"Generations of Fighting Men"

"GENERATIONS OF FIGHTING MEN"

"What fight are you willing to engage?"

My Great-great grandfather enlisted in the North Carolina 26th back in 1860. He was a farmer and was fighting for state rights. His Company I was attached to the Army of Northern Virginia and led by General Robert E. Lee as well as generals Ewell and Pettigrew. They all ended up at Gettysburg, PA in July 1863. His name was Andrew Jackson Hall.

I've climbed up Seminary Ridge where he was wounded on the first day of the battle there and I stood in the wooded area where the NC 26th and others gathered to take part in Pickett's Charge the 3rd day. Standing there brought a chill to my spirit. I could smell the stench of unkempt soldiers amidst the musket powder. I could hear the echoes of chattering voices by the treeline and sense the pee running down the soldier's legs as they looked across the open fields to see the Union army camped at the top of Cemetery Ridge. Have you ever been there? Go as a grown man, with stuff to defend. Go there and remember how cruel war can be and how brothers have treated brothers and how other men's politics take the lives of young men who often just don't know any better.

G2-Grandpa Hall was captured by Union soldiers on the 3rd day and while being taken to the train station, they stopped by a stream to get a drink and as family legend tells...he overpowered a guard, stole his gun and headed off into the woods. He didn't return to what was left of his unit and he didn't see any desire to continue any killing; so he followed the stars and the Indian paths from SE Pennsylvania and returned to NC like 100's of other soldiers who went AWOL each day at the end of the war. Perhaps this action secured the family tree. His grandson was my mother's father.

I have no recollection or proof that either of my grandfathers were ever in the military. Between the two of them they father 11 children...9 + 2...( at least that we know of) but truth be told they weren't very good at being "dad" and left a train wreck behind for two families. I tell people they loved Jesus...but the loved Jack Daniels more..." Thus, their battle lines were blurred as I'm certain that no good has ever come in a home where excessive drinking was the norm.

My father enlisted in the US Air Force in 1952. At age 22 he was a bit older than most young men his age that did so and his joining up became an answer to a certain lack of life clarity. I don't think he was ever really good military material but he did get some clarity...he'd rather be in Youngstown, OH with the young girl who would become my mother more than greasing planes prior to a bombing raid in some cold God-forsaken foreign country. He served barley 6 months being given a "sole surviving son" honorable discharge during the Korean conflict. And the one huge fight my father and I did have besides playing HS baseball ( or not) in 1970 and getting my haircut in 1972 was my announcing that I was going to register for the draft as a "conscientious objector." His line in the sand was bigger than Col. Travis's... and so I was on the list in 1972 as a 1A target of the draft board... garnering a number 123. No one in my class, however, was called up. That all ended the year before... a campaign promise of Richard Nixon ...to end the war in Viet Nam.

I have uncles and aunts who have served in the military. Some as short-timers and some who made it a career. They have served well and often where danger was near. I have a cousin who served on US Navy submarines and I have a nephews who are currently in the USAF and in the Army...one of them is actually "somewhere" in the Middle East...and in a message to me this past week he wrote these things...and I thought I would include them in this blog... and with his permission...

My room mate says hes going to start blogging. My response was "about what". He went on to explain too me that people blog about nothing at all. I told him
"Great! You got plenty of material to write about then". I read that I'm supposed to consume 18 calories per pound to maintain muscle growth so about 3600-4000 a day which I was doing for a while but I lost 2 pounds this week. Seems like the food is getting worse but its still very good by Army standards so I cant complain. It does make it hard to eat in excesses though.

On the upside my run has gotten better and I have put on weight so its a plus. Think I will gain a lot more back home though.

It rained here and I watched a local driving down the road and he got stuck in the mud. He got out and pulled a shovel out of the trunk, walked around to the passenger side and handed the shovel to the woman. Then he got back in the car out of the rain while she dug out the tires and put bags behind the wheels. After about 10 minutes of this the man spins the tires and the car gets free, and he takes off down the road, the woman running behind with the shovel in the rain with no shoes. After about 200-300 yards the man slows down and throws some shoes out the window. I was alternating between laughter and disgust. It didn't seem real almost like it was a comedy skit. Can't really see that happening back home, you get a flat and tell your girl to change the tire in the rain then when its fixed leave her on the side of the road. Can't imagine treating some one like that, or who would want too be with a woman that allowed herself too be treated that way. Some times I feel like the locals aren't worth helping, they are still stuck 500 years in the past. "

Yet, my nephew's tour of duty there is not his first. He signed up to go a second time!

So, there have been soldiers in my family surrounding me for over 150 years...perhaps even longer as we're pretty certain that William Gigee fought in the Revolutionary War as he was listed in the 1790 census in Ulster Co. NY...the town clerk...and yet I've never donned a military uniform despite playing countless hours of "army" with dozens of other young boys in the 700 acre woods behind my house growing up. And if you ask a soldier these days or their families, "Why?"...and we have a number of them in our congregation, too, they will say that they are not fighting for "taxation" or "state rights" or "slavery" as some have claimed..but that they are fighting for freedom...theirs, ours and even for the 'stranger.' It's a battle they are willing to engage themselves in. No doubt there will be a variety of opinions from the hawks and doves and those who waffle, like me, back and forth in the middle...

It's an odd thing for a Christian to engage in military combat some say. We speak the words, "peace be with you," Sunday after Sunday and we know the commandment, "You shall not kill," and we can quote some good lines like..."America, Love It or Leave It" and "End the War- NOW" or Benjamin Franklin's great quote..."there never was a good war nor a bad peace"... and yet we find that there are times when "a good fight" is our only resort... and ultimately reflects the battle lines men are willing to engage themselves in. Some will fight; some will not. Some will join up and others will run. What fight are you willing to enter?

I know some who think that Christians should be 'pacifists.' They say Jesus was a 'pacifist.' But, if that were true...I mean really true in the "pacifist" sense, then I don't think Jesus would have followed his Father's desire to "come and dwell among us" ... to "come and be one of us"...to "come and fight the powers of the evil one"....AND WIN!

It's what we sing these Easter weeks..."The strife is o'er; the battle's won..." Jesus entering the fight on our behalf...taking on Satan face to face...toe to toe...power to power...and giving us cause to shout..."Alleluia" ...Christ is risen... God is on the loose...

And this is battle that I have been willing to enter...I'm not alone...and it's the battle for men's hearts and minds...to fight for themselves, their families, their churches, their communities...to put both feet fully into the circle of faith and trust in God's ways for all things...Simple? Hardly. Important? Youbetcha. Some will be more determined than others...

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, the Bible reminds us and included in those witnesses are those who have given their lives ( A Memorial Day thought) for the sake of others as well as those who have engaged in life's battle in other ways as missionaries of the gospel and medical personnel who have brought a better quality of life to those who battle just to live one more day... or teachers who spend a lifetime equipping others to live well and be and do their best... or civil servants who seek to 'serve and protect' our communities and even the "good people" of our churches who do things for others as a sign that Jesus has entered the battle and won... and that makes all the difference...

At the end of John's Gospel, Jesus says, "My peace I leave with you...as the Father has sent me; so I send you..." which makes me want to believe that Jesus didn't say that so others would...he said so that I would go out and you would go out and engage the world with love and grace and purpose...

Thank you for being part of this generation's "fighting men." It's a battle we must fight as the war has already been won...

One Man @ a time; no man left behind,

Brian