chapter 144G

Finding Faith in the War Zone

8/31/2012

full circle

  link to My Fort Gordon folder (70 pics)

   link to My Saratoga Race Track folder ( 70 pics)

God had a plan for him. Last time I saw my house mate in Georgia, Craig Wiley, was 43 years ago in the summer of 1969 when he got orders for the Nam. Now, I ams glad to find out from my iPad search that he is ALIVE, has surprisingly become a Chaplain, and amazingly is the NATIONAL DIRECTOR for all chaplains at all horse race tracks in the country, for God's sake!

I just discovered this post chaplain    retirement notice for Craig, who was a founding member of our gang that shared our off post apartment in Augusta so that we'd feel like we were part of the real world. The photo above was near the end when he had his last supper with us; spaghetti and beer, not bread and wine.

At 19 he had volunteered so he could at least choose his MOS job title as he wanted to be an MP. He pulled guard duty at the same stockade and cell block I had been assigned to. After a mere few months he got the overseas assignment. Long story short: he served a year and a half doing guard duty at the LBJ (284th MPs at Long Binh Jail) the largest stockade in Vietnam near Saigon. The whole time he worked the 12 hour night shift 7 days a week mostly at the maximum security cell blocks for an unsavory bunch of murderers, druggies and malcontents.

 He found his Christian faith over there and decided to go into the ministry. I'm sure he was inclined that way to begin with, but I'd have to think that experiencing man's inhumanity to man up close and personal must have sealed the deal. They say war is Hell, but I maybe God is there too. After returning stateside he became ordained, rejoined the Army as a Chaplain, and served a career around the world, finishing back at Fort Gordon.

This summer he moved to a mecca for horse racing in Lexington, KY to become Director of the National Race Track Chaplaincy of America . Never knew there was such a thing but apparently Craig has had a strong interest in horses all along.

We have made contact and had planned to get together on his business trip to the Saratoga track in August when he met with the NY staff who provide aid to the backstretch workers there. That didn't transpire but it's still interesting how Destiny's Pinball of life bounces (good name for a horse). Note that it was 2 Lexington, Ky trainers who shared the recent Saratoga Travers race in a dead heat. That hadn't happened since Ulysses S Grant was President.

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