I am in the midst of seminary in order to apply for chaplain candidacy in the National Guard. Reading Doris Bergen’s The Sword of the Lord is a fascinating adventure into the sometimes incongruous world of military chaplains. From the Latin root capellanus, the chaplain’s name originally stems from being designated the relic-carrier of St. Martin’s cape [...]
Archive for the ‘Military’ Category
The Four Chaplains
Posted in Military, Religion, tagged chaplaincy, Four Chaplains on June 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
How to Win a War
Posted in Military, tagged Afghanistan, Field Marshal Templer, Robert Gates, Sun Tzu on April 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Depending upon how you calculate it, America is on the verge of entering its longest-ever fought war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Here are some thoughts on how to win the war, something that because it is fought by asymmetric, insurgent warfare is first of all based on “hearts and minds,” the center of gravity [...]
A Painting Says a Thousand Words
Posted in Art, Culture, Military, Religion on January 26, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I first saw this painting at the Prosser Chapel in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. It is a moving work of art by Arnold Friberg called, “The Prayer at Valley Forge.”
Imperial Grunts: Robert Kaplan’s Insights into the War on Terror
Posted in Culture, Military, Politics, Uncategorized, tagged kaplan, Military, special forces, terrorism on January 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Robert Kaplan has recently written a fascinating account of the military as he was embedded with special forces from Mongolia to the Phillipines to Iraq and beyond. Having finished just finished Army Basic Training, I find Kaplan’s description of America’s strengthening unique cultural component–a “relative absence of class envy”–fascinating. While rank matters, a soldier is [...]
