I arrived in the 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment on 3 January 2000, after having just returned from a year-long unaccompanied tour in the 2nd Infantry Division in the Republic of Korea (South Korea). I enjoyed my tour there, but I was very glad to be home.
During my 21 years of combined active duty and National Guard service as both enlisted and officer, I've been privileged to serve with air cavalry, field artillery, topographic engineers, armor, and air defense. Although the 2-19th Infantry Regiment is not a "real", go-to-war infantry battalion (it is a basic training battalion for infantry), I helped train and shape three years' worth of brand new infantrymen who went off to various go-to-war infantry units around the world.
My greatest reward these past three years has been at the end of each company's cycle of training when the regular attendees of my Bible study and the Protestant chapel services come to me on their last Sunday and say, "Chaplain, we just want you to know how much we appreciate what you've done for us while we've been here." Those words of appreciation mean the world to me, and they have kept me going many times when I've been discouraged. It is truly I who am the thankful one for having had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to minister to these young men. I hope you are as enheartened as I am that there are some good and godly men serving in our United States' Army Infantry.
As my tenure in the 2-19th draws to a close on 10 January 2003, I want to memorialize many of the experiences I've either had or observed here by sharing four of the best speeches I've heard from a couple of battalion commanders and a couple of company commanders which I believe summarize this unit and its duties very well. I think they demonstrate just how important this duty to train our nation's future soldiers really is for us. I hope you find them as inspiring as I did, though reading them will surely not have the same impact as hearing them in person. I have arranged them chronologically for your selection below. Enjoy, and God bless!!