November 12, 2007
Veteran's Day
I’d never been out of Colorado until I joined the Navy and was sent to Bainbridge, MD for basic training. Upon arrival each new batch of recruits was assigned a Company Aid (CA) who stayed with them for the first week to help them adjust to military life. My CA was a petite, soft spoken blond who, I later learned, was just barely out of basic training herself. The first night as I lay in my bunk for bed check I wondered what I’d gotten myself into. The firm voice of the night watch echoed through the barracks, “Lights out” and the quiet was deafening. I felt like I dare not move, much less whisper to other bunkmates. As the CA was leaving for the night she called out from a distance, “Good night Company 30…God bless you.” And so we were.
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Breaking Training
Gail;
-----There would not have been much blessing if your CA had tried that today! It would cause a stir all around, deep moaning, complaints, and law suits from the left, loud kudos and diatribes from the right. Aside from that risk, the pleasant warmth must have been accentuated by the gravity of the situation. I never was in the military, but from what I have heard, the first objective is to tear down the individual and rebuild her as a soldier, and that the treatment involved is less than warm and fuzzy. I keep wondering if your CA got away with “breaking training” then. Of course, I know she would not have gotten away with it now.
-----In the late 1970’s I thought about joining the Army as a chaplain. I reflect on that often, and I think I should have. I have always been good at organization and discipline in many areas of my life, but I have always kept a couple messy rooms, as well, areas where discipline and organization would not reach. I figure those rooms would have been dealt with in the military, rather than their dealing with me. I would have learned quickly from training what I have learned over the years by trial and error, that it is better to lay yourself into the care of discipline and procedure to move safely forward than it is to toy with ideas as if life were an unattended laboratory. I would have spared myself a few explosions.
-----So I have this picture you have drawn in my head of a ray of warmth within this room of surrendered will. And although I missed what I could have gained had that been a picture from my life, I see the same elements in fear for the Lord. It is our deconstruction before His Word that avails our construction by His mercy. It is our surrender to His care that sets our direction. Within that system, proceeding with discipline and organization cultivates the blessing which your CA pronounced. And it is not too late for me to join that blessing!
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