Asking Why!

I heard an interesting leadership story today and it went something like this.

A young private was in the middle of boot camp at Fort Dix, NJ. One day he got tasked with painting the parking lot. He had to recover all the yellow lines that marked the individual spots. He was well on his way when he had an accident. He spilled some paint in the middle of the lot. There were no parking spots there so it kind of stood out. He took the paint and evened it out into a circle. So out in the middle of the parking lot there was a big yellow circle. He went on and finished all the parking spots and reported back to his drill instructor that he was finished.

This young private graduated boot camp and never told anyone what had happened. After a few years as an enlisted soldier he went to OCS (officer candidate school). He graduated and became an officer. After being in the army for 15 years and making LTC (Lieutenant Colonel) he found himself back at Fort Dix for a conference. When the sessions where over he happened to drive by the old parking lot that he repainted. To his amazement, it was freshly repainted. All the lines where done in a bold yellow. And wouldn't you know, the yellow circle in the middle of the parking lot was still there! Not only was it there, but it also was freshly painted and bright as could be. For 15 years soldiers in basic training had re-painted the same accident circle over and over.

The moral of the story has to do with leadership. In the Army we have a lot of training that teaches us to do what we are told when we are told. The "why" question is discouraged or even punished if asked. Granted, as a leader, sometimes you need your order carried out immediately and the why question only waste time you might not have. But on a routine basis, we need to train soldiers to ask why.

Good leaders should not fear the why question. Good leaders should explain why often enough that when they can't, their followers understand. Teaching followers to ask why also ensures they understand the intent of the order. If you want a gauge of the effectiveness of your leadership, find out how often your followers know why they are doing what they are doing!

Air Assault is almost over!

The 10 days (really 11) of air assault school seems to drag on and on. Thankfully, tomorrow is "sling load test" day. I've got a written test first thing in the morning. Then after the written test we move on the the hands on test. We have to inspect 4 sling loads and find the "deficiencies" in each load. We are given two minutes per load and there are 4 deficiencies on each load. We have to find 3 of the 4 to get a "go."

Hopefully, I will find all the deficiencies quickly and not have to re-test on anything. Once this phase is complete, we move on to phase 3: fast roping and rappelling. That will be Friday, Monday and Tuesday. On tuesday we get to fast-rope out of blackhawks!

That's really what I am looking forward to. Then its all wrapped up on Wednesday morning with a 12 mile road march! Finish the road

march and get my wings! Then I'll never have to go back there again.

Hopefully I'll be posting tomorrow at 10:30am at home after getting a first time go on all the tests. If not, it will be a long day. Hope you are all well!

This Army Life IS My Style.... Air Assault School Is NOT!

Hey Everyone,

I could only have imagined how busy I would be once things got underway for me as a Battalion Chaplain. Well, Army life has exceeded my expectations. I am going to carve out a few minutes each week to put out an update but for now, here is what's going on.

I've been on the job for a little over 3 months. There's been a ton of on the job training that I've gotten. There has been little from the Chaplain school that I've actually used, but I'm sure some of it will come in handy some day.

I've had all sorts of experiences that I didn't see coming and been able to help some people in some great ways. I've got a great commander and a top notch staff to work with. I feel privileged to work with and for such great people. I tell people all the time that I have the best job in the Army.

For some reason, a few weeks back, I volunteered to attend the Air Assault School. My commander was like "Really? Chaplain, you want to go?" I thought I did. I went to Airborne School and got through with out any issues. I thought Air Assault would be about the same. I was wrong. This school has shown me how soft I've become as I've gotten older. I can honestly say that I've not enjoyed one minute of being there. I've never quit anything in my life, however, the other day I thought about setting up my packing list wrong just to get kicked out so I could go back to my job. Like I said.... I'm becoming soft.

Its 11 days long and I'm through 3 days. This coming week, I'll take the test on phase one (hand and arm signals, pathfinder operations, and aircraft information), then start phase two (sling load). Then the following week we will move into the rappel and fast rope phase. It all ends next week Wednesday (December 16) with a 12 mile road march.

Then after that I'll go back to work for a few days and then start block leave. We will be heading back to Chicago December 23rd through the 30th. Hopefully my body will recover from all this abuse. Hope you all have a great Christmas and have some time of rest.

Life is going well!

So, I know we haven't written in a while... but it is because life is going good and is soooo busy! So much has happened since Chris wrote last, that I'll give a quick run down.

We are in Fort Campbell now, with our house (3 bedrooms, 2 baths, great back yard, dining room, etc... biggest place we've ever had, and it's single family!). We love our house! It might not be as nice as some of the houses off base, but you can't beat the location! We have great neighbors that we see and talk to everyday! We have a fenced in back yard that is great for the new dog, Cutler. He is a mutt of some sort, looks like a lab with German shepherd coloring. He is doing well. We started training today, and he learned to lay within 1 hour! Smart dog. It is great to let him hang in the back yard for a few hours a day, and he has learned to run with me really well! We go for a run/walk 3-4 times a week, and he already gets excited when I pull out my running shoes.

We also found out a few months ago that I am pregnant! Today I am 12 weeks, so the first trimester is over. It has been pretty easy, compared to others. I have not gotten sick at all, I only get tired. I probably get tired because I try to do too much, but it is hard for me to take it easy. I usually nap once or twice a day, but am blessed with a hubby with a great job, so I don't have to work while going through all this.

We have met and made some great friends. I go to PWOC each week, which is a group of wonderful Christian women on post. I have been part of a Bible study called "for women only" and I recommend it to all ladies who want to know how their men think! We also started to volunteer at Awana, and will eventually teach the 7th and 8th grade group. They are sorta crazy, but we already have some connections to our students. It's really fun to volunteer as a couple! We go to a church on base, called Chapel Next. It is considered the contemporary service on post. We only get to go 2-3 times a month, because we are on retreats and visiting Chicago the other weeks. Last night we had dinner with the other Chaplains from our Chapel, an it was a great time of fellowship, prayer and laughs. I think we have 25 chaplains that help out at our service!

Chris just left for the week. He is TDY (temporary duty station) in Atlanta for the week learning how to put on an amazing marriage retreat! We went to our first "strong bonds retreat" last weekend, and 90 couples learned how to improve various aspects of their marriages. It is great that the Army is dedicated to helping families stay together. You'd be surprised the stories that Chris hears everyday. There are so many struggles that couples are going through with stress of regular life + the Army. Everyday he knows why God has put him here. We know we are in the right place.

that's just an update... and I will be doing it more often... promise!

I hope you all are doing great. Please send us emails of what is going on in your life. We love to stay connected.

Love you all,

Christina

Together Again

Sorry for the delay in posting. The training schedule has been very demanding over the last few weeks. However, there's lots of good news to update.

First and foremost, Christina has arrived here in South Carolina! She flew in Friday afternoon, which happened to be our 5 year anniversary. We had a great dinner at the melting pot and have been enjoying each other's company for the last 2 days. While its kind of weird having no home and living in a hotel, its great to finally be back together. Even this blog entry comes to you via pool side relaxation together. Christina is reading and I am "working."

Secondly, I only have 1 more week of training before I report to my unit. While I look back at the training I received, I am extremely grateful for the hard work of my instructors who have been over worked and under paid for the job they've done. 2 weeks ago we had a 3 day FTX (Field Training Exercise) in the 100 degree heat with the incredible South Carolina humidity. Yet even when we all were pushed to our limits, our instructors continued to teach and guide us. I've met some really amazing guys down here and I look forward to seeing and working with them in the future. There are 5 of us who are reporting straight to Ft Campbell after we finish here. In fact, all of us who are headed straight to active duty assignments (about 30 of us) following this training have become good friends. That's good because we will need it. Since every Battalion only has 1 Chaplain, it can be one of the hardest and loneliest jobs in the Army. Other Chaplain friends can make all the difference.

One particular friend I've made is almost 20 years my senior. We've made a deal, he helps me mature and grow up in areas I need to, and I'll help him with all his technology/computer issues. I think I'm getting the better end of the deal.

Thirdly, we've been added to the housing waiting list at Ft Campbell. We are currently 16 of 26 on the list. It looks like we'll have to wait about 2 months for a house to open up once we get there. Thankfully, we are getting good at living in hotels and they have a post hotel at Campbell that is a suite that has a separate bedroom and kitchen. Not that different from some of our smaller apartments in Chicago. And it will be worth the wait. When we finally do get housing, we will get a large 3 bedroom house, some of which are brand new! Needless to say, it will be the largest home we've ever had and we plan to use that space well! (thats an open invitation to anyone who wants to come visit us.... only an hour from Nashville and 3 hours from the Kentucky Derby next spring!!!!!).

Well thats all from the pool side for right now. We will be leaving South Carolina for Ft Campbell on Friday afternoon after my graduation and we'll get there sometime on Saturday. We are about to start a new chapter in our life and we are both extremely excited to see where it takes us. God Bless!

Soldiers die in war. The question is, how do we deal with it?

One of my jobs as a Chaplain will be to help soldiers learn to cope and give permission to grieve when one of their closest buddied dies. Naturally, when something traumatic happens, tough guys want to shut down and keep it all inside. That is the last thing in the world that I want to see happen. When something traumatic happens we have to open up and talk about it, talk about how it effects us, talk about what it has done to us.

Here is an example of part of what I'll be doing. It's a tough video to watch because its real.

If you watch, you will see a Captain give the "facts" of the situation. This is the first step in what we call at TEM (Traumatic Event Management) intervention. Someone who knows the facts of the event comes in and briefs everyone on what exactly happened. Then that person usually leaves and the soldier are encouraged and prompted (by the Chaplain) to talk about what happened. What they heard, what they felt, what they smelled, tasted and saw. When they share their reactions to the event (weather it be anger, rage, fear, sorrow, regret, grief, or numbness) they are understood to be held in confidence within the group. But when the soldiers open up and realize that others are having the same feelings they begin to help each other cope. It doesn't lessen the loss, but the hope is that the soldiers feelings are validated and normalized and they don't feel isolated and alone.

Give it a watch:

Blue Force Tracker

Today we had an all day training on how to operate a "Blue Force Trackers" (BFT) also know as Force Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2). This might be the most amazing piece of battlefield technology ever developed when working properly. In a nutshell, all the friendly forces (which are blue symbols on the screen) have a computer system made up of a transceiver, touch-screen and key board, CPU, Hard drive and a GPS receiver. What it does is share the location, movement, action, and status of our entire force with everyone else and the commanders. That means, by looking at one large screen in the TOC (Tactical Operations Center) the commander can see, in real time, the location of all his units. In addition, folks over at the Pentagon can also watch a battle take place in real time.

But it doesn't just track friendly forces. It also helps track the enemy. If someone sees enemy forces, all they have to do is touch the screen on the map location where the enemy was seen and give their description. Then, that enemy position is loaded onto the entire system and becomes available to all our forces (Ground, Air and Sea).

Additionally, messages can be sent over this system including specific operations orders, status reports, Medical Evacuation, and my favorite, instant messaging. The biggest improvement to this system when compared to the old system is distance. Previously we would still use a normal radio that worked on an FM radio signal which means line of sight. Well when you get to an area that has lots of mountains, line of sight is not always the best way to go. This system instead uses satellites in orbit to communicate. That's sweet.

While the Army and the Military as a whole has lots of issues (and believe me... it does!), it is really cool to see technology like this that continues to help us maintain our status as the worlds greatest military.

Now, how does this help me as a Chaplain. I will be a Chaplain for at least 4 different companies. Each of these companies can be at a different FOBs (Forward Operating Base) or en-route to different bases. When I turn on my BFT I can get the real time location of all my units and check on their status reports. I can also send them a message and let them know when I will be at their location to provide Religious Support. It is going to be a really great tool. Plus, it combines 3 things that I love: 1) maps, 2) cool technology, 3) things I can touch.

It was a great day of training! Hope there are more like it coming.