Chaplain’s Corner
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Chaplain Bill Karabinos
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Chaplain's Corner
Back in the
1990’s corporations, colleges, government agencies and even churches jumped on a
cause de jour, and spent hours, days, months developing a “Mission Statement.” A
statement to define one’s organization and quite self-servingly, set it apart.
Some outfits brought in analysts and executives from across the continent for a
week of meetings to define their corporate existence: to write a Mission
Statement. Money was no object: everyone had to get on the bandwagon. Those of
us, who worked on such task forces with that particular assignment wondered –
“what have we being doing all these years.” We laughed, but that was not
acceptable. We had to be converted and march lockstep in the parade of that in
vogue cause. A little side humor. My Chaplain School classmate and fellow
Vietnam veteran, late Chaplain (Col.) Frank Simeone, once advised me: “Don’t
fall on your sword for a cause de jour, because you might not live to regret
it.” Now, 30 years later, I seldom hear about a Mission Statement.
But the 11th ACVVC has one. It was developed long before the rush of bandwagon
jumpers, and quite frankly, I don’t remember anyone in our organization calling
it such. You see it often on our letterheads; the front page of Thunder Run
outlines it in bright red, and it is the title of this article, “Together Then -
Together Again.” It actually does define us. It does set us apart; it created a
legend. I am not sure how it came about but have a feeling that it was the
genius of one of our “Founding Fathers,” Ollie Pickral ... but it is our driving
force. The reason for our existence.
Those 4 words speak brotherly love, eternal hope, loyalty and fidelity. In
Biblical terms: Faith, Hope and Love as the Jewish Roman citizen, Paul of Tarsus
announced to the early Christians (1 Cor 13, 13):“... and the greatest of these
is love.”
This theme plays out in so many ways in our lives. Even in movies about wars, we
see guys die for their brothers-in-arms: jumping on hand grenades, carrying back
wounded, taking a bullet...sharing the last ration or canteen. That depicted
devotion is not about the rightness or wrongness of the war, not about the evil
of, or hatred for, the enemy, it was about love, brotherhood. They used to teach
that in all schools, hopefully still do in churches. We were reared in the long
shadow of Rough Rider, Teddy Roosevelt; the stalwart speeches of General Douglas
McArthur, the heroism of a John Basilone, the Four Chaplains, the men who
volunteered to walk point: duty, courage, honor, God and country. Military
service was honorable:“...our fathers had, and their fathers had before.”
In recent years, in the sad decline of respect for our Constitutional ideas, a
history of military service is a mark against a man, especially in popular and
social media. Quite frankly, in my recent travel through the Carolinas, Georgia
and Alabama, that is not true among the people I met on the streets, in
churches, at National Cemeteries, in gas stations and local eateries. Just the
opposite. Dozens thanked me for my service, strangers paid for my meal – that
Blackhorse hat instantly brought me their “love.” But that’s not depicted in the
media, they would rather defend protestors who destroy, deface, vilify and scorn
our traditional values. Their inversion, their support of civic perversions,
their adoration of selfish careerism and duplicity, considers the soldier - the
veteran - as a mark against a man. “You did what? You must be messed up. What a
waste ... your wars went terribly wrong.”Maybe even and still: “baby-killers."
No longer do they see the warrior as a defender of the Common Goof, the public,
our Country: now he is considered dull and dim-witted.
But we know instead that we are among the few, the precious few who still know
how to love, sacrifice – who stand up with honor and gather with those we were
willing to live with in squalor, to love, to put our lives on the line for.
Ask yourself why. Why do we attend our reunions, why do we visit the graves of
our KIA’s and recently fallen brothers? Why do we look at the Fiddler’s Green
page in Thunder Run first? Why do we feel so good when we see or greet or meet
another Blackhorse brother? Why is our mission statement: Together Then -
Together Again
.
Why? Because we love our brothers – not ashamed to say it. Maybe not all then
and maybe not all now. We are still willing to go that extra mile, to have their
backs, to pray at their headstones, to wish them “Welcome Home.” We sacrifice
our time to travel across the country, our vacation (or grocery) money, our
convenience by driving long distances or enduring miserably crowded airports. We
do all this or any of it for guys whose last names we didn’t know and maybe
still don’t. We make a lot of sacrifices.
Love requires sacrifice. The more one loves, the more one is willing to
sacrifice. But love has its awards as well. The more we love, the more we
sacrifice the happier we become, and we make the environment all around us
happier. We know that we are especially blessed because we love so much. That
love generates hope and hope springs eternal – we honor our brothers at funerals
or in cemeteries, we pray for their eternal life – or another beer on Fiddler’s
Green. Our fidelity, our faith in them leads us to believe that faith in God and
in mankind grow equally.
Yes, we are now among the precious few. That small band of brothers; really a
precious few. In Vietnam, a Blackhorse Trooper was rare, among the few. During
the peak of our involvement, the 11the ACR represented 1% of the Army troops on
the ground, yet we left our mark as ... Legend. Now over 55 years later, 11th
Cav surviving veterans of Vietnam make up less than seven tenths of one percent
of veterans. Indeed, among the precious few. Still legendary, still coming
together again, still loving our brother as God loves us.
Chaplain Blandin “Bill” Karabinos