I Have Become What I Avoided....I Am Them.

     I come from a great heritage of military service.  I have several uncles, my dad, my brother and my little sister who have served or are currently serving.  I also married my 1st Sergeant's daughter as a private.  Yes I live life on the edge.  With this great heritage comes great training and understanding of what is important and what is not important as you serve.  Much of what my father and father-in-law taught me as I grew up in and around the military has stayed with me throughout my almost 30 years of service.

     Such things as it is not about me it is about those who are on the left and right of me.  Junior enlisted and those junior to you eat first.  You take care of your troops and ensure they have what they need then you take care of yourself.

     Most of my thirty years have been served at battalion or lower.  In fact I did not move up to battalion level until I took my commission as an officer and joined the Chaplain Corps.  As a jr. enlisted and young NCO the them was battalion or higher.  When I went to work as at battalion level, for there is no choice as a chaplain that is the lowest level we are assigned to, the them shifted.  In fact the them was not even brigade the them was division.

     In 2004 I deployed to Iraq with Task Force 2-2 Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.  We were stationed in a place called Muqdadiyah, Iraq at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Normandy.  A very large former Iraqi military base that had been looted by villagers in the area.  Our lone battalion was responsible for securing this base which was large enough for a brigade at least.  It needed work and though some was done by the previous unit much was still to be done.

    We did what we could to make this place safe and livable for it was our home away from home for a year.  Though improvements were being done daily if you did not live there you would sometimes have trouble seeing the improvements if you did not stay there long.

     It soon became evident that there was an us and a them.  The them was not the enemy it was division.  We heard often that we were not doing enough to improve the FOB.  We heard  it so much that we created a video to compare how us and them lived.  For the them lived in a palace.  No, literally they lived or at least worked in one of Saddam's palaces.  

    The us not so much.  Many of our buildings had no windows or doors.  Our dining facility had concrete slabs when we arrived for tables and snakes would occasionally drop from the ceiling.  Hot water showers were occasional at best and our power would often go out.  We did improve things in the year we were there because we were not going to live a year with the FOB in that condition but there was still a divide between the us and them. 

     Why do I share this because in the last year I have risen to division level and I am now a part of them.  I like to say I have become what I have avoided for almost 30 years.  I do not think I will ever truly become a them because I am sure that my father and father-in-law would have much to say about that if my wife did not get to me first.  Yet I find myself sometimes feeling a bit guilty in the location I am stationed at in Afghanistan.  The room I have is far removed from the place that I was at almost 10 years ago.  I have indoor plumbing and not a piss tube or a outhouse that the tub has to be removed and the human waste burned while you stir.  There is a bit of guilt because I have seen some of the other bases here in Afghanistan and I know they do not live in the standards that I am enjoying at Kandahar Air Field.

     In a way having the above video is a reminder to me that I may be up with the them but I do well in remembering that there is an us that my responsibility is to serve and not lord over.  The scripture verse comes to mind of John 17:14 - 19 that speaks to being in the world but not of the world.  Just as the disciples were in the world and effected change maybe I can be them in order to effect change not in the way it was done when I was in 2-2 but in a better way.  I guess if I want to impact the Army in the way I want to it is better to be at this level for I impact more.  May I do it in such away that I never lose sight of the us.