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Show iTIMES November 12, 2009 9 REMEMBERING HOW THEY KEPT US FREE JAMES ARROWOOD/U.S. Air Force World War II veterans are honored at the Brigham City Tabernacle on Nov. 8. Maj. Gen. Andrew Busch, Ogden Air Logistics Center commander, represented Hill Air Force Base at the ceremony honoring WWII veterans and Korean War veterans. For more Veterans Day activities see page 11. 75th ABW chaplain reflects on his four years at Hill AFB BY LEE ANNE HENSLEY Hilltop Times staff A fter more than four years of leading the 75th Air Base Wing Base • Chapel, Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Carl Wright will continue to serve both God and country at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., later this month. Wright took a moment to reflect on the impact he made to Team Hill over the past four years, and how Team Hill has impacted him, during an exit interview conducted Nov. 5. What have been your most memorable times while at Hill AFB? In 2006, when I returned from a fivemonth deployment at (Joint Base) Balad, (Iraq), an officer told me he met a kindly old man in a nursing home in South Ogden who was retired Air Force and expressed a fond memory of a 'most unusual young Airman who once worked for him at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey.' Someone had told the retired man that the young man had gone on to become a chaplain ... who turned out to be (me). The old veteran turned out to be my very first supervisor in the Air Force, Master Sgt. (retired) Martin Fjelstrom! When I visited Marty for the first time in nearly 30 years, I told him that we needed to talk about Chaplain fU. that first (Enlisted PerforCol.) Wright mance Report) he wrote on me! He responded by giving me a hug and saying the Lord had answered his prayer to be able to see me again. Since then, I have visited Marty about once every month. I have also had a chance to lead the Gospel Music Extravaganza held each February during Black History Month. Along with Chief Master Sgt. Roosevelt Neeley, we have been able to host this event for the past four years. This has been a tradition in Utah for the past 10 years and the event is so popular that the See WRIGHT I page 12 Special, combined ecumenical service set for Monday before Thanksgiving BY LEE ANNE HENSLEY Hilltop Times staff T he 75th Air Base Wing Base Chapel will be holding a special ecumenical service Nov. 23 at 7 p.m. in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday to occur later that week. Chaplains (Capts.) Daniel Horgan and William Brown will co-host the 30-minute, Christian-based service and will sponsor a pie social afterward. "The focus will be on what unites us, rather than separates us," said Horgan, a Catho- lic priest. "That is what we give thanks to God for." During his deployment at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, last year, Horgan met Brown, a Protestant minister, and the two became friends. The chaplains hosted a combined service at the base on Reformation Sunday, Oct. 31,2008, with reported success. "We are on the same journey together and we help each other out," said Brown. Both chaplains were unaware that they would be stationed together at Hill Air Force Safety Standard Day taken by EOD BY MAJ. ROBERT BARAN 775th Civil Engineer Squadron O n Friday, Nov. 13, the Hill Air Force Base Explosive Ordnance Disposal flight will take a break in operations for a day, to observe a second annual Safety "Stand-Down" Day. Senior Air Force leadership wants to give EOD Airmen a "tactical pause" to focus on critical topics and events in their career field. EOD Airmen have been thrust into a dynamic wartime environment, with ever-changing asymmetric threats to life and limb, a thinking enemy engaged in a "cat-and-mouse" style of entrapment warfare, rounded off by an often confusing, contorted joint operational environment. All of these factors force EOD Airmen to adapt to situations at an unprecedented rate. Simply put, this style and operation of war has never been seen before, and our EOD Airmen are in the thick of it all. EOD was born from the terrorism levied by Nazi Germany on the British during World War IL Air raids and "Buzz Bomb" strikes by the Germans left countless unexploded munitions, or UXO, scattered throughout the British countryside and its major cities. Intrepid engineers went out to these unexploded munitions in order to render them safe for disposal later on. Their bravery and ingenuity wrote the doctrine of Explosive Ordnance Disposal operations worldwide — to protect people, resources and the environment from the hazards of explosive ordnance. This mission continues today, See SERVICE I page 12 See DAY I page 10 |