As soon as I learned to read I was fascinated with warriors and battles. As soon as I could play with other boys I wanted to play "Army" or "Cowboys and Indians". Cops and robbers was not popular in our rural area.
When I learned about libraries and books I wanted to read my father's books that were always based upon the battle between good and evil. His books covered every possible type of character working for the good against those who were creating and doing evil. My comics were about Cowboys, Sheriffs, Marshals, Mounties or the Military. Long before high school, I was reading the adventures of Sea Captains and their ships, Murder Mysteries and War Stories. Then there were the Saturday afternoon movies if I could get to town and the movie epics of the time covering everything from ancient to present times...
As soon as I learned about libraries, encyclopedias and research, I studied the warriors from ancient times to the present. I learned the true warrior was a person who loved some others more than he loved himself and that his most powerful affection was for his country, his homeland, his way of living and that he would fight any threat to his home and to the ones he loved. I studied the War Between the States and the outstanding people in it, especially the leaders from the South where I was born and grew up. I was born in Lexington and grew up in the surrounding county. I had a deep abiding love and admiration for Generals Lee and Jackson. I studied the lives and attitudes of the Native Americans and found it to be the same with them. All true warriors of every generation have the same traits in common. There is more to live and die for than just personal wants and desires.
We see these traits in the last stands against impossible odds. It is illustrated often in the wars of history. It has been illustrated in Iraq and Afghanistan in present times. It has been illustrated in the Homeland by the Soldiers of the Homeland, those in law enforcement who usually fight lawbreaking and evil, either alone or in small groups until the threat becomes expansive and then they come from everywhere. Maybe they do not come in time to save the first responders but they come in mass enough to subdue the evil and restore peace... And they all come because they took an oath to enter the battle and resist the evil. They took the oath because within them there was a love for something greater than self... Their love and oath was for everyone they loved and the place where they lived... Their love of home and loved ones being greater than their love of themselves.
As I grew and learned I found characteristics within the true warrior that intrigued me.
They would face impossible odds... They would chance being killed... They would have a level of fear but it was never a controlling factor... They would use the fear to keep their senses sharpened and face the danger head on if necessary. These warriors possessed a fierce loyalty to their home area and their family even if they could not get along well with other family members. They might even fight among themselves but woe to the outsider that would attack any family member for then they would all come together in a solid front.
The preserving factor in every civilization that I studied was the Warrior/Peace Keeper and their loyalty. Home was worth dying for if there was no other way to preserve the life and family of the area. They were the reason for the survival of the country and the government. It was so with those of the earliest of times and it was so with every group since the beginning of time. Every person that lived did so because there was that few who had fierce love and loyalty for home and family. By home I do not mean just the personal property and immediate family, I mean the local geographical area. This is characterized by the 300 Spartans at the Gates of Fire and by the efforts of the Army of Northern Virginia to keep the Army of the Potomac out of Northern Virginia. The actions of these soldiers and their leaders typified the
fierce loyalty in the heart of the True Warrior... Willing to face impossible odds even if it was just to buy time for others to get there with a stronger force.
One group of Warrior/Peace Keepers that I alway admired were the Troopers of the Virginia State Police. Eventually I became one of them... I never liked to fight as a child or a youth and but I learned how to fight if there was no other way to deal with the problem. I entered into sports... I learned tactics and keeping a cool head. I studied to become a builder of useful things. Initially I planned to go to School at VMI and become an Engineer and gain an Army Commission. Life got in the way, I fell in love and Cadets cannot be married and have a family so I took a different course of preparation, not knowing that there would be many great changes and experiences ahead.
I am thinking today of the ones who have paid the ultimate price most recently... Oakland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and numerous other places within our United States plus Iraq and Afghanistan. I am thinking of the snipers who rescued the ship captain who had been taken hostage by the Somalia Pirates... I am thinking about every Peace Keeper in our vast groups of Peace Keepers who went out to duty with no guarantee that they would return when duty was over... But still they went with a determination that evil would not get past them if they could stop it and still it... To this each one was committed and went to make it a reality for the people they loved and the country in which they all lived... True Warrior/Peace Keepers!!!
All of my years of knowing and loving so many Peace Keepers is rolling and swelling in my breast as I marvel at the accomplishments and their dedication. They answered a call to set themselves aside for just this kind of life for the peace, preservation and welfare of all of those whom they loved and for whom they stood in their places of duty.
Some kind of call for assistance... Some need for one or more Peace Keepers...
Some demand for their protection and peace restoring powers to be brought to bear... What drives a Peace Keeper to make a target of himself or herself? What I put into words may have never actually crossed their minds in these exact expressions but they have been there all the same.
First it began as a thought sometime... Usually it begins as a thought that is put down and put away... No, not for me... Then it surfaces again. They may not be aware of it themselves in the initial stages because it enters into the thoughts of many youngsters in some form. It comes... It begins... It progresses... Life changes us and molds us... We develop along certain lines and certain talents and we continue along a path that is set, though we may not yet be fully aware of it... It may take years or it may be known immediately in the heart of a child... But it is there all the same. In some of us it becomes so loud in our thoughts and powerful in our inner being that we cannot refuse... We must do it and we begin... We follow the course that is set for us and we become active Peace Keepers in law enforcement or the military. Some become law enforcers in the military and get out of the military and right into civilian law enforcement. Many find they cannot be happy if they are not actively connected with peace keeping in some productive way.
That we follow the course is what matters... Allowing life and opportunities to teach us, train us and mold us into the person we must become... Then we are entered into the active, conscious participation in the final preparation that takes us in and shapes us into the basic Peace Keeper that we must then carry into action on whatever field to which we are assigned, in the homeland or on a foreign field. Our learning and training is never completed. The goals we seek to achieve and the enemy we seek
to conquer are always changing. We learn that we must adapt and be ever changing also. Training and re-training are on-going.
Millions before us laid out the course for us to take up... We do not only follow... Each of us must lead and we must have the attitude of a leader whether we are in a position of leadership authority or not. We will be in many places where no one else can or may make a decision for us. We will have to make those decisions ourselves.
Sometimes the only person we lead is us and that leadership could one moment or another translate into us exercising leadership over a group or a crowd that is not going in the proper direction physically of lawfully... Or that they suddenly have a great need for someone to help them who knows what to do and how to do it. Any one Peace Keeper could be the only one available to do it in just the moment it needs to be done.
That is just why we are here... To keep the peace for the peaceful and to put an end to the activities of the evil... And to take whatever action is necessary for us to take in those millions of possibilities between the two extremes of total peace and total evil.
My Commander-In-Chief calls peace keeping employees of the government Ministers of Rightness. The purpose is to appreciate and encourage those who do right and execute His wrath upon those who will not do right. We are given authority and weapons to achieve the goal of peace and punishment of the peace breaker. That authority is meted out under the rules of engagement taught to each of us. We do what we can, where we can, when we can.
I am glad that you are there. Because of you and those who preceded you I lived a life that was peaceful and safe for me and those whom I loved until I became one of you... Then we did it together... Now I am hindered from going out to the field of endeavor and again I must depend upon you to keep all the rest of us safe and in as good a state of peace as possible. You do a marvelous job. My deepest thanks to all who did the job before me, with me and now without me. May your sun never dim...
May your efforts be greatly successful... May you come to know the peace I have known and even greater peace than that... May You come to know the fullness of life as it was designed for us to live. My Commander-In-Chief, Father God... My Eternal Captain, Jesus the Christ and I all thank you for your service to all the rest of us. We are deeply grateful that you are there whether you are Christian or not.
"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!" ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary. Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others. See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you. Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.
My daughter, Donna, is still experiencing great pain in her abdomen, especially during wound cleansing and treatment. Thank you for your prayers and messages of encouragement for both of us. We see the surgeon again on Monday the 20th.
As it has always been... So it still is!!!
"VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST...
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST...
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN." Sun tzu
Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!
ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!
WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT...
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)...
BE SUCCESSFUL... BE SAFE...
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics... it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]
I represent, write for... and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live... with Him and for you I serve...
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not...
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper...
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
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