MESSAGE TO A SON IN BASIC TRAINING...

Hello Son...

How is it going? Are you having fun yet? How much weight have you
lost (or gained)? Do you have any leisure time? How about your D.I.?

By now you have answers to all of the above questions... but to you
they probably do not mean much. I am sure that you have your mind on
other more pressing things.

Son, what you learn there will determine how well you do when it counts
for life and victory. You have decided to become one of the people who
stand out and stand up for the rights of all the rest of us and I am
naturally concerned about how well you are doing. I know that
sometimes the idea will enter your thoughts... "What am I doing here?"
I know that sometimes it is very difficult just to keep moving and get
to where the Instructor says you must arrive and be in the condition
that you are told that you must present when you arrive there. I know
that they must push you to see how well you can take it and how well
you survive and perform under pressure. They do all of this for a very
valuable reason... They do it because if you cannot survive the rigors
of training you will never survive the hell of life threatening battle
against an enemy that wants to spill your blood, take your life and
grind your remains into the dirt.

The United States of America exists and remains today because all of
those in the position for which you are now training took their place
in the line of defense and stood for all of the things that this nation
has always stood for... Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
You are among an elite group in our history... a very minor elite
compared to the total of our citizenry. I call this elite minority
Peace Keepers... and those that are with you now, leading you and
instructing you in Basic Training have proven themselves to be the best
of the best of those who once were where you are now... graduated to
the duty of peace keeping and proved themselves worthy of the title
“soldier”... U.S. Marines are sea going troops that can and will fight
wherever the fight is... on water... on land... in the air... wherever
the threat has to be faced and dealt with. They learned that all they
received in Basic Training was for their good, their success and their
survival. They went out and put it to use. They proved it to
themselves and to others... then they were selected to come back to the
Basic Training facilities and instill that proven knowledge into you
and those in your Basic Training class with you.

No matter what you thought that you knew before you arrived there... I
am sure you know much more now and will know still more by the next
time that I see you face to face. There is no world anywhere like the
world that you are in now. It is designed to make sure that when you
go into a battle with evil you have a good understanding of the things
that you can expect to not only be thrown at you to defeat you... but
what to expect that will test your mind, emotions and your body. You
are being trained for the rigors and reality of the Warrior/Peace
Keeper in everyday life and on the battlefield. You are being trained
to walk tall and face the most difficult of life head on and to carry
the battle to the problem whether it be human, situational or military.

I am most proud of you for volunteering for this kind of life for
yourself and for the benefit of all the rest of us.

Somewhere in all that you are experiencing you already have come to the
awareness that this is just where you fit... or if you have not
reached it yet... You will before that tremendous achievement of
graduation. When they quit calling you recruit and call you a Marine
you will most assuredly know then that this was your destiny at this
stage of your life. Where you go from there will be a decision that
will still be yours to make after you serve in all the places where
they assign you.

Absorb all that you can from the Instructors. Do your absolute best in
all of your efforts.
When tested to the limit… hang in there and you will find reserve
strength that will carry you through to the fullest of achievement. We
humans are most interestingly conceived and constructed. For most of
us humans who feel that we have reached the end of our endurance there
is the giving in and letting down on living and on effort... but there
is much more to us than most people ever realize. When we feel like we
have reached our limits we have just begun to test our reserve
resources. If we push beyond the limit that we think is imposed upon
us we find that there is no limit in sight and we can go on still
further and even be re-invigorated to do far beyond that which others
will accept as their limit - beyond which they cannot go... Your
instructors have tested that for themselves and they know from
experience. Their assignment is to take you to where they know you can
go if you will believe it and make the effort. Look closely... listen
closely... be very observant... these Instructors are most fabulous
people and they have much to give to you if you will receive it and
apply it.

As I am writing to you I am thinking of the history of The Corps...
Tripoli and all of those terrible places between then and now... You
have dedicated yourself to follow a long line of most powerful and
anonymous patriots. The world knows some of their names. You will
soon know far, far more of their names than most even know exist... and
you will learn of their achievements in places with strange sounding
names that few of our people today recognize. I have covered many of
those fields with them through their books and their journals. I look
forward to hearing what you learn of them and how well you get to know
them and become like them. Some of them were just your age and even
younger when they did the things that caused them to stand out even
among other Marines.

It will be most interesting to hear from you and learn how well you are
doing.

"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!" Be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary. Take
the best possible care of you as you are being trained to take care of
others. Be especially careful to provide for your spiritual welfare in
all of this. You need for that part of you to be strong too. Write
(or call if it is possible) if I may be of any service to you...

Semper Fi... (very soon you will have a very full understanding of what
that means)
Love and respect always... Dad
==================================================================
This message was inspired by a friend whose son is in his third week
of Basic Training at Parris Island. Boot camp is a lonely place after
being in a family home. I will be sending a hard mail copy of this
message to that son by snail mail so that he will hear his name called
at Mail Call and know that someone else is thinking about him and cares
for and about him. He, and all of you who read this message are in my
prayers. You are my family... You are my Parish, my assignment, my
mission in this life.

I believe that the most important active assignment for any Peace
Keeper is to be assigned to train the recruits how to become productive
and successful as Peace Keepers. My deep appreciation to all Peace
Keepers. My deepest appreciation to all of you in the position of
Trainers and Instructors... You mold our future by molding the recruits
into Peace Keepers and molding Peace Keepers into Professionals and
Specialists. My Commander-in-Chief and I eternally thank you for your
service now... Your service in the past... and your service yet to
come. May your service be long and successful to the fullest extent.

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!!!
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...
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
VIRGINIA STATE POLICE ALUMNI,
RETIRED Police Officer, Certified Police Instructor,
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
=================================================
Copyright: CHAPLAIN CORNER (DRS) 2006. All rights reserved.
May not be duplicated without permission, except to be forwarded
with copyright and all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers, 
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at 
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

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