Epilogue

Class picture - Major Haigh is in the back row, far left. I lost about 7 pound from the time that picture was taken until I left... My roomate, Bryce Coombs is standing to my left (your right)

Looking back, my five weeks at COT were some of the greatest days of my life. I held my own with people less than half my age, and pushed myself to do things I never thought I could do. I learned things about myself that didn’t make me proud – but I am inspired to work on them. I learned so much from so many people, from Major Haigh to my roommate, Bryce Coombs. I developed a whole new understanding of religious pluralism and found that experience did wonders for my own religious identity and convictions. In so many ways, I wish I had done this twenty five years ago. I believe I would have been a better person, a better husband and a better father. 

 

Coming home was weird. I found myself walking with cupped hands and turning sharp corners. One of my children claimed he was keeping a count of how many stories I recounted of my experiences. I saw things from very different perspectives, looking for structure and order were there was very little. I chilled after a while, but I view things very differently. 

 

Coming back to my Guard unit was even stranger. I had been told countless times that the Guard is just a different animal than active duty Air Force – but I had no idea. The first day I came back I made a bee-line for the base commander’s office (Col Montgomery). He put out his hand and I preempted him by standing at attention, snapping a salute, and said, “SIR, Chaplain Captain Friedman reports!” – he laughed and said (with his heavy Southern drawl), “Boy, we’re gonna have to unstarch the crap outta you!” So many of the customs and courtesies that had been drilled in to my head – NEVER standing with your hands in your pockets, haircuts to standards, proper greetings, of course saluting – are not really a big deal here. At the first Commander’s Call (the roll call for the wing leadership), I was congratulated for completing the course, at which point Col Montgomery announced, “Watch it – he’s all fired up!” to which I responded, “SIR! The Kool-Aid was blue and I drank of it copiously!!” It’s really how I feel.  I am so proud to wear this uniform; I wish I could wear it every day. So what will happen when my four years are up? Who knows? I will be (God-willing) a functioning attorney – will I have time for this? 

 

Next up will be my six-week Basic Chaplain Course (BCC). I am supposed to finish it with 24 months of my commissioning (Dec ‘11). However, the dates of the course have to work with my law school schedule; this year, I couldn’t have done it.  I was assured that next year they will have more dates available – but if not this year, they will give me a waiver to take it when I finish school in May ’12. My dream is finishing school, studying for the bar exam, taking the exam in July/August and then leaving for a 6-month deployment (covering the High Holidays and Passover). I REALLY want to go… 

 

We’ll see.

Thirty Third Day

Wake up at 0600 – Maj Haigh came to do our room inspection (make sure we hadn’t burned our dresser or anything) and when it was over, he called us all into the Common Area where he gave us our diplomas and our final RMO (round metal object) as a graduation present. We gave him our graduation present. He was so excited about deploying this fall, and he had just qualified on the M-4 rifle. He also had told us about one of his most prized possessions, his great-grandfather’s bayonet.  So we bought him a bayonet for the M-4.  He was truly touched. SCORE!
 

We went to breakfast, came back and chilled until 0915 when we began forming up for the parade. It was REALLY hot out there, and within minutes we were all sweating, staining our blue shirts in most unattractive ways. As I have shared before, I am a column leader which means that I am first in the column (out of the four columns). I love being in front, seeing all that is going on. But I also can’t sneak a quick sweat-wipe, so the sweat just poured forth unchecked.

Marching onto the parade ground - not that you can tell, but if you look at the front row, I am the second person from the right (next to the tall guy)

Standing at attention on the parade ground - not that you can tell, but that's me, indicated by the arrow...

Up until this morning, we had been practicing to a recording, and we had our march cadence down cold. This morning, we had a live band – and they must have had quite a bit of coffee today; their cadence seemed twice as fast! Totally threw us off!

The band - SLOW DOWN!!!

The bleachers were full of family and friends (not for me… boohoo) and we did an acceptable job. As we passed the reviewing stand we suddenly heard someone yell, “I love you, Papa!” – it was Major Haigh giving us his send-off. We reformed, marched forward, repeated our oath and threw our caps – and it was ALL OVER! We gathered around for pictures and good byes, and we couldn’t get off that parade field fast enough. I ran back to my room, took a quick shower, changed into civilians (it felt SO weird), grabbed my bag (I had packed everything else yesterday), and took off. Did I mention previously that my freon was gone and I had no A/C? And that it was 96 degrees? I drove to a service station that was recommended by Maj Haigh’s wife – and they were closed. I spent an hour looking for someone else who would do it, but they all said they needed at least 1.5 hours… so I just left. After the last five weeks, what’s another day of sweat? I can handle it - I just want to get home…