Thursday, August 27, 2009

Higher-Powered for Service


When MSG McG and I were in Iraq, we had our own Guidon, about which I've written before, and we came up with a motto for our Chaplain Detachment: "Higher-Powered for Service." (To be perfectly honest, I think it was *he* who came up with the phrase....)

I think it works on a lot of levels, actually.

Our call signs, should we ever have needed to be 'on the net' (use the radio to communicate with others), were "Circuit Rider Six" (me) and "Circuit Rider Seven" (MSG McG). (For reasons that aren't clear to me, but I'm sure are common knowledge to probably everyone else in the Army, the Commander of a unit has a call sign of "six" and his NCOIC has a call sign of "seven".)

Chaplains can never be in command, because we're non-combatants, but some Army documents listed me as the "commander" of the 142d Chaplain Detachment, so we went with that.

As I'm here at Summer Camp - North (experiencing an uncomfortable amount of déjà vu concerning my time at Summer Camp - South last year), I'm missing MSG McG and our Guidon and especially the Soldiers we visited in our peripatesis. The Soldiers of my new unit are great, mind you, but I genuinely miss my first real Chaplain Assistant and our adventures Down Range. He just celebrated a birthday, too.

Happy Birthday, MSG McG.

He's definitely "Higher-Powered for Service"!

Blessings and peace to one and all,

Fr. Tim, SJ
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