Life Review: USN Part IV

Forgive these several posts, but I did serve 12 years!

Assignment to VQ-4 in Pax River, was an educational experience. I ran a lot, visited a LOT of countries throughout the Atlantic Basin, met some super sailors, and gained a lot of useful life experience in only 3 years. We flew our mission every day, keeping an aircraft airborne 24/7/365. In 1976, I think it was, I was deployed for every holiday except groundhog day! We typically flew for about 2 weeks at a time, then were home for almost 3 weeks, repeated until the tour was up!

During our Pax River time, our daughter Kelly was born. What a shock! We had been warned about 9 months exactly before her birth--"don't get too excited if it takes you a long time to bear children, Brenda's ovaries aren't fully mature. We won't talk about fertility drugs until you have tried at least a year!"  Yeah--right!

I earned about 3500 flight hours in a mere 3 years, and trust me, that is a LOT of flight time. I was promoted during this time to Lieutenant, and was a Navigator, Communications Officer, and then a Mission Commander. When at Pax, I was one of the 3 Legal Officers, who dealt with legal problems and the sailors who committed the offenses. Rarely was a flight crewman in trouble, because all our flight crews had very high security clearances.

Finally, my tour wrapped up and I requested NROTC duty in New Mexico. When I got my orders to NROTC...Lexington, VA, I was sorely disappointed. And, to my chagrin, our 3 years in Lexington were some of the BEST in our lives. The town is beautiful, as was the weather, and even more special were the numerous friendships we formed there.  I loved teaching at VMI so much, that at the end of the tour, I wanted to go into Higher Education full time.

During our time in Lexington, I commuted to James Madison Univ. in Harrisonburg, VA where I earned an MSEd in Physical Education/Higher Education. I wanted to do a Masters in Biology, but G^d, fortunately, as I would learn later, blocked every avenue.

To get into Higher Ed. I attended an American Alliance for Health and Physical Education (Now SHAPE) in Nashville, TN looking for a job.  A Ph.D. student from U GA pulled me aside and told me that I didn't have the right degree to teach in Higher Ed. I needed a Ph.D.

But, with a wife and child, how could I go back to school? "UGA will give you and Assistantship!" my new friend replied.

Hmmm, I was now torn. A day or so later, I left Nashville with 6 inches of clean white spring snow covering the ground. I was driving back to Lexington, by myself, and deep in prayer about what to do next.  Should I go to Grad School, stay in the USN, or try to find a job with my MS degree?  As I prayed, the clouds parted and a shaft of sunlight lit up the pure white snow. Grad school at UGA would be the route G^d was directing.

"$6000 per year as a Grad Assistant, here I come!"

Life Review: USN Part III

I know this Navy stuff is running a bit long, but it did consume 12 years of my life! So our ship, DDG-11, the USS Sellers, left the Maldive Islands and entered the Persian Gulf, where we did maneuvers with the Shah's Iranian Navy. We made a port call in Bandar Abbas, Iran, then on to  Bahrain, and I think (it's been over 45 years) Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.

After a month or so around the Gulf, we headed east again, stopping in Karachi, Pakistan. There I bought a coffee table we used for over 30 years and still own. We visited Colombo, Sri Lanka and made a trip up to Kandy. I recall it being a pretty educational trip. From there, we sailed through the Straits of Malacca, and visited Singapore. From there we sailed through the South China seas, passing through the war zone of Vietnam, making our pay Federal Tax-free for that month.  Clever eh?

After about 7 months on the ship, I got off the ship in Honolulu, and arranged to meet Brenda in San Francisco.  Man, was I happy to see her. After a couple of tourism days, we went over to Van Ness Avenue, and bought a 1969 Toyota, which we then drove back across the USA to home in GA.

It was a neat trip with stops in the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon. After a brief respite with our families, we promptly moved to Pensacola, FL for Naval Flight Officer School.

I was HIGHLY motivated for NFO school, because failure would likely mean a return to a surface ship-- NO way! I was blessed to finish #1 in my class, also motivated by a promise of my choice of duty stations. We truly loved Pensacola, so I requested to stay in Training Command.  Wellllllll, my choices were limited ONLY to the fleet. So from Pensacola we got orders to Naval Communications School in Newport, RI and before I finished there, got orders to Naval Justice School also in Newport. I would add that we enjoyed our brief stay in RI and our attendance at an American Baptist Church.  The pastor there, whose name escapes me, is memorable for his comment that most everything in the New Testament is present in the Old Testament, except in simpler form.

From there, it was to the Fleet, namely VQ-4 at Patuxent Naval Air Test Center.  And that will be next.

Life Review: USN Part II

Twelve days after Graduation, I made the excellent move of marrying my love, my sweetheart, Brenda. I was scheduled to go to a ship and wanted to spend a bit of time before "shipping out", so I volunteered to teach sailing that summer at the Academy.  It was great. I captained a 44-foot Luder's Yawl, and sailed around the Chesapeake Bay.

But, all good things must come to an end, and so in Sept, 1972, our ship departed from Charleston Naval Base, bound for Commander MidEast Forces, Bahrain, Bahrain. We made a trip down by Puerto Rico, then down to Recife, BZ, where we fueled up for the long Atlantic crossing to Angola. From Angola we rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and refueled again in Mozambique. Around the southern tip of Africa, we encountered the roughest seas I have ever seen anywhere, and yes I have thrown-up in every ocean of the world, except the Arctic.

We stopped for a port call (prolonged time in port) in Mombasa, Kenya, where we made a little safari into Tsavo Park. from there we went to what was then called, The French Territory of the Afars and Isass, now called Djibouti. From there it was the Seychelles Islands, then Ethiopia, in what is now Eritrea. from there we went to the Maldive Islands where we had a beach party for the ships crew on a very hot, beautiful beach, with NOTHING to drink but beer.  Naturally, there was some misbehavior, that got some sailors in trouble- illustrating the poor leadership of not taking care of our troops.

From the Maldives we went into the Persian Gulf... and we will pick up there next blog.

Life Review: 12 years of my Life - The US Navy Part I

In 1968, at the tender age of 18 I was sworn in to the US Navy. I was a plebe at the US Naval Academy and I was scared spitless, proud, excited, and worried about flunking out. Those first summer weeks were pretty stressful. The idea is, the upper-classmen running Plebe Summer, want to teach you what you will need to know, they want to raise your fitness level, and they want to get you accustomed to working under duress.  And, they suceed.  But they do so, or at least in 1968-1972, but screaming, and putting you through intense physical stress, including a LOT of pushups.

Somehow I figured out, fortunately rather quickly, that you did NOT want to stand out. If you were terrible, you drew extra attention to get you "squared away". If you were outstanding, you drew extra attention to see how outstanding you were under extreme pressure. I endeavored, with some success to be BORINGLY average.  What fun are the middle-of-the-pack folks?  The answer is, not much.

Pretty much every week night, before we went to dinner (we all ate together at the same time), I would set up my academic study materials. Upon returning from dinner, I made it a point NOT to sit down, but to grab my stuff and head off for my special study spot in the Library. Each night of each semester I had ONE study spot, and from about 1900 (7 PM) until 2200 (10 PM), I studied, and did nothing else. That meant that most Saturdays and ALL Sundays, I didn't need to study. I an not sure how I came up with that scheme, perhaps it was G^d-directed, but it worked for me. My plebe year I got a 3.000000000, nothing but "B's" all the way. Boring... but happy.

I started out as a Naval Architect major, solely because that was my roommate's major. Sophomore year, I realized the error of my ways and wanted to switch to Biology. Unfortunately, but now I realize it was indeed fortuitous, USNA did NOT have use for but few Biologists, so that wasn't a major. So, I majored in Oceanography - the closest thing we had to Bio.

In four years, I had my degree, and graduated with distinction, having "kept the Sabbath" the whole time. In retrospect, those 4 years were extremely valuable. The spiritual, academic, military and physical things I learned have served me extremely well ever since. Whether giving a deposition in front of a hostile Harvard attorney, or organizing my self and my schedule to enable me to get a lot done in a short time, those USNA years have paid dividends.

I have a very loose temporomandibular (jaw) joint. I was physically disqualified, BUT G^D worked it out that my brother, Doug (USNA '65) was stationed in Charleston, where the recent USNA chief dental officer had been transferred. G^d used that circumstance, and His provision, to get me there, seen by CPT Frieze, and admitted to USNA.  I was too poor to go anywhere else!

Once again, THANKS be to G^D!

Visits around the World

Poor Reader, keep in mind, that this blog is so Brenda and I, and maybe one day, our kids, can recollect what we have done. recently, on a whim, I compiled a list of the countries I have visited. I define visit as walk around- more than just an airport layover. 

Here's my list as of June 20, 2018: You may want to quit now.

1. Afghanistan,
2. Antigua,
3. Armenia,
4. Azores,
5. Australia,
6. Bahrain,
7. Barbados
8. Bermuda
9. Botswana,
10. Brazil,
11. Canada,
12. Canary Islands,
13. China,
14. Costa Rica,
15. Cuba,
16. Cyprus,
17. Denmark,
18. Djibouti,
19. Ecuador
20. England,
21. Egypt,
22. Ethiopia,
23. Germany,
24. Greece,
25. Guatemala,
26. Haiti,
27. Honduras,
28. Hong Kong,
29. Iceland,
30. Iran,
31. Israel,
32. Italy,
33. Jamaica,
34. Japan,
35. Jordan,
36. Kenya,
37. Malaysia,
38. Maldives,
39. Mexico,
40. Mongolia,
41. Nicaragua,
42. Norway,
43. Pakistan,
44. Panama,
45. Peru,
46. Philippines,
47. Russia,
48. Singapore,
49. South Africa,
50. Scotland,
51. South Korea,
52. Spain,
53. Sri Lanka,
54. Sweden,
55. Switzerland,
56. Taiwan,
57. The Netherlands,
58. Trinidad and Tobago,
59. UAE,
60. USA,
61. Uzebekistan,
62. Venzuela,
63. and Zimbabwe.

Sorry, just wanted to get this down.

Meeting Professor Ist

Last Sunday (17 June) I taught my 3rd and final Sunday School class on my part of the Evangelism class. I was anxious to demonstrate how Questioning Evangelism works. In thinking about this I decided it might be fun and effective to do a bit of role-play with the class coming up with questions.

My dear friend Barry, is a bit of a ham and was the obvious choice to play the role of Professor A. Theo Ist. I asked Barry to do a pseudo-costume, and he showed up with a drawn-on handle-bar mustache, sunglasses and an Ivy cap (top comes down over bill). Upon inquiry we learned that the Prof was:
Professor of Art
Professor at Oxford (upon clarification we learned he was from Oxford, MS, not Oxford University in England
An A-theo-ist.

The class did a great job with starting off with innocuous questions about his Uni., his specialty, etc.

We then used the beauty of nature, and how that came to be. We also broached the issue of suicide, which is the second-leading cause of death in college-aged people. We talked about WHY Anthony Bourdain would commit suicide. We discussed art and how Kate Spade, and artist, could also commit suicide...

We only had about 15 minutes, so we weren't able get Prof. Ist to the point of having to chose, or not, to trust in the Blood of Christ. But hopefully, the class saw how we can use questions to share a person't need for a Savior, why, and how they repent and accept the substitutionary atonement of Jesus.

Think about it.  It's not that hard. Practice a bit with a friend, and see what you can learn.

Suicide isn't Painless

Many years ago, back in the early 70's there was a movie and a t.v. show called M.A.S.H. about a US Army medical team during the Korean War. The theme song of that movie was "Suicide is Painless". The song was catchy, and with no musical ability I still remember some of the words and melody.

"Suicide is painless, it brings so many changes, and I can take or leave it if I please...". But this seems a long way from reality. Suicide in young people is the SECOND leading cause of death, only surpassed by accidents. All statistics suggest that suicide rates are increasing across most demographics.

The recent suicides of two popular figures who had wealth and status beyond most people's dreams has drawn much attention, as they should.

Suicide certainly isn't painless for those left behind. The suicides of young people impacts their parents most, but also siblings and friends. There is plenty of pain.

So, if you ever consider suicide, please communicate that to family, friends, counselors, clergy, somebody, and multiple somebodies. Speak out, get help.  People love you.

Which raises the question of WHY anyone would do this. At least part of the question relates to Hope and Purpose. My favorite atheist philosopher, Bertrand Russell said, "“Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.”  

If life has no purpose, where does that leave hope? If things seem to be going well, great, but if things are going badly, if we are suffering pain, maybe some folks are willing to inflict pain on loved ones, rather than endure the pain of hopelessness arising from purposelessness.

If you are a Christian I encourage you to think about whose life you inhabit. The Christ has purchased your life with His blood. We are NOT our own, we have been "bought with a price" (1 Corinth 6:20). And the price paid for you was a HIGH price indeed.

Think about it.  And get help, if you need it.

Life Review: G^d's Guiding Hand

Sometimes you can see better retrospectively than prospectively.  As I look back I can see G^d's hand clearly in a great many events.  Here are a few:

1) Getting into the US Naval Academy for me worked out only because the former head of the USNA dental office was transferred to Charleston, SC Naval Base, where my older brother (USNA '65) was also stationed.

2) Meeting my dear wife was guided by G^d's hand who brought the two of us to the Canton public library one fateful day in June 1970.

3) Not achieving my youth-long goal of becoming a Biologist kept me from having to fight with folks about my statistical objections to neo-Darwinism.  Thank you L^rd!

4) My time period at the U of AL, I am convinced was orchestrated by G^d. Before I got there, there was minimal research done or rewarded. Then it changed. Now that I have left, the size has gotten a bit unwieldy, and the philosophy has left me behind as a relic of a different approach to grad education.

5) My retirement circumstances worked out ideally to get me retired and on staff with Cru Faculty Commons, of which I am grateful.

These are some big things, and there were countless small things where G^d has directed. I feel like king David, who asked, "Who am I and who is my house that You (G^d) have brought me to this place!"

Amen!

Life Review: What We Don't Know

I am reading a book by Ravi Zacharias titled, "Jesus Among Other Gods". In Chapter 2, he makes some neat points. One is pointing out that Israel was an Eastern culture, that looked at things, naturally in an Eastern way.  For example there, FAMILY, family reputation and status were more important than INDIVIDUAL status- quite different from our viewpoint.

But his second point prompted this post. He points out that the 4 Gospels point out lots of stuff, such as Jesus' genealogy, but is remarkably silent on stuff like his home, details of his occupation, clothing, accent, appearance.  Why is that?  These are all interesting aspects of the most IMPORTANT man to ever walk the earth!

What Scripture does emphasize must be important! And, what is left out... was left out for a REASON!

So, what do we know?  Lots, but here are some high points:
Born of a Virgin,
Humbly born, in Bethlehem (oddly, but importantly), from Nazareth,
No rabbinical education,
Age 12 has astonishing theological knowledge,
At about age 30, he is baptized by John the Baptizer,
At the Christ's Baptism, the Trinity comes together - Father, Son, Holy Spirit (Happens again at Mt of Transfiguration),
He performs many miracles, including reviving the dead,
He trains 12 Disciples, none of which are professional theologians,
During Passover, He is tortured, then unjustly crucified, and buried,
The third day, he rises and appears to LOTS of people, and is touchable, and eats, and
He still changes people today!

So, aside from these vitals, nothing is really missing from the story. This is NOT the way we would do it, if we were writing the story... Ahhh, maybe THAT is the very point!