and Me…Pat and Jose helped us tremendously

Within days we had our “operations center” set up in an office in the back of the Plywood Parish chapel. The office had a somewhat auspicious history having taken a hit by a rocket or mortar earlier in the year, a shot that had also made a mess of the drums and other musical instruments of the chapel praise team. The chapel was kind of a ramshackle affair but had some interesting touches mostly donated by the military personnel to include doors which had been made with care and donated. Part of getting it together was having phone and internet cables run to the office. The communications people made this happen quickly and they also got our elderly computers set up and loaded with all that we would need to operate on the secure and non-secure side the house. I think that we were one of the few ministry teams lower than Regiment or BCT level to have the communications suite that we had been provided. Likewise the G-3 Air section at the MLG headquarters gave us tremendous support and quickly got us the ability to plan and submit our own air mission requests.

The information that Luke Fabiunke had provided me back at Fallujah now became a gold mine to begin operations. It was an amazing amount of information, not all current but the situation with adviser teams was always fluid and subject to change based on operational considerations. There were phone numbers, secure and no secure e-mail contacts for key leaders. Once we had our communications up the communication began with teams across the province and our calendar was rapidly filled. The only “glunk” that we had in this was with the senior adviser for one of the Military Training Teams in our local area. Though his staff and subordinate unit team chiefs were happy for our arrival he for all intents and purposes froze us out of his area. That did not keep me from continuing to build relationships with some of his people which paid dividends later. I think that sometimes some chaplains are intimidated by people who rebuff their honest and well meaning efforts to provide support. I don’t work that way and will constantly work whatever angle I need to in order to get the mission done. In order not to burn bridges I usually use a slow and patient approach to continually work to build relationships with those in charge of the units that I serve. It really is an indirect approach. If I can’t get in one place I put it on the back burner without burning the bridge. I then work with all the other teams that I can and get out among people. As we did this “back doors” to ministry opened with teams where we had been locked out of before as they contacted us to get support. So I did not give up on these local teams but reached out to the furthest reaches of the province with the teams of the 7^th Iraqi Division and the 2^nd Border Brigade with its Border units and Port of Entry teams. The senior advisers of these units, Colonel Cottrell and Lieutenant Colonel Bien gave me absolute freedom to coordinate with their teams and opened doors that were never shut.

As we prepared for our mission the first few days were days of acclimatization to the base and to finally recover from the long road in. One of the first things that we noticed was the pall cast over the mood of the camp by the crash of the Army CH-47 the day of our arrival. The chapel was being rigged by the staff for the memorial service for the five Army aviators, all of who were significantly younger than me. The Army was in charge of the service so except for the set up of the chapel and other miscellaneous administrative support. It is a sobering thing to come into your base of operations and see the set up for five men who died in service of their country. To look at their pictures and to read their biographies was humbling; one was on his last enlistment before retirement others at different points of their careers, all left behind families, friends and their fellow soldiers who did not know if the bird went down to mechanical failure or hostile action. This was in no small way lost on me as we would fly many missions with the men and women of this Army squadron.

Nelson and I worked hard that first day and thereafter to get set up for our first missions. While I worked the big picture parts of the mission he took care of the little thinks that ensured our success. Working with Pat, Jose and RP1 he became a key part of the team whenever we were not traveling.

That evening we went to dinner at the chow hall and took in some PT. Following that I went back to my can where I continued to unpack and make the place somewhere that I could relax. Though still exceptionally tired from the trip I had a difficult time getting to sleep between my own anxiety the din of UH-60 Army Medivac choppers coming in and out of the LZ for the Shock, Surgery and Trauma Platoon. Not able to sleep I walked out of my can where I saw the sky light up to our north near Habbinyah with illumination rounds while outgoing artillery sent rounds somewhere into the night and small arms fire could be heard nearby. A number of Marine and Navy officers gathered near me as we watched the display and talked among ourselves as we wondered what was going on. Eventually I would get to sleep, but it was very late, that night I found the Office of Compline to be of great comfort, especially this collect.

“Be our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.”

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Tagged as 1st iraqi division, 2nd iraqi border brigade, 2nd mlg, 7th iraqi division, advisors, afghanistan, al anbar province, book of common prayer, ch-47, chapel, chaplain Pat McGloghlin, colonel cottrell, compline, dustoff, fallujah, fr jose bautista-rojas, green beans coffee, iraq, ltcol bien, medivac, mwr facilities, nipr, port of entry police, shock surgery trauma platoon, sipr, ta qaddum, tq, training teams, uh-60 blackhawk

Monthly Archives: October 2009

Bring Out the Brooms: Dodgers, Angels, Yankees and Phillies Advance to League Championship Series

Major League…Jake Taylor, Ricky Vaughn and Me…

Unequal Allies: Lessons from The German’s and Their Allies on the Eastern Front for Today

The First Aircraft Carriers Part One: The First American Flattops- Langley, Lexington and Saratoga

How Padre Steve’s Teams did in 2009 and What a Game…Twins Win in 12

Padre Steve’s MLB Divisional Playoff Picks

This is Nuts…The “Conservative Bible Project”

Possible Approaches

Building on the King James Version

First Example – Liberal Falsehood

Second Example – Dishonestly Shrewd

Third Example – Socialism

Advantages to a Conservative Bible Online

References

Quick Thoughts and Thank You’s

Going to War: Building Blocks for Success at TQ

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Possible Approaches

Building on the King James Version

First Example – Liberal Falsehood

Second Example – Dishonestly Shrewd

Third Example – Socialism

Advantages to a Conservative Bible Online

References

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Welcome!

Subscribe to Padre Steve's World

Comment Policy

What’s Hot

Padre Steve's Inglorius Statistics

Recent Articles

The Vault: Padre Steve’s Archives

Categories

Blogs I Follow