| It Took a Village - A Lesson In Perseverance |
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by Major Brenda Morrissey, CDI New York Wing |
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Brenda Morrisey in rehab the day after she took her first steps and gave her physical therapist a drill sergeant hat. |
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When we learn to walk as babies, we laugh when we fall, fearless about getting hurt and unaware of the consequences of injury. The temporary disruption of moving forward doesn’t really bother babies, who belly up to the couch, table, or dog again and pull themselves up and go right back at it, walking a few more steps each and every time until they stop falling. Many times during our character development lessons, we teach cadets to “fail forward,” taking the lessons learned from failing and applying them to not making the same mistake on a future attempt, using the core value of excellence and the principle of perseverance to keep making improvements. In this way, they move closer and closer to success, whether it is learning to walk, taking a milestone exam, succeeding in high school, or any number of other situations in life. On a pretty idle Saturday last June, while preparing my car for a trip to an event for my volunteer ambulance corps, I felt a small twinge of pain in my back. A few hours later, my leg went numb and after two days I became unable to walk correctly. I knew I had sciatica, and I am a medical professional so I took the time to explain it away until I got scared. Then, I fell, and for the first time since infancy, I could not get myself up. There was no bellying up to a couch, table, or dog, only fear. After decades of walking just fine, save a handful of slips on ice, I needed a village to help not only get me up after that fall but after surgery and in the months that followed. The concept of failing forward we speak of so frequently with the cadets became overcoming the fear of falling, learning to walk without feeling my feet for a few weeks, and trusting other medical professionals and equipment to support the healing nerves and muscles. Unlike fearless infants, adults know falls can cause injuries and fear can be a major deterrent. Perseverance truly relies on celebrating the core value of excellence, in the little successes, like standing and not holding on, taking the smallest of steps, and looking forward instead of down. These were things I took for granted after walking for years successfully but were milestones in recovery. My village went from family and friends, and expanded to doctors, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, and every single person offered one more idea about failing forward for me to celebrate. Each gave an opportunity to see perseverance in real time and appreciate the process even more. Relationships are a pillar of our resiliency for that reason; every person in our lives brings enrichment and ideas. The main lesson I took from this experience was to appreciate the idea of failing forward because, though as we age we get the experience to know that falling and failing can hurt, this just means that the support needed to belly up and get back up is just a little different and needs to be fostered better, both for our relationships and our own perseverance. It takes both a village to help us, but also personally-driven excellence. |
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Visiting Ramstein Cadet Squadron |
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Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Michael Morison Chief of Plans and Programs (CAP/HCX) for the Chaplain Corp |
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During a visit to Ramstein AFB to participate in the promotion of an Air Force Chaplain last September, Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Michael Morison had the opportunity to visit the Ramstein Cadet Squadron meeting. Discovering that the overseas squadrons had no chaplains of their own, he spoke with Chief of Chaplains John Reutemann at the National Conference. Ch. Morison collaborated with Ch. Reutemann on how to propose a virtual ministry of presence for our overseas squadrons. After discussions, Ch. Reutemann and Col. Arlinda Bailey, Overseas Group Commander, decided to incorporate a Chaplain Support Team into the Overseas Group. On March 3, 2025, Ch. Reutemann and Col. Arlinda Bailey announced the appointment of Ch. Morison as the Group's first Chaplain! He will join Lt. Col. Valarie Martindale, Overseas Group CDI, to form the first virtual Chaplain Support Team serving the 12 Overseas Squadrons. |
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Increased Integration with the Air Force |
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By Ch. (Col.) John F. Reutemann III Chief of the Chaplain Corps |
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Regular readers of The Transmitter will know how much the CAP Chaplain Corps College (CAPCCC) has integrated with the Air Force Chaplain Corps College (AFCCC) over the past two years. Starting in February 2023, and continuing in February 2024 and again last month, we have now sent 41 chaplains through our Auxiliary Chaplain Course, certifying them to perform Air Force-assigned missions (AFAMs) such as manning assists, funeral support, and contingency weekend worship service coverage. This course has three parts conducted online over the course of several months, but then the fourth and final part is a week-long, in-person integration with the AFCCC’s Basic Chaplain Course where CAP chaplains learn alongside chaplains of the other three components of the Total Force (Active Duty, Reserve, & Guard). More than just learning, our CAP chaplains experience the Air Force culture and engage in invaluable cross-component networking. Graduates of this course are already participating in several AFAMs across the nation, but we’ve run into problem, albeit a good one: the Air Force Chaplain Corps wants more! Last month during CAP’s Winter Command Council, I made a quick stop at the Pentagon to meet with the Air Force Chief of Chaplains, Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Trent Davis, to give him an update on our activities and to ask how we could help more. Of course, he was just at Maxwell AFB a week earlier to preside over the graduation of both AFCCC’s Basic Chaplain Course and CAPCCC’s Auxiliary Chaplain Course, so he already knew well what we bring to the table. He told me how impressed he was with our chaplains and how he would really like to see an increased integration of our chaplains into the Total Force. We discussed several ideas, one of which was to do a better job of getting CAP’s story to the Air Force’s wing chaplains so that they would be aware of our capabilities and initiate the AFAM process based on the needs of their respective bases. With these marching orders in hand, I asked the Commandant of the CAPCCC, Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Tim Miner, to work with the Commandant of the AFCCC, Chaplain (Col.) Ralph Elliott, to see what could be done. Thankfully, Ch. Elliott is a great supporter of CAP, and in fact, all four of his children were CAP cadets! With connections made and logistics ironed out, Ch. Miner was back at Maxwell AFB just a few weeks later to brief the students of AFCCC’s Wing Chaplain Course on CAP’s story and capabilities. Not surprisingly, we had multiple Air Force wing chaplains reach out to us afterwards saying that they want a CAP chaplain to help them out at their base! As I said, this is a good problem to have!
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Chaplain (Col.) Ralph Elliott, Commandant of AFCCC, with Chaplain (Col.) John Reutemann, CAP Chief of Chaplains, in his Air Force uniform. |
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But wait, there’s more! Last week, I was back at Maxwell AFB myself for an Air Force TDY and took the opportunity to meet with Ch. Elliott and thank him for his support of our efforts. He shared how thrilled he was to integrate further with the CAP Chaplain Corps, and even offered to have some of CAPCCC’s faculty go through the Air Force’s 2-week, in-person Academic Instructor Course to get certified to serve as adjunct faculty of AFCCC! So, starting next month, select faculty members of CAPCCC will travel back to Maxwell and train to become Air Force instructors, enabling them not only to tell CAP’s story to Air Force chaplains but also to alleviate some of the teaching burden of AFCCC’s instructors. Let me end with this: getting certified to do AFAMs is not for everyone, just like getting certified to do ES missions is not for everyone. As your Chief of Chaplains, I completely understand that most of us have limited time and resources, and if serving at your squadron is all you can do, that’s more than enough…in fact, that’s really the most important job in the CAP Chaplain Corps. Squadron chaplaincy is the privileged place of tactical ministry where you shape the future of this country and the entire world. That said, if you’re looking to do more, please consider some of the other trainings that the CAP Chaplain Corps has to offer (see details below). As we seek to integrate further with the Air Force Chaplain Corps to support them in a rapidly-changing battlespace, training is key. |
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Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Civil Air Patrol Chaplain Corps April 4, 2025 |
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Interested in celebrating and sharing the joy of 75 years of providing “Spiritual Fitness for Today’s Missions and Tomorrow’s Leaders” with your unit and others in CAP? Do you want a special way to recognize the core value of excellence throughout CAP? The new 75th anniversary CAP Chaplain Corps challenge coin is now available for purchase and distribution.The two-inch shiny gold coin is like the generic corps coin from the last several years. However, this year, the reverse showcases the 75th anniversary logo of a diamond made with seven ascending rays found in the USAF/CAP crest and seven descending rays found in the logo of the CAP Chaplain Corps College. To order your coins, send a check for $7 each (the cost of manufacturing at Vanguard) along with postage to this address: Chaplain Tim Miner 6512 Manet Court Woodbridge, Virginia 22193 Postage will be $3 for one coin, $11 for 2 to 5 coins, and $15 for more than 5 coins. Single coins will mail without tracking or insurance while all other orders will mail with tracking and insurance. |
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