First of all kids - I'm drained. We've just completed a three day field exercise we at the Chaplain School call, "Capstone." It's an introduction for new Chaplains to what it's like living in the field. It's not that fun and the days are long since you wake up in the dark and sleep time is usually around 1930 (7:30 P.M.). But with all the luck I've had recently they go out Sunday afternoon to a full drenching all afternoon and into the night rainstorm followed by three full days of drizzle while we have to stand outside almost all the time.
Now for my usual digression. While laying awake around 0200 my mind went back to 2001 and the Strike Brigade's - 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division's six month deployment to Kosovo. My trusty side kick Staff Sergeant Sonny Ferrell and I had been tasked as the "Task Force Falcon Chaplain Unit Ministry Team," which was cool since we had some really great guys to work with that I see and hear from today. Brigadier General Bill David was the Task Force Falcon Commander and if there was ever a great boss he was it. It was still a mess when we arrived and our mission was basically to keep the Kosovo people happy while they were trying to get their lands and homes back from the ethnic Albanians who essentially just walked in with the support of the Serbs who were Eastern Orthodox while the Kosovar people were basically Islamic. Since we "won" the war Clinton started months too late from 30,000 feet the Serbs were in check but the damage was already done; the Albanians had moved in while the U.S. was 'weighing' whether to throw out the Serbs who were massacring Kosovars left and right - Soldiers were still finding the graves and the arms and fingers of adults and little kids sticking up through the ground - A great thought to carry around - So here we are providing fire engines, dump trucks, stability etc., to the Islamic population and feeling pretty good about it. A nice, sunny, warm 11 September rolls around. Some of the guys are watching the morning news in the states (we were behind in time about 7 hours), and a great movie comes on all of a sudden with planes crashing into the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. Planes hijacked by the same types of people we were protecting in Kosovo. No need to go into great detail about that except to say it felt a little hairy for a few days since we were in Muslim Central Kosovo.
Anyway - on 21 September, the unit got a call from a Senior Muslim official in the capital of Pristina. He wanted to meet the religious leaders in the coalition. The UN Chaplain got in touch with me and wanted me to be the lead. "Sure, it's not like I have anything else to do that day."
We walk into this big office type building in Pristina and there are a whole bunch of Islamic leaders around. We sat, talked through translaters and drank some tea - mostly small talk about the similarities in our faiths. Then a man with a white type "Fez" hat comes over and sits next to me. It was a curious moment but I knew something was coming. "I am the Chief Mufti of Kosovo," he says through the translater. "Those people who did that to your country on 11 September do not represent the Kosovo people." "I am very sorry for your country." It was pretty solemn. "I know Kosovo does not," I replied. We all then went outside and he asked to have a picture taken of the two of us. The picture is on the right. 
He then took us to a local Mosque to show us around - I assume to help start to heal what he must have known was something big coming on the Horizon -that would be the U.S. Military led by President Bush. The picture of me to the left is in the Mosque and I'm standing where the Imam normally does his readings. You don't see that very often - especially a guy in a combat uniform and no boots on. I was trying to look humbled but am unsure I succeeded. It was good he made an effort to do that. So much nonsense that could have been avoided but all we can do is look forward now. 
We were in a coffee shop one day and this lady was standing outside looking in. She obviously had no money and was hungry. There was no food to buy her inside but we went ahead and bought her an ice cream cone and a Pepsi you can see she has tucked in her arm. Anyway, back to the United States. The exercise went well. Everyone made it through. No one was hurt. I decided to do something special for the new Chaplains as they marched back to the Chaplain School (about 4 miles). I decide to line up people from the school on the sidewalk and have them cheer the candidates as they came back in. I also had some loudspeakers put out and played Scottish bagpipes that you could hear clear across the post. You could see their chests burst a little with pride as they walked in. Good day in all. But my title? I had to miss two nights of Wheel of Fortune and Donny Osmond winning Dancing with the Stars for all of this. Oh well, it's for the Country - the Constitution.
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