Centurion Faith!
Prev Next Vol IV - June 5, 2009 - FOB Sharana, Afghanistan
The remains of a brave young hesco...
Earning our CAB at OE
When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
"Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully." He said to him, "I
will come and cure him." The centurion said in reply, "Lord, I am not worthy to have
you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am
a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he
goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he
does it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen,
I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
(Matthew 8:5-10)
Itʼs hard to wrap my head around this, but in less than a week we will celebrate our 25% day. Meaning we have been in country for 3 months, and have completed 25% of our deployment! What happened! Where did that time go! As I reflect back on the last 11 weeks Iʼm amazed at what we have done and how weʼve managed it. So far we have spent 49 of the last 84 days on the road. We have visited every FOB (Forward Operating Base) in our AOR (Area of Responsibility) at least twice, several we have visited 3 times. We spent a week in BAF training and meeting the other priests in the area. We celebrated the Triduum (the Three Days of Holy Week) in a war-zone. We even had mass interrupted one day because the bad guys started launching mortars at us. (Oh yeah, I havenʼt mentioned that before. A: It wasnʼt as bad as it sounds, and the only casualties was a kicker-box full of water bottles and a hesco (big box full of sand). B: It happened in early May, and it was an extremely rare occurrence. C: It is a war-zone, it was bound to happen sooner or later...) We were fine, we sat for an hour in the bunker. But I kept on kicking myself that I left communion on the altar back in church. I told Sgt Neal: "My God! I left Jesus!" Some battle buddy I am... I even considered running back and grabbing communion so I could finish mass in the bunker... Then I thought about what Mom and my Grandmas and all of my aunts would say... I think Iʼm more afraid of them than I am of the Taliban!
Sunrise at FOB Boris
Thankfully the Taliban are fairly bad shots, and they only have time to fire a couple of times before we figure out where they are and start firing back. Most of the fire that we receive is more harassment fire than anything that might actually cause death or destruction. The other Chaplain at OE and I think we need to put some loudspeakers on the chapel roof and when the mortars start coming in we should blast the star-spangled banner back. Itʼs a reminder that this is not the first time American Soldiers have been under fire, nor will it be the last. We can handle this, and the flag will still be flying when the rockets are silent. Just ask Francis Scott Key... All in all, itʼs been a pretty successful 3 months, and the time has flown by. Iʼm already filling out paperwork for R&R, and by the time I get back we will be putting together our continuity book to pass on to the next unit, then we celebrate Christmas, and start packing... My God, Iʼm almost home!
Sunrise, and a Medivac chopper waiting on the HLZ. Thankfully it was a slow day!
As I write this we are preparing to celebrate the feast of the Ascension. It happens to coincide with Memorial Day. Pentecost is around the corner, as is Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi. And dare I forget Momʼs day and Dadʼs day... With all these holidays and holy days, it makes one long for good old boring Ordinary Time! Yeah... right...
Flags at half-staff, a few days after Memorial Day.
We celebrated Memorial Day with mass here at Sharana, and then jumping a chopper to fly out on mission to Margah. Itʼs this tiny little COP (Combat Operations Base) built on a mountaintop overlooking a couple of villages. What struck me was that they were returning the body of a Taliban fighter to the elders of the village who had attacked them earlier. They were honoring his body, and returning him to his family (or at least trying to. We turn the body over to the village elders and they pass it on to the family or at least to someone that knew him and will mourn his death.) This was one of the first times we encountered enemy KIAs, and being memorial day I couldnʼt help but be impressed with this act of honor and compassion. I also couldnʼt help but wonder about the tables being reversed. We return the bodies of enemy combatants because itʼs part of the Geneva conventions. Somehow I donʼt think the Taliban would do the same, in fact I know they wouldnʼt. This is one of the things that make the American Soldier a professional, what sets him/her apart from the rest. We fight with ferocity, but we also show honor and compassion when it is due. We show respect towards our defeated foe, because it is no less than what we would demand for our Soldiers who have paid "the fullest measure of devotion" on the field of combat.
The VIP suite at COP Zerok...
Also serves as the MWR, and the gym too!
If any of you have ever spent some significant time traveling, you know that the pictures of hotel rooms never quite tell the whole story. Things always look better, bigger, nicer on the web page, you never know what youʼre getting until you arrive.
Very nice guest quarters at FOB Lilly.
Good food, good beds...
sounds like 4 stars in my book!
Well... Army traveling is much the same. As you know we spend a good deal of time on the road, which means weʼre rarely get to sleep in the same bed two nights in a row. When we arrive at a new spot one of our first tasks is to throw our gear in the vicinity of where-ever weʼre going to rack out that night. Weʼve learned quickly that the quality of sleeping quarters is not standard across the battlespace. Some places we find ourselves in individual rooms, like the pic of Lilly. Sometimes those rooms even have a door, sometimes we get mattresses instead of cots, and sometimes we even get (wait for it....) Free internet! OK, we have WiFi at one place, and itʼs fairly slow, but itʼs the only place in Paktika province with free WiFi.
Other places we go we discover very limited sleeping options. There are times when weʼre lucky to find a litter at the Aid Station. A few times weʼve dropped our gear and slept on a bench or under the table. A week ago we stopped at COP Margah and discovered there was no room at the inn. Sgt Neal just shrugged his shoulders and rolled out his sleeping bag on the ground. About an hour later though, the 1st Sergeant woke him up and told him heʼd be safer on a litter in the hallway. They have mice and scorpions running all over at night, so the floor was not the place to be. So Sgt Neal got a nice comfortable litter (think of a portable medical bed, a cot for wounded soldiers) while I lay on a hard homemade 2x4 bench which was about 2 feet shorter than I was. Oh well, usually I get the nicer quarters since Iʼm an officer. It was about time Sgt Neal scored the first class accommodations!
Waiting on the HLZ before dawn again...
And weʼve been waiting a while!
Our quarters at home are much preferred to whatever we happen to get on the road. We share a 20x16 room with 4 guys, and so after we put up divider walls we end up with quarters about 8x8 feet. We have heat and air, although the thermostat is outside with the AC unit. This means if you try to sleep in the AC unit will kick on when the sun comes up and will keep running even if you have icicles hanging from the ceiling. Not that Sgt Neal or I would know what itʼs like to sleep in, we usually have to be up at 0200 (no, thatʼs not a typo. 0200, aka 2 am!) in order to catch our flight on the next leg of our mission. Remember that old army commercial, "We do more before breakfast than what some people do all day..." Yup, but what they donʼt say is how cheerful and happy we are at that God-awful time. Cross my heart, I was saying my morning prayers bright and early one day while waiting for the chopper when I heard God speak to me: "HEY! Keep it down, there are people sleeping up here!"
ME! In front of a "flag of cards" from the kids at the Verona, WI Grade School.
The daily dust storm in Kushamond.
Sunset at FOB Borris.
SPC Odom supervising the installation of speakers for Reveille.
SGT Kelly installing said speakers!
Once again, the final page of this newsletter is dedicated to all those that have sent stuff forward to us to be distributed to the troops. Every week we spend about 4-5 days traveling, and then come home to an office thatʼs loaded with packages that arrived during our mission. Sometimes the number of care packages to sort through is small (under 10), other times we have to start sorting and shipping stuff out just to find room to walk! Every week I am humbled by the generosity and support of so many friends, family, and complete strangers who have learned about us and heard of our need. Itʼs truly Awesome! We ship most of the packages to smaller FOBs, but we also help to supplement the "Table of Grace" at the chapel and in our office. You may even recognize some items in the pic above! So thank you, thank you, thank you for all your support and generosity. Itʼs not so much the great stuff we receive, but the fact that someone back home took the time to gather it, package it, and pay for the postage to send it off. Thanks, and God bless you all. Please keep us in prayers, for we need those more than anything else!
CH Jason Hesseling
HHC 725 BSB
4/25th BCT, FOB SHARANA
APO AE 09311
Good Items for Care Packages:
Stuff to leave out of Care Packages:
Alcohol, Anything that will spoil in 2 weeks, etc...
Some Soldiers to write to:
SPC Nicholas Dion
A Co. 725 BSB
4/25th BCT, FOB SHARANA
APO AE 09311
SPC Alaina Yoder
C Co. 725 BSB
4/25th BCT, FOB SHARANA
APO AE 09311
SPC Stephanie Flores
HHC 725 BSB
4/25th BCT, FOB SHARANA
APO AE 09311