A Couple of Thoughts

I've had in interesting weekend. On Saturday I attended the deployment ceremony for the 36th Combat Aviation Brigade, the last unit that I was assigned to as a member of the National Guard active training staff. When I left the military I was positive that it was time for me to go and I still view that decision as the correct one. I was ready for something different and my next nine years at Dell proved to be just that. But when I walked back into the hangars with all of the different helicopters lined up for the ceremony it brought back all of the feelings that kept me in the service for twenty-five years; the friendship with your fellow officers, the constant understanding of a duty you considered to be a higher calling, and a singleness of purpose among the unit members. The smell of the aviation fuel and the grease on the helicopters is familiar. The officers who worked for me as Lieutenants and Captains are now Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels and they still addressed me as "Sir", a pleasant reminder of our loyalty to each other. Two of my fellow LTC's are now General Officers. They were as enthusiastic to see me as was proud of their accomplishments. I have been retired now almost fourteen years and whenever I meet someone from my military past the deeply held memories work their way back to the surface in my dreams. In those dreams I am always with my friends, but in a current world situation and my worry is about passing the physical fitness test and meeting the weight standards. The dreams remind me of my age. I dread the day when the memories fade.

On a different subject, I watched the excerpt from the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington this morning before I went to Sunday School at Hill Country Care. I'm sure YouTube has the speech by Dr.   Benjamin Carson, a noted pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is an outspoken Christian with a wonderful witness for Christ. He spoke about education, taxes, and healthcare and how the answers to these issues are already answered in the Bible. Dr. Carson does not shy away form speaking the truth and it would be well worth everyone's time to look up the video or a transcript of the speech and read it. We should all strive to be so eloquent in the prosecution of our Christian labors.