Start of Chaplain School

I left ODS in Newport and drove down to New Jersey. I got to spend a couple hours with Kelly and my new niece, Morgan Grace. I stayed over in Toms River and headed toward South Carolina the next day.  I stayed in a hotel in Emporia, Virginia close to North Carolina.The next morning was Sunday, so I went to mass at St. John the Baptist, in Roanoke Rapids, NC. It was a nice, little Church. There were maybe 150 people in church. I saw a couple ushers at the doors as I walked up. I noticed they were Knights of Columbus, so I introduced myself (dressed in slacks and a polo shirt) and asked to see the priest. The Knights brought me to the sacristy where Fr. Pius grabbed my hand and welcomed me in. He was from Africa and had been the pastor there for four years. I asked to concelebrate and went out to the altar with Father. I noticed how happy the people were to see their priest; he had been on vacation a couple weeks. It was nice to see a small, tight-knit Catholic community (since we have mostly very big parishes in New Jersey). I concelebrated mass and helped distribute communion. Fr. Pius gave a good homily and asked me to say some words at the end of mass. I told the people a little about me being in training to be a Navy Chaplain and encouraged them to listen to where Good Shepherd was leading them.

After mass, I drove down to Fort Jackson. It is a huge base, with a department store, food store, golf course, and a number of lakes. My class of chaplains is housed at Jack’s Inn, a set of on base apartments. They are nice:  two bedrooms, little kitchen, little dining room, porch and living room. It has internet and a nice flat screen TV. I signed up for a free month of Netflix. Oh yeah.

We all arrived okay and got situated. We were a bit anxious since Marine Gunnery Sergeant Morton [who was to lead our class and PT] was totally intimidating. However, when we arrived at class, the Class Officer, Lieutenant Commander Moore, and Gunnery Sergeant may it clear that they would be treating us like adults. It was quite a refreshing change from ODS.

Classwork and Physical Training (PT)

The first few weeks of Chaplain School are very academic. We PT at 0530 usually three times a week and most of us do additional PT. The Gunnery Sergeant seems to enjoyed “massacring” us at PT. We started Intro to “GunneyFit” during the second week. He enjoys CrossFit type workouts. My heel started hurting more and more, so I went to medical and the doc put me on limited duty – no running or jumping – for 10 days. I also was put on Anti-inflammatories. This stunk since I had to work out separately.

I did do abs this past Friday. We warmed up and then were tasked to do as many rounds we could of:

• 30 second planks
• 30 second each side planks
• 20 flutter kicks
• 20 jack knifes - laying down and lifting legs and upper body straight up
• 10 push jacks – like a push up, but in the middle you spread your legs and bring them back to center.
• 20 planks with side crunches - bring one leg at a time up to your armpit
• 20 side twists – on the ground , legs up, torso at 45 degrees, arms in front, rotate twisting side to side
• 20 russian prayers – on the ground, torso at 45 degrees, hands folded in prayer while you kick your legs out almost like bicycles
• 20 leg lifts
• Two point planks 15 seconds each side – front plank but lift one arm and opposite leg off the ground.

I did 2 rounds and then a third round dropping each number by 5 (so 25 sec planks). The Gunny brought out ammo cans that some people used in some of these exercises like jack knifes and then ran down to the edge of the field with the ammo cans and back up hill. Some of these chaplains are nuts (very fit).

Our Daily Schedule

After PT, we go to the schoolhouse for worship at 0730. We have different “labs” are basically chapels for each faith group. We have an Orthodox priest who say morning prayers, three liturgical protestants, me and the rest are non-liturgical protestants. I usually say mass in the morning, though I have joined the non-liturgical guys for praise and worship. Some folks have joined me for mass. It is cool that we are learning to appreciate each other’s beliefs and practices.   That is probably the coolest thing about this time together. I am growing as we hang out and pray and discuss faith and ministry together. In John 17, Jesus prayed that all would be one. Maybe one day, we Christians will be united.

Right now I am struggling with how the Lord interacts differently with different groups of people. There is clearly some authentic worship expressed by the different groups. However each group acknowledges times when they have seen what appears to be lack of authenticity in worship.

Classes are from 0800-1600 or 1700. We have had to do three reflection papers and have two exams. We have been having some fun going out to dinner and barbecuing on the weekends in between. During the second week, we encountered the Government Shutdown, as did the rest of the country. Our civilians had to go home without pay. They were able to come back the following Tuesday. An ethics professor from the Naval Academy, a captain, was not allowed to travel, so we had to move our ethics classes to the end of training (hopefully). We found out at the end of week three that our “field trip” was cancelled, because we had no travel money. We were supposed to go to Mayport naval base in Jacksonville, Florida and Parris Island Marine base.

This week we celebrated the Navy's 238th birthday. The actual date is October 13, 1775. He we are in the break room.

Navy Chaplain School Class 13030 Bravo company

Columbus day is this weekend, we have liberty all weekend long. Most chaplains went to visit family or other places, like Charleston. I am enjoying some free time, relaxing. A group of us had homemade taco bar last night. Yum.

A bunch of us at Chilis

Some chaplain dudes at Fuddruckers.

Not sure what we are doing this week in lieu of the field trip. In two weeks we have Field Training. Four days in the field (somewhere in the woods on base), a confidence course, land navigation and a distance hike. We supposedly end the hike with a pizza party. Then we have teams week where we gather tools useful for ministry in the fleet. Graduation in November 15.

After Graduation

After Graduation, I will head back to New Jersey to pack, then drive to San Diego. I will be in San Diego until January 10, then I will go to Pascagoula, Mississippi to meet up with the ship. Eventually, we will get back to San Diego, which is the homeport for USS America.