I thank you for being with me on this fun day.
Your presence here is important to me. Each of you, my friends, are the people
who struggle with me in service to our country, who fight to sustain the lives and the hope and the dignity of our patients
and who embody for me the esprit de corps of comrades in arms. With a simple
look you know what I am feeling because you have been where I have been. With
a smile, you say more to me than thousands who do not know what it means to sacrifice comfort for freedom. Thank you for taking a few moments to be with me. You are
family to me.
The longer I serve as a minister, the more I recognize
the deep need we humans have for ritual. In times of joy and sadness, elation
and mourning, ritual ties us to the important moments of our lives, and helps us set up mental monuments for our memories
to revisit as we grow older. Today you all are a part of a happy ritual in my
life, and as I list the people who have assisted me along my way, I hope you will call to your mind similar folks who are
your pillars of strength.
I’ve been around the naval service, in one
fashion or another for 20 years, and this is the first promotion ceremony I have had. That is if you don’t count the time in August 1988 when out of the mailbox I pulled my commission
to Marine Corps Captain and smartly swore myself in. Even with that promotion,
it has been 13 years since I received a higher rank. Now, usually such a comment
would mean that my career has been somewhat short of illustrious (which may still prove to be true). However, it has been life’s circumstances and not failures to select which have delayed my promotion.
In 1981 I trundled off to Marine Officer
Candidates School to become
a Marine officer. I won’t at this time go into my pre-OCS understanding
of what exercise was, or how loud screaming could be, or what the “tight” in high and tight really meant. Suffice it to say that there was a great deal of breaking down to do before the Marine
Corps could build me up into what they needed me to be. Along the way, I raised
my right hand and put on some second Lieutenant “butter bars” and served a tour with the Third Marine Aircraft
Wing in Yuma, Arizona. I mention my start because it is full of ritual, which I recall today, and it brings
to mind many people whom I wish to thank for being involved in my life. And that
of course is the purpose of this short speech – to thank the people who have made it necessary for me to get all new
uniform accoutrement.
So here is my list of names. Obviously many of these folks are not here today, but I would like to thank them aloud anyway, for the
ritual’s sake. The list begins with some of the people whose coat-tails
I ridden to success. They are: Mastersergeant Gump, (you may think that a joke
but it is not. My first platoon sergeant when I was an OIC was Ray Gump. He was then Gunney Gump which always seemed to have a better ring to it than Top Gump.)
More recently I am thankful for RP2 Stewart Campbell, RP3 Tammy Moses, RP2 Lama Sualii, HN Dumpit and RP2 Brian Jewell. I
cannot overstate the excellent training I have received from these consummate professionals.
Closer to home I am thankful for my Mom who has
always been with me. She has never left me and always believed in me. I am very aware that I am blessed to have a loving mother. I
also appreciate the men in my life who have been fathers to me in the absence of my biological Dad. Men like my Uncle Bob Wilson and Uncle Lin and especially my Uncle Bob Brett who as a Master Sergeant in
the Army always told me I could do this military thing. Dr. Sydnor, was my Scoutmaster. He modeled excellence and perseverance for me, and then there was Captain Yaddow,
USMC who frequently grabbed me by my “H” harness and threw me around a little.
It was he who insisted that I would not leave the Marine Corps but that I would “ship over.” I’m not sure if that was a threat or a promise. Either
way, here I stand today, still on active duty.
And what can I say of the many people, too numerous
to list who helped me along the way. People who laughed with me in success, who
overlooked my follies, who grimaced when I failed, and forgave me when I sinned. I
pray to God that you are surrounded by such angels.
After the Corps I headed off to seminary to become
a chaplain. I had wanted to be a minister since 10th grade and in
1986, I was continuing that pursuit. It was immediately before seminary, during
seminary and immediately after seminary that our children were born. There’s
nothing like being dirt poor, working three jobs and going to school to give one an appreciation for the finer things in life. Among those things I measure, food on the table, a roof over my head, a car that runs
is a nice to have item, but most importantly a family with whom to share life’s sorrows and joys.
My three children, Matt, Chris and Samantha had
no say regarding the type of family into which they were born. They could not
refuse the question, which I earlier asked their mother when I proposed marriage, “Would she like to be a Second Lieutenant’s
wife?” She could have laughed and walked away, my children could not. They have had to take what they got. You
each know what they got. The same deal your families have received: lots of travel,
no hometown, changing friends and family separations. I pray that our experiences
as family together these past 17 years will prove to make them stronger because they have made me who I am today. As surely as I am “Chaplain, Pastor, LCDR, or Sailor,” I am most assuredly Dad. I hope we will all take the time to thank our children for their molding influence in our lives, even as
I thank you three today for being my treasures. May we continue to grow in friendship
throughout our lives.
After school, we spent years in ministerial residence
before we finally joined the Navy in 1995 and started traveling to the place where we stand today. All along the way I have been carried by one person who all at once is my strength and my vulnerability. She is a large part of who I am. Our
mental health professionals may observe a good deal of co-dependency in my feelings for my wife, but after 18 years of marriage
I readily admit my folly. You cannot see any accomplishment, which is attributed
to me without knowing that Susan is behind its success. In every little church
where I have stood to preach, my wife has stooped to serve, with every military commission I have received my wife has stood
the watch, with every college degree I have attained my wife has paid the bills, for every child I have tossed on my knee
my wife has tossed a thousand diapers, for every glory - she has prayed for my humility, for every heartache - she has prayed
for my peace, for every fear - she has prayed for my courage, and for every doubt - she has prayed for my faith.
There is coming a day, perhaps sooner rather than
later, when my collar devices will be placed for the last time in the jewelry box, when my diplomas are packed forever in
some crate, and when I will be alone with myself and when I must evaluate the man I have become. On that day - and until that day - it is my deepest heartfelt desire that all people know that whatever
little good I have done pales in comparison to the good I received when Susan came into my life.
As I close, I need to remind myself and each of
us here that all good gifts come down from the Father of Light in whom there is no shadow of turning. I have dedicated my life to the truth that God is in all and through all and above all. I am still persuaded of this truth today. So finally, I would
like to lead us in a short prayer that reflects my feelings on this day. I invite
you to join me in a moment of prayer, each of you according to your own tradition
Father, as I move forward from this moment, always remind me that YOU have not called me to wear to
Oak Leaf but to bear the Cross.
I pray in Jesus Name, Amen.
