USNA 50^th Memorial Service, 21 September 2008

Reflections by The Rev John A. Chrisman, Jr.

Captain U.S. Navy (Ret), Class of ’58.

Some years ago the TV covered Mrs Corozon Aquino, who had just survived that most feared of events in government, an attempted coup. With Colonels and collusions and machine guns on the roof. And through it all about forty men, women and children had been killed, mostly innocent men, women and children. Well now when the Marines had secured the gates, Mrs. Aquino appeared on national television to assure the nation that she was out and about, safe and well, because God had spared her and her family and that the nation could now get on with building a new democracy. At first blush that statement plays well in most places on this planet. I certainly would opt for a democracy anytime, but surely one that followed the corruption of the Marcos regime. But, the more I thought about that statement, the more heartburn it gave me, moral and spiritual heartburn. For if God had chosen to spare Mrs. Aquino and her family, what of those forty mostly innocent men, women and children who had died in the chaos of the fighting? Why had he allowed them to die?

My last assignment on active duty was as the Chief of the Navy Section of the Advisory Group to Greece. My predecessor, Captain George Tsantes had been killed by a terrorist group about eight months before I arrived, Donna and I were there two years and three months after I left the same terrorist group killed the Naval Attaché Captain Bill Nordeen. Now if God had chosen to spare my life, where was he for those two fine Navy Captains, George and Bill?

No, Mrs. Aquino, there is a finer, truer, more theological way to understand how God works.

A good friend of mine, Chaplain Bob Beddingfield, who was the Senior Chaplain here when Admiral Bill Lawrence was the Superintendent, told me of a night when he and the Admiral had sat and talked late into the night in that great house next door.

You will remember that Bill Lawrence had been a guest of the North Vietnamese for about seven years. He had been tortured and tormented over that time and he related one incident to Bob in which he had been thrown back into his tiny cell after one torture session in which his shoulder had been dislocated. As he lay there on the floor, trying to ease the pain, he came to the most important understanding of his life. He said that over the years he had prayed to God to get him out and he had become angry when God didn’t get him out. Then he said that he realized that God wasn’t going to get him out because he hadn’t put him in. It had just happened in the way things happen in the course of this life. But, the understanding that came to Bill Lawrence was that God had been there with him all that time. With him, comforting him and strengthening him and giving him the courage and the will to withstand everything that was thrown at him. From that moment on he said that he was a new person, born anew, into a new understanding. The Admiral had put away childish things.

That my friends is the understanding that I have of God. A God that holds us close and hugs us tight when we have crawled into the corner like small hurt animals. When the world has done its worst, recognizing that the worst has been done. A God that gets us out of nothing but a God who gets us through everything. He gives us our strengths and weaknesses and most of all he gives us people to love and they by in large are what gets us through.

In lots of ways this great institution we all love so much teaches exactly that.

All weekend we have talked about this as our 50^th reunion.  In fact what we celebrate and memorialize here began 54 years ago. And in very real terms those four years are what makes all the difference to us and in us and in all that we do. For it was those four years that formed us and molded us into the men that went forth from this place to take up our duties in Service and in our roles in society.

We stood on the bricks of Tecumseh Court 54 years ago, shorn of our hair, stuffed into ill-fitting white works, jabbed full of shots and in general totally stressed out about what was happening to us. Then an officer, who, we were sure was at least equal in importance to God told us to raise our right hands and we took the most solemn oath we had ever taken in our young lives. We swore that we would faithfully carry out the duties our country entrusted to us and to protect it against all enemies, foreign and domestic. WOW!! That’s a heavy load.

And then we were thrown into the maelstrom of Plebe Year and at that moment we began to spin the web that would connect us to each other and the wider world forever.

It was a time of growth and gain, a time of loss and loneliness. Loss of our innocence in lots of cases and loneliness in our individual struggles to keep our heads above the waters of chaos that swirled around us. But it was a time of growth and gain in what we learned about ourselves and our abilities to meet the challenges we faced and gain in our appreciation of our individual strengths and in the support of those around us. Our Classmates.

They were the folk that we were able to turn to for comfort when we needed it, for bucking up when we needed it and reassurance that we could do it and we all needed that from time to time. We were all in this mess together and we knew that each of us was going through the same sorts of fears and frustrations that we were. And through it all and because of it all a bond was forged, it was a bond that is hard to define, but one that we all know exists. It is a unique bond of trust and confidence. A bond of respect and yes even love. That bond has stood us in good stead over these past 54 years. We have gone on to distinguished careers in the Armed Forces, in industry, in government, in the academic community, in Medicine and yes even in the Church (who would have thought it?). And now we even have one of our own as a nominee for President of the United States (who would have thought it?). And through it all we have relied on the strengths and the support of those we have touched and those who have touched us.

We come here to this sacred place at the end of a wonderful weekend full of fun and laughter and memories, to bring into our hearts and into our minds eye, those whom we have known and see no longer, We hold them up to God in gratitude for having known them and for having the privilege of calling them classmates, with all that that word means to us. God has blessed us over these years with talents and abilities, with opportunities and achievements, but more that that, much more than that, He has blessed us  with families and friends who have sustained us and comforted us through all that this world has thrown at us, who have stood by us through all our foibles and follies. Our successes and our failures and for that we are eternally grateful. And we pray that those who have gone before us know of that appreciation and love. AMEN