WHAT WE HAVE SEEN AND EXPERIENCED!!!
There is a big controversy over a picture of a critically wounded Marine that was put on the wire by AP. The major concern was for the parents of the young Marine that it would cause them greater pain to know that the public was viewing the last sad moments of their child's life. I agree that it should not have been published because they requested that it not be published and Mr. Gates from the Pentagon requested that it not be published. May there be extra grace and peace ministered to the grieving parents.
I am concerned for these parents... But I have a much deeper concern. My concern is for the two Marines that were with the critically wounded Marine in the picture. A camaraderie is built when you live with and go into battle with someone. Usually the relationship is closer than that of family blood ties. In one awful moment the fellow Peace Keeper you were just walking with on patrol is down, bleeding, terribly wounded and possibly dying. A limb is missing... Or there is a gaping hole where there should not be a hole... Hot, sticky blood is everywhere... And you are trying to stop it from flowing out of the wound.
You never get used to seeing this and experiencing this, whether it is a friend, comrade or total stranger when you are closely involved in the incident... You just learn what it takes to live in spite of it. I have a total of 47 years in this profession... First as a State Trooper and then as an Officer/Chaplain and after my forced police retirement in June of '05, currently serving as Chaplain Administrator with Virginia Beach Police and also as a Traffic Safety (Community Services) Officer... 33 years with VBPD. I have seen every conceivable condition of the human body that the mind can imagine in carnage and quantity. I have held the bloody hands and the bloody bodies of fellow officers. I have spent many hours in Emergency rooms with families while we waited for news from the OR. I have also witnessed several cases of what Peace Keepers sometimes do to themselves because they cannot handle their lives any more.
During all of this same time of my career, I have been the giver of primary health care to my disabled, dying wife; To a severely injured son who was ultimately killed in a truck wreck; And currently to an adult, ill, disabled daughter who has had 18 surgeries in the past 20 months, to whom I am the primary wound care giver. I have blessed the new-born, tended the infirm, needy, ill and injured. I have conducted the Celebration of Life as we were separated from personal family and loved ones, Peace Keepers and their families and the closest of friends. I have seen too many bodies of family and Peace Keepers committed to the ground in too many Gardens of Stone.
In all of this time of tending the ill and infirm, investigating every level of crime up to and including murder, suicides and horrible fatal crashes plus helping the survivors of these tragedies survive and go on with life... I have learned the great lengths to which a human can learn and expand their abilities to cope with and survive these events... And still have good health and the ability to continue on with a full, enjoyable and useful life. It can be done but it takes the fullness of education in stress management and it's application... The fullness of the understanding of the range of human emotions, their affectations and how to counteract them... And the full immersion of the human organism into spiritual resources to learn and apply them. We must learn to understand ourselves... Who and what we are, what makes us tick and what makes us better when we do not tick so very well. I am a chaplain to help others achieve that when they desire it. It may take a lot of effort but it is well worth the journey because the result is a better and more full life than we would have had without the extra effort.
I have witnessed the residual effects upon the Peace Keepers who have been into the midst of the worst of human experience by personal experience, personal observation and through some very well written diaries... We have seen and experienced the the hell of battle... We have seen and felt the unimaginable degree of what one human being can do to another in the name of war, crime, selfishness or lack of proper attention... Some of us have suffered the devastating affectation of the immediately close, heinous death of a friend/ buddy,/comrade cut down so close at hand... And sometimes being injured or wounded with them.
Physical pain and emotional pain... Pain that sometimes lasts far beyond the healing of the physical wound... A pain that irritates, agitates and sometimes permeates the whole being... A pain that does not just hurt but hinders or drives wild the function of mind, emotions and spirit... A pain that frustrates and is touchy and easily set off into explosions and unpredictable behavior... Not being able to sleep nor escape from the thoughts and memories... This is a pain that no pill nor injection can ease or eradicate unless the mind is totally shut off.
Sometimes it drives a person into the stupor of alcohol or mind deadening drugs... Sometimes it is so terrible that the people who were the closest to them prior to the incident cannot begin to get close again because they are pushed away or never let back in. Relationships suffer and often disappear. Sometimes treatments do not work and they never improve. Sometimes those affected by this experience just fade away from their old relationships and are seen no more.
In our past they came home by thousands... Currently they are coming home by thousands... Currently some have and are battling on our streets to keep or restore peace and they are injured so badly that they cannot return to duty and cannot do much of anything else either. Sometimes the injury is not where it can be seen and diagnosed. Sometimes there is no wound visible... Yet the Peace Keeper does not and cannot function as they did before the incident. It is as though there is something constantly eating at them, yet not consuming them... It is often an unbearable condition that lasts a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, weeks, months... or the rest of their lives. Sometimes it decreases to a semi-tolerable level only to flare up again later when unexpected. Sometimes it becomes so utterly unbearable that they end their own lives just to escape the thing that is hurting or eating at them. Most can be helped to regain an enjoyable, useful life when and if they want it... And if they can cooperate... But it may take a lot of time!
Some seem to never make it that far. Some gain a level of being able to function fairly well for a few days or weeks... but are driven to try and drown out the affects that rise up in them again and again. Some will not allow themselves to be helped and wear down themselves and those who love them until there is no enjoyable life left and all their lives fall apart. I have been in that hellish existence with some of them and with my own father.
The war on evil drives us to all of this of which I have written. I saw what it did to my father. I lived with it until I had to simply leave home at the age of 16 to get away from it and how it was affecting me. I could not reach nor help him and I had to get away from it if I were going to survive and live. While I was in Basic School, six years later, he ended his misery with a 12 gauge shotgun to his chest. I had to go home and clean up the room where he did it, check with the coroner and the investigating Trooper about the details, drive an hour to find my mother, make arrangements for his funeral, cope with his family who disagreed with me on arrangements, keep my mother separated from his sister who wanted to fight her at graveside because she blamed my mother for his suicide, settle all that I could for all of them and get myself back to training in Basic School.
I became a Trooper and served two duty stations and numerous special assignments. I saw too much blood and gore. I saw too many lives wasted. I witnessed the tragic after affects of all of it. One of those duty stations contained a well known military base. I dealt with military personnel of most levels and ranks during those years on that station from the newest to the seasoned old veterans and retirees.
An old need in me expanded and grew very intense. I looked and looked for someone to assist me in finding the answer for the deep, longing empty place within me but no one had any answers for me. I saw it functioning in the family of a fellow trooper and I had never seen that before. I knew my need could only be answered by a connection with God. The fellow Trooper could not help me meet that need. I went on seeking that connection wherever I found a lead.
Several years later God caused me to find the right man with the right answer and the right directions... The gnawing, empty place was filled and my life became better and more fruitful for me and my family. I became a new man and my family will all tell you that. I had been searching off and on for almost 20 years. The last 6 months of the search were very intense because I must find that answer for me. Years later I found a verse of Scripture that says... When you seek for me with all of your heart, that is the day you will surely find me! I did and it happened and I am so eternally glad... Because without that distinct moment in time I would not have had the adventures of the last 41 years... And I would never have had the assignment to be Chaplain to Peace Keepers that developed the close relationship that has made my life such an amazing adventure of being with Peace Keepers and loving them so very deeply.
Again, I have learned the great lengths to which a human can learn and expand their abilities to cope with and survive these events... And still have good health and the ability to continue on with a full, enjoyable and useful life. It can be done but it takes the fullness of education in stress management and it's application... The fullness of the understanding of the range of human emotions, their affectations and how to counteract them... And the full immersion of the human organism into spiritual resources to learn and apply them. We must learn to understand ourselves... who and what we are, what makes us tick and what makes us better when we do not tick so very well. Most of us leave out the spiritual aspect of meeting our own needs. I am a chaplain to help others achieve that when they desire it because it was the final piece to the puzzle of successful life for me. It may take a lot of effort but it is well worth the journey because the result is a better and more full life than we would have had without the extra effort.
The past few days have been very different for me. I have had an abiding experience of loss and change. Something is changing in my nation. Something is changing in my life. I am deeply concerned with what I see and hear as I contrast it with what I have learned and believe. As I have experienced this condition, I involved myself in thanksgiving to my Commander-In-Chief that you are there and function as you have committed yourselves to be there and to function to the best of your ability. You do an amazing job of keeping and restoring the peace in this country and in the places where we believe we should be fighting evil. Peace Keepers like all of you are our saving power in this world as my Commander-In-Chief has called us into keeping the peace and made us His Ministers of Rightness. THANK YOU FOR THE TREMENDOUS JOB YOU ARE DOING AND HAVE DONE TO PRESERVE THE PEACE AND LIBERTY FOR ALL THE REST OF US!!! THERE WOULD BE NO LIFE AS WE KNOW IT TODAY WITHOUT YOU AND YOUR PREDECESSORS!!! In these past 233 years our Peace Keepers have defeated some very formidable enemies and worldly empires that would have taken over the world and made it into their own personal servant... Thank you, each of you, past/present/future for your oath of office and for your service to all the rest of us.
HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND AND HOLIDAY!!!
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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