AS PROMISED

I took you to the Throne of Grace this day. We had
a marvelous visit there and I came back to write to you.

Last night I received one of the most surprising messages that I ever
received. I received a message from the grandparents of one of the two
teen girls killed in the fatal crash I wrote about in the April 2 issue
of CHAPLAIN CORNER. They are in California. Someone who knew them
there read CHAPLAIN CORNER in BLACKWATER TACTICAL WEEKLY and forwarded
it to the grandparents. Their message was one of appreciation for my
services to their daughter and grandchildren following the fatal
crash. It was also a commitment to fight this kind of tragedy
happening to others. When you write for publication you just never
know who will be reading the material... and often receive pleasant
surprises when they decide to write about the message that they read.

THANK YOU to all who have responded to messages that I have written
over the years. It will very soon be five years of weekly messages...
Sometimes it seems like I have been writing forever... Sometimes it
seems like I just started. Many of you have responded to me over the
years and I treasure the relationships that we have established. It
may sound strange but my Peace Keeping career seems the same way...
Some days it is like I just began... Some days it is like I have been
doing it forever with no comprehension of time... But it has brought me
many friends and some Compadres. For that one facet of both the
writing and the career I am most thankful.

Sometimes there are few life course adjustments. At other times there
are frequent and drastic life course adjustments. There are some
things that happen in our lives that we can never prepare for ahead of
time. There are some things that even if you knew they were coming you
could not avoid it... There would be very little that you could
change. There would be very little that you could do in advance to
prepare for it even if you knew it was coming at a certain hour on a
certain day.

We are all aware of possibilities. We are also aware of some
certainties. Certainties we seem to avoid in our thoughts and in our
planning. There are those people who believe that if you never think
about some things that you will never have to deal with those things.
Life and much experience has taught me that some things cannot be
avoided... And when they occur all that is available to us is to go
through them as well as we can dealing with each circumstance and each
event as they come... Taking it moment by moment and giving it our
best... They will come into every life that is here in this world for
very long.

I started dealing with death, sadness, separation and disappointment at
a very early age... Even before I had the opportunity to attend school
and meet other children. Some people who begin life this way become
cynical (seeing nothing good in life), hard and are seldom happy. For
them life becomes drudgery and is something to endure and fight. This
is one extreme.

The opposite extreme of this is the person who sees some form of good
in everything... Even in the most tragic of events. Most people are
somewhere between these two extremes and do not want anything to do
with the people who are constantly manifesting either of the extremes.

If ever a man were to be born into circumstances that predicted
failure, it was me. There were so many negatives that I should have
turned out to be useless and a failure... But like the Bumble Bee who
does not know that aerodynamically he cannot fly... The Bumble Bee and
I just went on and flew anyway. It just did not matter who it was that
told us we could not do it... We went ahead and did it.

History is filled with countless men and women who were born into very
poor circumstances... Men and women who should have failed... Men and
women who should have died at some point in their development. Then
there are others who had very good beginnings and lived reasonably well
under the system where they lived. In either case, some event
threatened their world with destruction and they stepped up and formed
a line; a wall; a resistance that stopped the forward progress of the
destruction. Even if they did not win that battle at the moment they
laid the foundation for others to build on and win.

The Sparta 300 were such men... Every one of them died at the Hot Gates
defending the pass against the enemy who wanted to rape and pillage
their nation and their families. They delayed the enemy for three
days... Just long enough for other Greek citizens to amass the
resources to resist and defend... And then to carry the attack against
the enemy and defeat him... Preserving their nation and their people.

William Wilberforce was such a man in England. He was sure that
slavery should be abolished in the British Empire. No one wanted to
listen. He dedicated his life to gaining the position and influence to
make a difference. Ultimately he succeeded in abolishing the slave
trade in the British empire. Even when fighting alone he fought on...
And he succeeded.

The Minute Men were such men in the founding of this nation during our own revolution.
The Marines at Chosen Reservoir were such men in that battle in Korea.
Thousands of Peace Keepers have done this over the ages in all kinds of
places too numerous to name. The Peace Keepers of today are such
people as well.

This week I read "I AM A SOLDIER, TOO - THE JESSICA LYNCH STORY" by
Rick Bragg. I had read of the battle in which she was captured in
Nasiriyah, Iraq in the beginning days of the invasion in 2003 when I
read MARINES IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, by Richard Lowry. The details he
presented in his narrative whet my desire to know more about this small
woman from West Virginia that had received so much attention because of
her capture and rescue. I was in a home last Sunday and saw the book
on a table. I asked if they had read it. They had not . I told them
I would like to read it if they were not using it. They sent it home
with me and I have finished it.

The book about Jessica introduced me to people in West Virginia like
the ones where I grew up... Mountain country people in western Virginia
in the Blue Ridge Mountains and in the Shenandoah Valley. People of
hard working, simple ways and simple ethics. People with good hearts,
deep feelings and powerful commitment. People who were and are mostly
for one another.... and Jessica reminded me of myself. She had the
same thought patterns and self motivating attitudes as I had. She
intended to make powerful use of her life in spite of anything that
would tell her that she could not. The course of her attitudes,
desires and efforts put her into the 507th Maintenance Company in the
U.S.Army on the streets of Nasiriyah, Iraq on that fateful day in March
2003 where so many of her fellow unit members were killed in an action
that probably should not have happened. Mistakes were made according
to both of the books that I have read... That led to the deaths of
members of the 507th and Jessica's capture and torture.

The most heart rending scene in the story is the moment of her rescue.
The team identified themselves to her as United States Soldiers. Until
that moment she thought it was Iraqi troops coming to take her to
Baghdad... And she had not responded to their voice calls to let them
know what room she was in. When she looked upon them they were dimly
outlined to her without her glasses which had been long lost. She
said, "I am a soldier, too... I am hurt." One of the soldiers took her
hand. He reached up and tore off his shoulder patch and pressed it
into her other hand... and they hustled her out to the waiting
helicopter and away to a field hospital. In the field hospital they
were surprised that she had survived. They did emergency treatment
there and sent her on to Landstul Regional Medical Center in Germany.
Subsequently they transferred her from there to Walter Reid in the USA.

According to a net search Jessica was honorably discharged, has
recovered (though not completely), enrolled in West Virginia University
to pursue her teaching career and has a new family of her own with a
baby girl, Dakota Ann, born in January 2007.

There are many pros and cons about her story and her experience. I did
not allow those to affect me while I read the book. The book lays out
her life, her family, her experience in Iraq, her initial medical
treatments and her return home to the mountains and hollars of West
Virginia... and it is well done. I did find the book interesting...
Knowing more about this tiny female Peace Keeper was good information
to learn. Say whatever you will... Jessi volunteered for the Army...
She went when she was sent... She drove a huge truck into the hell of
the Iraqi Desert... When her truck broke down she piled into a Humvee
and rode into the chaos and destruction of that ambush... That was her
job and her place to be. Some call her a hero... Some gripe about her
receiving so much attention.

Personally I admire her like I admire all Peace Keepers. She took her
stand... She did her job for as long as she was able... She survived
hell on this earth when she probably should not have survived if we
look at the statistics and not to Providence... She took her turn on
the battlefield... She survived and recovered to go on with life. She
has dedicated herself to learning and conveying good to others by what
she learns. That's a pretty good record as far as I am concerned...
and she dedicated the book to Lori Piestewa, her best friend and room
mate, the driver of the Humvee she was in when they were ambushed, who
did not survive and was found buried on the grounds of the hospital
where Jessica was recovered by the rescue unit.

Peace Keepers come in all sizes, many colors and all shapes from tiny
females to giant males. It is seldom the size, sex or color of the
physical body that counts. It is the size of the heart or spirit
within the Peace Keeper and what they do with it that matters. We all
have the same basic, simple tools. How we apply those tools to life
and service is greatly important.

Again this week... More Peace Keepers have died on foreign fields.
More Peace Keepers have died at home. Even more Peace Keepers are
needed who will put themselves into the places of threat and danger for
the good and welfare of all the rest of the people. Because of these
events there is a part of me always saddened. I know an
aged Peace Keeper, a very dear friend, who is imminently facing
death... likely just days away. I have spent time with him to try and
make his passing easier. It is an awesome thing to be in the presence
of those who are fumbling with the curtain between this life and the
next. Sometimes it is even more awesome to be there at the moment they
reach that opening in the curtain and pass through.

Peace my Comrades... Peace to you now wherever you are. Peace and
strength to you in great abundance. My Commander-In-Chief and I are
most thankful that you are there. Trust Him. His instruction,
presence and power in your life will make your living greatly
worthwhile and your graduation from this life an amazing experience
when that time comes for you. Death is the last enemy in this life and
the first friend in the next one if you have prepared. Are you ready?

I still desire your prayers of agreement for the right job. I have
interviewed for one job... Will interview for another in two weeks...
and plan to apply for others as soon as they come open. I want to get
the right one and be in the right place. That is the most beneficial
for me and for those to whom I am called for service.

"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!" Be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary. Take
the very best possible care of you as you care for and about others.
See to the well being of your own spirit for it needs to be strong for
you to succeed.

Call or write if I may be of any assistance. Some have taken me up on
this and we have corresponded often and many have become my friends.
Some of them were revealed to me as my Compadres. I WILL DO WHAT I
CAN FOR YOU OR I WILL BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR ANY ANSWERS THAT MIGHT BE
USEFUL TO YOU THAT I DO NOT KNOW PRESENTLY.

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
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