TO AND FOR PEACE KEEPERS OF THE MILITARY AND ALL LAW ENFORCEMENT
   AT ALL LEVELS AND ALL OF THOSE IN THEIR SUPPORT SYSTEMS AND ALL
                         WHO CARE ABOUT THEM AND THEIR WELFARE.

CHAPLAIN CORNER IS DEDICATED TO ALL PEACE KEEPERS, CURRENT AND
RETIRED, THOSE LIVING NOW... AND THOSE WHO HAVE PRECEDED US AND
PASSED ON FROM THIS EARTHLY SCENE.  MY TERM PEACE KEEPER COVERS
 ALL SECURITY, JAIL AND PRISON ATTENDANTS WHATEVER THE TITLE; LAW
  ENFORCEMENT AT ALL LEVELS INCLUDING JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS;                
                            MILITARY IN WHATEVER BRANCH; AND
  THE SUPPORT SYSTEM PERSONNEL FOR ALL CATEGORIES IN WHATEVER
 COUNTRY OF THIS WORLD YOU HAPPEN TO BE.  YOU ARE VITAL TO OUR
 WORLD AND MY COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AND I CARE GREATLY FOR AND
   ABOUT YOU.  YOU ARE THE MINISTERS OF RIGHTNESS IN THIS WORLD...   
    AND THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT COULD NOT EXIST WITHOUT YOU!!!

IN ADDITION IT IS FOR THE PEACE MAKERS OF THIS WORLD.  SOMETIMES
THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE AS PEACE KEEPERS... SOMETIMES THEY ARE
NOT... BUT PEACE MAKERS ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT AND NECESSARY AS
                ARE PEACE KEEPERS NECESSARY AND IMPORTANT.

  PRAYERS ARE SAID DAILY FOR  ALL WHO HAVE REQUESTED MY PRAYERS...
FOR ALL FOR WHOM I HAVE PROMISED TO PRAY... FOR ALL FOR WHOM I HAVE
  BEEN INSTRUCTED TO PRAY... FOR PEACE KEEPERS... FOR FIREFIGHTERS...
FOR EMERGENCY MEDICAL PERSONNEL... DOCTORS... NURSES... TEACHERS...
COUNSELORS... AND ALL OF THE FAMILIES AND ALL OF THE LOVED ONES OF
ALL OF THESE PEOPLE... FOR LEADERS OF THE WORLD... LEADERS OF THE
     CHURCH... AND FOR SPECIFIC PEOPLE THAT HAVE SPECIFIC NEEDS...
         PLUS YOU ARE INCLUDED IF YOU ARE READING THIS MATERIAL.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<+>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
IN A MOMENT...

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) -
Moment - an indefinitely short period of time; instant:

Destiny... Fate... Life... All can be redirected in a moment... instantly... quickly... in the twinkling of an eye.

For Peace Keepers it is always possible that the next moment will be something that will change the course of life and career.  Law enforcement (and the Military as far as I am concerned)  has been defined as hours of boredom punctuated by moments of stark terror.

Someone sent a set of photos to me today.  They were of a heavy military vehicle involved with the explosion of an IED.  The damage was phenomenal.  Pieces lay in all directions including axles and motor separated from the body.  The heavy steering wheel was badly bent by the body of the driver... The driveshaft was inside the cab just short of touching the dash... Damage was everywhere in, on and around the vehicle.  One moment, the intact vehicle is traveling well and the occupants are alive... In another moment the vehicle has disintegrated... Injury and death are instantly present... Concussion from an strong explosion is devastating upon steel, flesh and bone.

An officer is responding to an emergency call... As the patrol vehicle goes through the intersection that was clear a moment before, the driver's side was T-boned right on the driver's door by a vehicle speeding through the intersection oblivious of any traffic lights, warning lights or sirens... In a moment the officer who was doing everything right is dead from the collision... Life is literally crushed from the body.

A motorcyclist is proceeding lawfully and properly... Instantly, in a moment there is a car blocking the path heading directly toward the cycle... Or a pedestrian suddenly appears directly in the path of the cycle...  No time to react... Collision takes life and does other serious injury to people and property.

Personally, the course of my life has been changed in a moment.... In an instant... several times... Some of those times were catastrophic in nature.  In one instance death was there... In all of the other instances death was closer than tenths of a second.

Sometimes these occurrences are caused by us... For Peace Keepers that is not supposed to happen.  Sometimes the happening is arbitrary and you could not have done anything to stop it... And you did not cause it...  Sometimes the training, received and practiced, and the state of mind in that moment are the tools of survival... Training and honed instincts take over and we are spared and survive... Sometimes without any injury.

Ambush happens in a moment.  Collisions happen in a moment.  Explosions happen in a moment.   Bullets, bombs and fires can kill and mutilate in a moment.

Determined, stealthy people can sometimes strike in a moment.  Peace can turn to chaos in a moment.  One who was friendly, amiable and co-operative can become a raging maniac in a moment, attacking and tearing...

Peace Keepers, you may never face any of this... Or you may face it in the next action of duty in which you are involved.  You may move through a whole career and never fire a shot at another human being... Or you may be accosted with a life or death decision to act and fire in the very first encounter you must handle alone... Or maybe it will come years after you begin... Or never!

Train... Train... Train.  Practice... Practice... Practice.   Think... Think... Think.  Experience will teach you that you must be prepared for any eventuality every moment you are on the field... Every moment you are operating a vehicle... Every moment you are involved in an investigation...  Every time you approach a building, a car or a person... 

We must be prepared.  We must ask ourselves, "What if?"  We must practice the scenarios!

An officer on duty, taking a meal break in a public restaurant, is shot through the glass of the front of the building in a drive-by shooting.

A neighborhood has received a stiff enforcement drug raid and arrest... The local lawless faction sends a message by riddling apartment buildings with bullets and sending a message that there is a contract out for the death of a cop... any cop.

You hear a noise... You get up from bed to investigate... You are not yet fully awake... An attack of dizziness strikes you and you fall... The fall initiates a long period of recovering from debilitating, life-threatening injury... You might fight hard and make it back... You might not make it back... It all began in a moment... In an instant.

I had a call this week to investigate a street blocked by a pile of dirt.  When I arrived it was two thirds blocked by a dump truck load of rich topsoil.  I could not find anyone at home nor anyone who knew anything about the pile of dirt.  After I called for highway equipment to move the dirt, I was waiting.  I observed a pick-up truck come out of a side street behind me... Stop in the roadway... And then turn toward my location.  The driver stopped beside my vehicle.  I inquired if he was responsible for the pile of dirt.  He was... I asked why it was in the roadway... And said he had been doing that for ten years.  When he was informed that I had highway equipment on the way to move the dirt from the roadway he became irate, angrily slamming the vehicle into gear and striking the steering wheel with his fist, he pulled to the right beyond the dirt... made a phone call... removed a wheelbarrow and shovel from the truck and started moving dirt into the yard of the house beside the dirt pile.  I called for a backup officer.

The officer arrived had a brief conversation with the contractor who works in landscaping.  He was asked if he thought a fire truck could get past the dirt pile and he agreed, probably not.  He was calming down.  The officer and I talked and the officer left.  I moved my vehicle.  The landscaper moved his truck in front of my vehicle and in front of the dirt pile with his emergency flashers on.  Then he and I had a conversation.  He was still hostile at me.  After I let him vent his story, I asked if we could start over and let me give him an explanation of definitions and the law governing the situation.  He listen, gained understanding and asked a couple of questions and asked for recommendations of how to handle similar problems in the future.  He liked my answers and we parted on a friendly basis.... But there was a moment when I did not think there would be a likelihood of peace from nor with him... I prepared for the eventuality... I let him work off his frustration on the dirt pile... then I attempted to educate him and he co-operated.

Many things that change the direction of life happen in a moment and we then spend much time responding to what must be handled or accomplished.

The lives of Peace Keepers may involve many such incidents in one day... Or not have to handle one in a week or a month.

Thank you all for all that you have done and are doing.  This world would be a terrible place in which to live if it were not for all of you and each of you.  My Commander-In-Chief and I are, and will always be, grateful that you are there... And I will always be grateful to have been one of you and to have been among you.

"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!"  Always be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the best of care of you as you care for others.  Be especially mindful to see to your spiritual welfare.  Your whole being needs to be strong for you to succeed.

Call or write if I may be of any assistance.

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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