SANDF Soldiers to be Remembered

SABC news:

The memorial service for the 13 SA National Defence Force soldiers, who died in a gun battle with Seleka rebels in the Central African Republic nine days ago, will be held at the Swartkop Air Force Base in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula handed over the bodies of the deceased soldiers to their respective families last week Thursday. SANDF spokesperson Xolani Mabanga says funeral arrangements will also be announced on Tuesday.

“I would like to emphasise that there is a senior official that has been appointed in SANDF that will be in charge of each and every family, for the preparation of the funeral and all the administration,” says Mabanga.

It is ill-advised or ill-informed of the DA to call a joint sitting

Meanwhile, the African National Congress’ chief whip’s office says calling for a joint sitting of Parliament to force the withdrawal of troops from the Central African Republic, will not yield any results, this after the Democratic Alliance urged President Jacob Zuma to convene an urgent joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament to discuss the matter.

However, the ANC’s chief whip’s spokesperson Moloto Motapo says only Parliament’s joint committee on Defence can make such a recommendation to either the National Assembly or the National Council of Provinces.

 

A Soldier’s Requiem, Never Fading Away

… Every day there are small reminders, and here was one: Julia would hang the ornament because her father, Lt. Col. Paul J. Finken, died in Iraq six years ago, killed by a roadside bomb on the final patrol of his yearlong deployment.

The moment capsulized one family’s self-guided journey through loss. Over six years, Mrs. Finken and her daughters, ages 14, 12 and 10, have struggled through different phases of mourning, sometimes together, sometimes on individual calendars. But the one constant has been their determination to remember, without letting memory become a millstone.

“I don’t want to squeeze the life out of the memories, because I want them to still be precious and mean something,” Mrs. Finken said. “I also don’t want the memories to drag us down. Because memories can do that sometimes.”

Since 2001, about 4,800 children have lost a parent and 3,650 adults have lost a spouse to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For most, finding that balance between holding on to lost loved ones — and releasing them — will be the key to recovery…

Heart-wrenching…

Read on in the NY Times here.

Pic of the Day

And it comes via the IDF on Twitter:

Massive rainfall in Israel today. Snow on Mt. Hermon. Most Israelis are staying indoors. Not us.

General Norman Schwarzkopf Has Died

He was 78.

Norman Schwarzkopf, the US general who led 1991 Operation Desert Storm, which liberated Kuwait from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, has died at the age of 78.

The Telegraph continues:

Gen Schwarzkopf, an American hero known popularly as “Stormin Norman,” died at his home in Tampa. The cause of death was not known.

Former president George HW Bush, himself sick in intensive care in Texas, was first to issue a statement mourning the loss of the man he chose to lead the war that came to define both of their careers.

“Barbara and I mourn the loss of a true American patriot and one of the great military leaders of his generation,” his statement said.

“A distinguished member of that Long Gray Line hailing from West Point, General Norm Schwarzkopf, to me, epitomized the ‘duty, service, country’ creed that has defended our freedom and seen this great nation through our most trying international crises,” Mr Bush said.

“More than that, he was a good and decent man – and a dear friend. Barbara and I send our condolences to his wife Brenda and his wonderful family.”

In a statement the White House said: “We’ve lost an American original.”

Leon Panetta, the defence secretary, said: “The men and women of the Department of Defense join me in mourning the loss of General Norman Schwarzkopf”.

Mr Panetta said the decorated combat leader had in “35 years of service in uniform left an indelible imprint on the United States military and the country.”

There’s more here.

There are three quotes of his that I always seem to remember:

• War is a profane thing.

• The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.

• When placed in command, take charge.

 

God Is Not an Englishman

The Rev. Jonathan Woodhouse, Chaplain-General to the Forces

Conger:

God is not an Englishman, the Chaplain General of the British Army said last month in an interview printed in the November 2012 issue of Defence Focus, but that does not mean war or military service is unjust.

In a wide ranging interview the Rev. Jonathan Woodhouse, the Chaplain-General to the Forces was asked if God was on “our side”.

Chaplain Woodhouse responded: “I don’t think that God is on anyone’s side. It’s up to us to be on God’s side and seek out the way he wants us to live. In certain circumstances soldiers are allowed to use lethal force as a last resort but there are very clear rules of engagement. We minister to people who may be called on to use lethal force and that brings a creative tension. War is always the last resort.”

Read it all in Anglican Ink.

 

Israeli Military Base to be Built on Mount of Olives

The Way:

Plans by the Israeli Government  to build a military base on the Mount of Olives, have been condemned by Christian, Jewish, Muslim and secular commentators.

The area, which includes the site at which Jesus is believed to have been arrested, has sacred and historical significance in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It is also in East Jerusalem, Palestinian land that is occupied by the Israeli army.

According to the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, the building will cover 42,000 square metres and house colleges for training Israeli soldiers. Israeli citizens have until mid-December to object to the plans, although momentum is building for an international campaign.

Israel’s Ministry of the Interior declared, “The site that was eventually chosen is the optimal one, in view of its proximity to the university on the one hand and the possibility to contribute to the life of the city on the other”.

But Hagit Ofran of the Israeli group Peace Now insisted, “The location, at one of the most sensitive and disputed areas in Jerusalem, is a little more than provocative”.

She added, “One can’t think of Mount of Olives as real estate. It is important for the three monotheistic religions.”

At the base of the Mount of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested prior to his crucifixion by the Roman imperial authorities. According to Luke’s Gospel, the Mount of Olives was also the site of Jesus’ final meeting with his disciples before his ascent to heaven.

There has been a Jewish cemetery on the Mount for over 3,000 years. A number of Jews have chosen to be buried in it in the belief that the resurrection of the dead will begin there when the Messiah comes.

Within Islamic teaching, a thin bridge will connect the Mount of Olives and the Haram A-Sharif (the Dome of the Rock mosque) at the end of days.

Ofran said, “On top of all this holiness, the Mount of Olives is under dispute between us and the Palestinians, and we will have to solve this dispute only through an agreement. Bringing the military academy to this spot is quite insensitive and if I may add, not so smart, of our government.”

Israeli peace campaigners have accused their government of fast-tracking the planning process for political reasons.
Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer specialising in conflict resolution, said, “I have received a number of phone calls from foreign governments saying, ‘What can you possibly be thinking? You are engaged in an act of self-ostracism.’”.

British Quaker Hannah Brock, who has previously worked on human rights issues in Bethlehem, has worked with other campaigners to set up a petition calling on the Israeli government not to go ahead with the plans.

She points out that the site is on occupied land, and adds that she would oppose a military base by any army or government on such a sacred and sensitive site.

She told news reporters, “A military college is yet another poignant and potent reminder of the militarisation and militarism of this ‘Holy Land’: the threats of violence, the visibility of machines that can hurt, maim and kill people, and the willingness to use them. The contrast in this place where Jesus was gathered up to heaven couldn’t be more stark.”

 

West Point Chapel Hosts First Same-sex Wedding

Times have certainly changed. And to think that the Sanctuary Window is inscribed with the words: ‘Duty, Honor, Country.’

Cadet Chapel, the landmark Gothic church that is a center for spiritual life at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, hosted its first same-sex wedding Saturday.

Penelope Gnesin and Brenda Sue Fulton, a West Point graduate, exchanged vows in the regal church in an afternoon ceremony, attended by about 250 guests and conducted by a senior Army chaplain.

The two have been together for 17 years. They had a civil commitment ceremony that didn’t carry any legal force in 1999 and had long hoped to formally tie the knot. The way was cleared last year, when New York legalized same-sex marriage and President Barack Obama lifted the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy prohibiting openly gay people from serving in the military.

The brides, who live in Asbury Park, N.J., would have preferred to have the wedding in New Jersey, but in February, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have allowed gay marriage in the state.

Steven Goldstein, founder and CEO of Garden State Equality, had a message for Christie regarding Saturday’s wedding: “Hey, Gov. Christie. It’s a same-sex marriage. It’s good enough for the military chapel at West Point. It ought to be good enough for you.”

“We just couldn’t wait any longer,” Fulton told The Associated Press in a phone interview Saturday.

Cadet Chapel was a more-than-adequate second choice, Fulton said.

“It has a tremendous history, and it is beautiful. That’s where I first heard and said the cadet prayer,” Fulton said, referring to the invocation that says, “Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won.”

The ceremony was the second same-sex wedding at West Point. Last weekend, two of Fulton’s friends, a young lieutenant and her partner, were married in another campus landmark, the small Old Cadet Chapel in West Point’s cemetery.

Fulton has campaigned against the ban on gays in the military as a member of two groups representing gay and lesbian servicemen and servicewomen. She graduated from West Point in 1980, a member of the first class to include women.

She served with the Army Signal Corps in Germany and rose to the rank of captain, but left the service in 1986 partly because she wanted to be open about her sexual orientation. Obama appointed her last year to the U.S. Military Academy’s Board of Visitors.

Fulton said the only hassle involved in arranging her ceremony came when she was initially told that none of West Point’s chaplains was authorized by his or her denomination to perform same-sex weddings.

Luckily, Fulton said, they were able to call on a friend, Army Chaplain Col. J. Wesley Smith. He is the senior Army chaplain at Dover Air Force Base, where he presides over the solemn ceremonies held when the bodies of soldiers killed in action overseas return to U.S. soil.

The couple added other military trappings to their wedding, including a tradition called the saber arch, where officers or cadets hold their swords aloft over the newlyweds as they emerge from the church.

Wikipedia has more on the place of Protestant denomination worship that is the West Point Cadet Chapel.

And it apparently houses one of the largest Church organs in the world.

 

A Soldier’s Mother: ‘Don’t Cry for Him, Gaza’

Here’s a post from one of our favorite Israeli bloggers, on life under the Iron Dome, and her take on the recent rocket activity and retaliation:

In a pinpoint strike, Israel has assassinated Ahmed al-Jabari – equivalent to the Chief of Command of Hamas. al-Jabari died as he lived – a man of hatred and violence. I do not mourn his passing, nor do I celebrate it. That is not what Jews do. It is said that as the ancient Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea as the Jews crossed into Sinai on their way to the land that God had promised them – that the angels themselves celebrated and danced. And they asked God why he was not celebrating too. God answered that he could not celebrate while his creations were dying.

Read more on A Soldier’s Mother.

Source

 

From the IDF

HT

 

Chaplain Conducting Mass in Northern Iraq

HT