Page 5 - Fort Irwin High Desert Warrior, May 2022

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High Desert Warrior 5 May 2022
News
Hope for parents of a Prodigal
(A devotional thought from the Christian Faith tradition)
Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Erik J. Gramling
NTC/FT Irwin Command Chaplain
If you are a parent of adult children, you know that the joys and sorrows of parenting don’t stop when your kids leave the nest, in fact as my wife and I are discovering, these emotions only intensify especially if one of your children is not walking with the Lord.
For years, as a young parent, I stored Proverbs 22:6 in my heart as a rallying cry to train up my children in the way of the Cross of Jesus Christ and when they are older they will NOT depart from it. Though I always knew that the book of Proverbs is not a list of 100% guarantees, but rather words of wisdom of general truths, I always felt confident that my kids would indeed grow up and follow Jesus. As you can probably guess by now, I have discovered this isn’t always the case. As we say in the Army, “The enemy gets a vote!” In this case, the sinful, fallen nature in my son has
gotten a vote and for now it’s to actively disbelieve and go his own way. What is a parent to do?
Well, we could wallow in guilt and self-condem- nation but that won’t do any good. No parent is perfect, and ultimately, we trust the Lord to work in our kids’ lives despite our sins and failings. We could decide to condemn our child and heap words of doom and gloom upon them but this is really just a defense mechanism to protect yourself from feeling sorrow and anguish isn’t it? If I am angry at my child for not following Jesus, then I can avoid feeling grief and sorrow over this very real loss in Christian fellowship with my child.
What is left to parents of a prodigal but GRIEVE with HOPE and to continue to pray and sow seeds as the Lord allows in the life their child? To this end, let me encour- age you with a thought we received from a recent devotional written by Dr. Carl Trueman. He writes, “When I was faced by parents who are struggling with kids who had wandered
away, I’d always point them to the second thief (on the cross next to Jesus) and say, When does the second thief learn this stuff (that God is holy, he is a sinner and he asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus comes into his kingdom (Luke 23))? It’s possible God’s zapped it into his brain where he’s hanging on the cross, but the text doesn’t tell us that. And if the text doesn’t tell us that we should look for more mundane reasons. Well, I think what happened was that that young man was well taught when he was small. His parents taught him well. They taught him the word of God.”
Wow, that really blessed my wife’s and my heart as we think of our son, out in the world on his own apart from our Savior. We pray for the day when all those seeds planted in him, taught by us, year after year, will again take seed and grow. We hope it doesn’t take an event as extreme as a “crucifixion,” but if that’s what it takes, “Lord have mercy on our son’s soul!” I pray the truths above help you if you if you too have a child who is a prodigal.
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From EOD, Page 4
based 192nd Ordnance Disposal Battalion (EOD) “Renegades.” The 192nd EOD Battalion commands seven high demand Army EOD companies, including the Fort Bragg, North Car- olina-based 28th EOD Company that supports Special Forces missions and the 18th, 722nd and 767th EOD companies that deploy for airborne Immediate Response Force missions, as well as the Fort Belvoir, Virginia-based 55th EOD Company that supports domestic response missions and the Fort Drum, New York-based 754th and 760th EOD companies that support
military operations and civil authorities.
He credits his success to many retired Army EOD NCOs who
helped him develop into the leader and technician he is today, including 1st Sgt. Mike Cassin, Master Sgt. Garrick Hipskin, Sgt. 1st Class Brad Borgelt, Sgt. 1st Class Mark Palmer and Sgt. 1st Class Tony Gant.
Brinkmeyer recalls his first response to an improvised explosive device and working through defeating it with his team leader, Sgt. 1st Class Josh Kurk.
“At that moment I realized, you either gave them enough or you didn’t,” said Brinkmeyer. “For me that moment was prolific and is something I still think about regularly.”
Brinkmeyer said EOD technicians have to think critically to solve complex and dangerous problems when defeating explosive devices.
“EOD technicians aren’t special ... not any more than any other Soldier serving in uniform. But what does separate them is their ability to critically think and apply a cognitive thought process to tackle complex problems for a wide array of issues,” said Brinkmeyer.
“Soldiers who volunteer for EOD don’t do it for the glory, the title or the bragging rights. They do it to protect others and keep people safe,” said Brinkmeyer. “There isn’t a technician currently serving or from the past that doesn’t have a lingering nightmare or afterthought of, ‘if I don’t know everything or do things cor- rectly, the death of others will be from a decision I made.’ That alone drives them to become aggressive and question everything.”
Command Sgt. Maj. Dave Silva became an Army EOD technician after serving as a cannon crewmember on Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
He said he was drawn to the uniqueness of the mission. “Once I spent some time with the unit, it became clear this
is who I want to work beside,” said Silva. “They were incredibly intelligent when it came to ordnance and explosives and still maintained a very relaxed and fun environment that anyone would want to be a part of.”
Today, Silva is the command sergeant major for the 71st Ord- nance Group (EOD), the group that commands all EOD Soldiers west of the Mississippi River. The Fort Carson, Colorado-based EOD group commands three EOD battalions and 18 EOD companies on 11 military installations.
Silva said NCO leadership is critical to the success of EOD operations around the world.
“A tremendous amount of trust must be earned to be an NCO in this career field,” said Silva. “In EOD, the team leader is a staff sergeant. The team leader is the hub in which the entirety of the EOD community revolves around and supports. These NCOs are empowered to make critical decisions, while their team operates autonomously, in very austere environments. The EOD center of gravity is the team, led by the team leader.”
Silva said it is not unusual for a staff sergeant and a specialist to operate in a foreign country, advising a partner nation, without any additional supervision.
The Master EOD technician said every EOD technician on a team determines how to tackle different explosives.
“On an EOD team, every voice has equal value,” said Silva, who has deployed seven times and served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. “A team member who graduated yesterday will question a Master Badge team leader with years of experience and that is welcomed. Our teams have one chance to get it right, there are no redos when it comes to unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices.”
With the EOD motto of “initial success or total failure,” Silva said the trust and camaraderie in Army EOD teams extends to joint, interagency and allied EOD teams.
Silva said the EOD community has given him the opportu- nity to defeat explosive hazards, travel the world and protect the nation’s senior most leaders.
“Twenty-five years of EOD later, I’m having as much fun as I’ve ever had and feel even more strongly that this is the family in which I belong,” said Silva, a native of Long Beach, California. “I’ve seen all 50 states, five of seven continents, the absolute best and worst of dozens of countries, spent Christmas at the White
House, protected the Pope as well as presidents, and fast roped onto the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf.
“I’ve had so many incredible experiences but the highlight of my career isn’t the experiences, it’s the relationships, it’s the people, it’s the EOD family that I’ll take with me long after the experiences end,” said Silva.
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