SOME DAYS SEEM LIKE THE DESCRIPTION
OF HELL...
DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU HAPPEN TO BE...
AND WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE MOMENT...

THE BURNING OF ROME BY NERO... BLAMED UPON THE
CHRISTIANS AND INITIATING A TIME OF PERSECUTION AND
DEATH...

THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTA BY THE UNION ARMY...
IF ATLANTA HAD BEEN YOUR HOME...

THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE...

WW2... THE BLITZ IN LONDON, INVASIONS OF NORMANDY,
GUADALCANAL, SAIPAN, IWO JIMA... (JUST TO NAME A FEW)

THE ATTACK ON THE TWIN TOWERS AND THE PENTAGON
DURING 9/11...

THE RAGING SEASONAL FIRES IN THE WESTERN PART OF THE
UNITED STATES...

THE TSUNAMI OF DECEMBER '04...

THE BOMB ATTACKS OF IRAQ, ISRAEL, MADRID AND LONDON...
AND ON YOUR BATTLEFIELD ALL TOO OFTEN...

Each of these incidents... and many, many more in history have brought
experiences that felt and seemed like hell at the moment each person was going
through the experience... fire... heat... destruction... crushing... tearing...
Personal attacks of fear, pain, mutilation and murder...

Peace Keepers have always been dedicated to stopping these horrible incidents
or rooting out the perpetrators and bringing them to justice for the terror they
incited... and the destruction they caused...

Seven Peace Keepers died on the field in Iraq this week... average of one
per day...
Here at home the average is the death of a Peace Keeper about every two
and one half days...
The death and destruction rates for our citizens in many of our homeland cities are
incomprehensible when the statistics are set down for us to read and study...
Murders and drive by shootings... many victims being children who are in the area.

The following is the cost to Peace Keepers in the past week;
===============================================================
PoliceOne.com
OFFICER DOWN
Retired Mo. Corporal and P1 member dies of massive heart attack - 07/07/2005
Jim Summers - [Cuba, Missouri]
Texas: Mistaken ID blamed in fatal shooting of deputy constable - 07/06/2005
Nehemiah Pickens - [Houston, Texas]
Mo. police officer is shot, killed many departments search for suspect -
07/06/2005, William McEntee - [Kirkwood, Missouri]
Off-duty Philadelphia cop killed in motorcycle accident - 07/05/2005
Steve McCusker - [Philadelphia , Pennsylvania]
Highway crash claims life of RCMP officer - 07/04/2005
Jose Agostinho - [Wetaskiwin , Alberta]
================================================================
VIRGINIAN-PILOT, 07/09/05
IRAQ, WEEK OF 07/02-07/08/05
U.S TROOPS KILLED - 7
U.S. TROOPS WOUNDED - 146
U.S. TROOPS KILLED SINCE 03/03 - 1752
U.S. TROOPS WOUNDED SINCE 03/03 - 13,336
================================================================
OnLine... GOOGLE
AFGHANISTAN
<>Taliban vow to kill 'captured' U.S. commando
By David Brunnstrom</>

KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban reiterated on Thursday that they are holding a U.S.
commando (U.S. NAVY SEAL) who has been missing in Afghanistan for more than
a week and vowed to kill him, but the U.S. military said it had no information to
support the claim...

The U.S. military says a four-man team of elite Navy SEAL commandos went
missing during a clash with insurgents in the eastern province of Kunar, which
borders Pakistan, on June 28.

It says two were found dead on Monday, while another has been rescued, but
the fourth remains unaccounted for...

The U.S. deaths have brought to 32 the number of American soldiers killed in
stepped-up militant violence ahead of Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, the next
big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.

<> The deaths have made 2005 the bloodiest year for U.S. forces in Afghanistan
since the Taliban's fall, but total U.S. casualties remain a fraction of those on Iraq.
(CURRENTLY SOMEWHERE ABOVE 200)
================================================================
Waterborne@aol.com
</>
Missouri: Kirkwood officer is ambushed shot and killed responding to fireworks
complaint. "He shot a police officer, you're damn right he's dangerous," Chief
Plummer said.

Houston: A constable's reserve deputy was shot and killed overnight by a sheriff's
deputy chasing a suspect in an apparent case of mistaken identity.
===============================================================
WASHINGTONPOST.COM

Military Expands Homeland Efforts
New Pentagon strategy for securing the U.S. homeland calls for intelligence sharing
with civilian law enforcement.
(By Bradley Graham, The Washington Post)
=======================================================================
First some good news... no crisis with my daughter since last Friday... 8 days.  She
is still suffering some after effects from the stroke. She had a CT Scan Thursday but
we will not know the results until mid-week.  We are scheduled to see a Neurologist
on Monday... and she is experiencing release from a lot of things she had stuffed
and not dealt with over the years.  Today she is really doing so very much better.

Many people are shocked that my family has experienced so much tragedy, illness
and death.  They voice to me that the situation is terrible.  I take a very different view.
I thank God that He gave me to my family... what would they have done if He had not
provided me for them?  He educated me to be able to meet their needs as best
could be done for them.  He provided the ways and means for me to care for them
and provide for them.  He changed me into a man who could love and appreciate
each of them as the individuals they were and are.  For me to experience this life
has been a continuous life of the miraculous.  I have no regrets... I just miss the
ones who are gone from this life.  I miss their presence, their voices and their touch,
but I have also been given the grace to live on here and still be productive.  Time
applies only in this place.  Some day time will no longer apply for me either... just
as time does not apply to the ones I miss now.

A major answer that I have been anticipating and waiting for finally came this week.
It is the waiting and anticipation that is hard... but I have had to learn that answers
always come at just the right time... not always when we want them... but never early
and never late... but just the same, sometimes we try to force the answers to come
in our choice of time.  We usually foul things up when we do that... but I have had
the lesson reiterated to me as my COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF has taught me all
through the past thirty seven years... ASK (AND KEEP ON ASKING, PRESENTING
THE RIGHT CASE FOR RESPONSE) AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE (NOT
ALWAYS IN YOUR TIME BUT IN HIS)... BUT YOU SHALL RECEIVE.
================================================================
AN EFFORT TO LIGHTEN UP... BUT STILL FULL OF TRUTH..
(RECEIVED IN AN E-MAIL THIS MORNING)
How to stay safe in the world today.

1. Avoid riding in automobiles because they are responsible for 20% of all
    fatal accidents.
2. Do not stay home because 17% of all accidents occur in the home.
3. Avoid walking on streets or sidewalks because 14% of all accidents occur
    to pedestrians.
4. Avoid traveling by air, rail, or water because 16% of all accidents
    involve these forms of transportation.
5. Of the remaining 33%,   32% of all deaths occur in Hospitals.  So, ...
    above all else, avoid hospitals.
BUT,
... You might be pleased to learn that only .001% of all deaths occur in worship
services, and these are usually related to previous physical disorders.
Therefore, logic tells us that the safest place for you to be at any given point in time
is in a worship service! ...And....Bible study is safe too... The percentage of deaths
during Bible study is even less... UNLESS OF COURSE YOU ARE STUDYING
ON THE BATTLEFIELD...

So,...for SAFETY'S sake - Attend worship, and read your Bible...
IT DEFINITELY COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!
================================================================
The joys of service and duty have not diminished since I became a civilian last week.
I have now served eight days and four walking beat tours... the work has not
changed and neither have I...  the job is still the same...  the need is still the same...
and I am still able to adapt to the demand... whatever that might be.  During all of
these sixteen seasons of  walking beats and twenty nine years of patrol duties in
this department I have been blessed with working with some of the most useful,
professional Peace Keepers that any man has ever been privileged to know and
work with... and some of them have given to me the highest compliments that a
Peace Keeper can receive... they have told me that it was a privilege for them to
share a battlefield with me.

The first season we expanded the chaplain program and put the chaplains on the
walking beats the department gave me the ultimate compliment.  I was appointed to
administer and oversee the operation and function of all chaplain personnel within
the department.  The very first Labor Day weekend that we worked after the
program was expanded was to be the testing ground for our usefulness.  I was
allowed to plan and implement the field use of all chaplain personnel to see how
effective we could be with major crowds.  Each of us had been trained to seek out
and deal with the hottest person in any situation of difficulty.  It worked well and we
were very successful... even when most police personnel thought it would never
work... It worked well then and it still works well even with minimal numbers of
chaplain personnel on duty.  The trend dictates that some day we will no longer be
needed for walking beat duty.  When and if that time comes I shall miss the Peace
Keepers... but I will not miss the duty... I will miss only the Peace Keepers that I
know and worked with all these years.  Some day my duties will end here and be
redirected by my COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.  When that day comes I shall miss the
Peace Keepers for whom this duty is performed.  Other people benefit from our
presence and efforts... but the major beneficiaries are the chaplains and the
Peace Keepers.

If I were to live here indefinitely I could never be elevated to a position of greater
reward nor of higher importance than to know and serve with and for Peace
Keepers.  For forty three years my life has been inextricably entwined in this
business of peace keeping.  When I was away from it for a short time I hurt inside
and was plagued with an empty place that God, who had become my
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF could fill only by putting me back into peace keeping.
Service to my COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF became my mistress and He filled that
that empty place in me, and filled my place in His Kingdom, by placing me back
into peace keeping as a chaplain here in this city which is the last place on this
earth where I ever wanted to live.  He does have quite a sense of humor.

He loved me and sought me when I was unlovable and had trouble loving...
He gained my attention... called me to Himself... changed me into the man He
designed me to be... trained me in His ways of being His man, a useful man,
and then placed me here to serve Peace Keepers, His ministers of rightness
in this world.  Often when I am on a death call people to whom I have ministered
ask me why I do this job.  I do this job because I was called and prepared for it...
placed into it... and here I function as I was designed to function in a place that I
would never have chosen for myself...  Here I function for the benefit of all Peace
Keepers that I can reach and serve by whatever means... and for the citizens who
benefit from the services of the Peace Keepers.

Peace Keepers... I love you... and I love being a part of you!  In the very deepest
sense... SEMPER FIDELIS... ALWAYS THE CORP (PEACE KEEPER CORP,
THAT IS, INCLUDING THE U.S. MARINE CORP)... OORAH!!! 

(Marines... Please do not take offense at my use of SEMPER FI.  I USE IT FOR
ALL OF US WITH THE HIGHEST OF PRIDE AND RESPECT... THE HIGHEST
OF PRIDE AND RESPECT THAT I HAVE FOR YOU. )

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE... SEE TO YOUR FULL NEEDS.  PLEASE DO
NOT NEGLECT YOUR SPIRITUAL NEEDS.

IF YOU PRAY... PRAY FOR ME... I AM TIRED.  GOD BLESS YOU AND THANKS
FOR WHO YOU ARE AND FOR WHAT YOU DO.

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

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT...
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)...
BE SUCCESSFUL... BE SAFE...
Chaplain D. R. Staton (Don - C1) VBPD, VSP ALUMNI,
RETIRED Officer, Instructor, Senior Chaplain, Director of Chaplains
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
=================================================
Copyright: CHAPLAIN CORNER (DRS) 2005. All rights reserved. May not be
duplicated without permission, except to be forwarded with copyright and
all source information for any quotation intact.
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