Combat Sciences

Sun tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance
to the State.

It is a matter of life and death, a road either
to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry
which can on no account be neglected.
Sun tzu ON THE ART OF WAR,  Chapter 1, v. 1 & 2

The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in
his temple ere the battle is fought.
The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand.
Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations lead to defeat:
how much more no calculations at all?!
It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.
Sun tzu ON THE ART OF WAR, Chapter 3, v. 26

Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy,
will be fresh in the fight;
Whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle
will arrive exhausted.
Sun tzu ON THE ART OF WAR, Chapter 16, v. 1

Aesop said that to talk about doing something is of far less importance than actually doing it…  But he was not talking about not planning first before undertaking the objective…  He was talking about planning and getting right to the objective!
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In contemplating these statements I was caused to reflect upon my many years in law enforcement in the War against evil.  I reflected upon how greatly these statements apply to the Warrior/Peace Keeper on any battlefield…  Especially when the Warrior battles mostly alone as is the case in law enforcement.  I have known the full spectrum of Officers/Warriors/Peace Keepers described by Sun tzu…  Those who plan and are prepared, down through all levels, to the one who is hap-hazard and is seldom prepared to do battle with evil and injustice.

I have noted the same thing in relation to all of my reading of great war battles and my studies on that subject.  Many of the warriors were and are ready and effective but there is occasionally one or more there somewhere who is a lackadaisical screw-up.

The one who goes to the field prepared to do battle with whatever he finds is usually successful in dealing with all types of adversaries and problems…  Usually prepared to enter into conflict, do battle, meet the needs and win!… Or die trying if necessary.

The Soldier/Police Officer/Warrior/Peace Keeper must know the enemy as well as possible, but more importantly, he must know himself and know what it takes to be prepared to go onto the battlefield whether it is in a foreign land or in a homeland patrol zone.  We spend weeks in basic training.  Then we spend more weeks and sometimes months and years in specialized training.  We must be constantly learning.  Even if no special school is being run for us to participate in, we should be learning on our own…  reading, absorbing, practicing, developing.  One day, it could be that we might need all that we could absorb in order to prevail, persevere and survive.

In my days as a Trooper I had to learn all that I could about my huge area of assignment.  I obtained and carried a packet of maps that showed even the dirt road/trails.  I had to face each challenge as it came and I was usually alone.  Tactics were up to me…  No back-up available…  No supervisor available…  No rest or quitting until the job was done and nothing left to be assigned to me…  Neither the hours nor the length of time on duty mattered…  There was no overtime, there was just duty!  There was some in-service training but it was negligible.  Firearms and physical survey were once a year.  How good I was or how well I was prepared was entirely up to me.

My preparation after being sent to the field was self guided reading, studying and practice.  Practice was up to me.  I obtained a set of fifty dummy cartridges for my revolver.  I spent time practicing drawing and firing 6, dumping the empties, re-loading and firing again.  Preparation for survival and success were my responsibility.  Do the job or quit…  No one seemed to care.  It seemed the care and concern were mine and mine alone after finishing basic training.  I made some bad mistakes, learned from them, survived and was a very successful Trooper…  Then the spiritual dimension had to be satisfied.  I had been seeking that satisfaction for years but no success…  Then I met a man who gave me the answer to my question and my course was changed.  I had to spend some time being educated and trained for the new dimension…

Then I was put back in the battle against evil here as an officer/chaplain…  More training…  Graduation…  More specialized training…  More personal study and practice…  From Trooper to today – 47 years…  And that 47 years have been filled with working, studying, training, re-training, practice…  Learning new things…  Learning new equipment…  Using all that I had learned from training, practice and experience to keep improving and doing the best possible job…

I was applying the things that I quoted from Sun Tzu and did not know that he even said them until very late in my career…  I even supervised large numbers of personnel, devised tactics, utilized the personnel assigned to me and obtained good results.  In these latter times I worked, supervised and survived walking beat patrol for 18 summers on our ocean front resort strip successfully and possibly will return to it again when I no longer have to be the caregiver for my daughter.

I share all of this today in hopes of encouraging every peace keeper who reads these lines to put extra effort into being the very best at keeping the peace that you can achieve…  And then stay in the condition to maintain it until you retire or no longer have the job to do.  Your healthy survival is my ultimate goal. The success on the job starts in the mind and spirit. When the mind and spirit are well trained and disciplined and you add a body to the mix that has been disciplined, toned and trained then you have the best tools… And the opportunity for very best possible results are yours…  Plus a deep, peaceful satisfaction that you did the job and did it as well as possible.

Meetings before duty to find out what has been going on…  Checking equipment to make sure it is functioning as it should and that you have all that you might need…  Being rested, alert, healthy and ready to perform…  Leaving all other things behind and tuning the mind, body and spirit to be singly focused on the duty at hand…  These are the vital statistics of trained, prepared Peace Keepers as they take to the field of duty wherever it might be.

Peace Keeper I wish you much success in your duties.  You are indispensable to our way of life.  If it were not for the oath takers and oath keepers of law enforcement and the military this country would never have come into being…  And as long as we have you it will have the chance to be all that it has been and become even better…  But only as long as we have you.  All of you and each of you are the tools to our survival and prosperity. If we did not have you, nothing much of any lasting value would be achieved. Thank you for who you are and for what you do and have done. My Commander-In-Chief and I are eternally grateful for you and for your service.

“BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!”  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others.  See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you.  Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.

Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

Just as things were looking well for my daughter Donna, the wound and surrounding tissue went into a mode of abscess eruptions.  She had surgery again on Tuesday the 23rd.  Now the wound is huge and today I examined and tended it for the first time since surgery.  I found four new tunnels and that means that the deterioration problem is still spreading.  The wound is huge and will become even larger as the surgeon tries to eliminate the tunnels and abscesses.  She is in excruciating pain and the pain becomes intolerable while I am cleansing and packing it.  I see my projected time of returning to work moving further and further away because I know it will take 4-6 months just to get the current wound to heal even if we never experience any more setbacks.  I believe we are dealing with an unknown infection causing organism that has taken up residence in the flesh of her abdomen.  Tests and cultures do not identify any organisms yet the eruptions of dark stinky fluid and hemorrhaging persist.  Pray that we receive revelation, guidance and assistance.  Surely someone knows what this is or can identify it.

Thank you for your prayers, for your care and for your concern.

As it has always been… So it still is!!!

“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not…
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper…
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
===============================================================
All rights reserved.  May not be duplicated without permission, except to be
forwarded with all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

How did a day get extended for the winning of a battle?  (Josh. 10:12-14)
(All such references noted such (     ) are from the Bible.)
Who used wind in trees as signal to an army to attack?  (2 Sam. 5:24)
Who promised…
to be in you?  (2 Cor 1:22, Luke 11:13, John 14:15-17)
on you?  (Acts 1:8)
before you?  (Is. 58:8)
behind you?  (Is. 58:8)

Who promised…
to guard you with His Angels (Ministering Spirits)?  (Ps. 91:11),
to shield you, put a Buckler on you and clothe you covering you completely?  (Ps. 91:4, Luke 24:49),
wrap you with a preserving wrapping like for a sandwich to keep it fresh and protected or as a full suit of armor on a knight?  A Buckler is a fully shielding wrapping of protection.(Ps. 91:4)

For all knowledge there is a practical application and a spiritual application.  Many of us learn the practical application and use it well…  Many of us miss the spiritual application that is meant to work with the practical application to get the best results.

When the Israelites left Egypt in the Exodus there was a promise made to them…  The Angel of God would precede them and a cloud would precede them to guide them by day and a pillar of fire to guide them by night.  (Ex. 13:21-22, 14:19)  They were to be on the move all the time for God had a place for them to go and desired to give them the wherewithal to get them there as soon as possible, but they had to do the walking.

When they were threatened by Pharaoh’s  pursuing army the Angel of God and the cloud moved to the rear between the Egyptians and the Israelites becoming a pillar of light to the Israelites and a cloud of darkness to the pursuers. (Ex. 14:19)  Then God gave Moses instructions as to what to do but Moses still had to do as instructed before it would work…  And the Israelites still had to do the walking.  God kept the cloud of protection between the Israelites and the Egyptian army, even allowing the Egyptian army to follow the Israelites into what became a death trap for the Egyptians…  And recent archaeological finds show photos of chariots, wheels and other remains on the bottom of the sea where this incident took place.

We were not simply cast out into the world to sink or swim, live or die on our own but were put here to live a practical life of good and productivity to the highest degree for our chosen way of life.  To have a complete education we need to consider the spiritual aspect also for there are many things that do not work well except the practical and the spiritual knowledges work together.  It is all based on principles that work when we find them and put them to work by cooperating with them.

In my years of study in relation to the two aspects of knowledge I am discussing here, I learned that there often occurs situations where it is most productive to apply the knowledge of both types of knowledge at the same time.  It was true when I worked in engineering.  It was true when I was studying to further my education.  It has been true in all of my career of law enforcement since I learned how to establish contact and communication with my Commander-In-Chief.  It has been true whenever I had to learn any new thing that I never had knowledge of before.  It is true in the areas of preaching, teaching and ministering to the needs of others whether they be practical needs, spiritual needs or both.

In my study of the Bible I found much practical application in the area of military campaigns, tactics and movements.  I found that when we are following His instructions that He is interested in seeing to it that we have the guidance and directions that we need.

This has been on my mind for this message for several days and I know someone needs this message but we all can benefit from it.  It really boosted my productivity and quality of accomplishments when I learned how to apply the two areas of knowledge to my daily duties.  I even discovered new ways to do things that were vastly improved over the old ways I was trained to use, especially in engineering.  I have even learned to make it a matter of quick prayer when I need to find something, get something or remember something.  I often get quick results when I remember to ask for His assistance, sometimes I even ask someone else to ask with me in agreement, but it always works whether it is quickly or not, even in the case of losing my best sunglasses that I had looked everywhere for and searched my mind to see where they could be.  I found them several days after asking, but I did find them.

I know from much application of these lessons in many personal crisis circumstances that these principles of knowledge in both realms work extremely well together even in the worst of personal experiences including death of close loved ones.  I write this message today because I do know these experiences.  I have walked the valley of the shadow of death.  I have climbed, with His assistance, out of the pit of despair.  I have been preserved when I should have been dead and I am not alone for I know other men and women who have had similar experiences.

My message today, whether you are religious or not…  There is the Giver of Life, the Creator, who knows all things pertaining to you…  Where you are…  How you are…  What you need…  When you need.  He is standing by to help you when you learn the basic instructions and put them to use in your own life and put them to Him when you need or desire His help.

Ask and you shall receive… Seek and you shall find…  Knock and the door shall be opened to you.  (Luke 11:9)

Pray, therefore, (ask) like this: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed (always whole in all things) be Your name.
Your kingdom (Your actual hands-on guidance) come, Your will (doing things the best way) be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread (all of whatever we need to live and accomplish Your desires in our lives).
Forgive us our debts (the times we have done anything less than perfectly), as we also have forgiven (left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have given up resentment against) our debtors (anyone who has done anything imperfectly in relation to us).
Lead us not into (or lead us away from) temptation (the opportunity and desire to do something that is not right or not good for us)…
Deliver us from the evil one (and evil itself).
For Yours is the kingdom (You are in charge) and
(Yours is) the power (all of the good and useful comes from You to us, into us and to guide us)… and
(Yours is) the glory (the credit for the beginning, the wherewithal to get all things done)…
(And Yours is the end of it all) forever. Amen (So be it!). Matt. 6:9-13)

That short prayer is asking for the best to be accomplished in your day before you start your day.  Ask for your needs for the day before you begin your day.  Get any hindrances out of the way before you begin.

Recognize…
Where all good comes from and how long all good is designed to last providing we do not mess it up…
Agreeing to cooperate and recognizing where your strength and abilities come from…
Who is in charge and how long He wants the good we do to last…
All of this is why He is my Commander-In-Chief.  I get better results when I know He is in charge and that I can rely upon Him to help, guide and direct me if I ask for it and submit to it.  Working with Him is no different than being in the bottom rank in a para-military or military organization…  He is in charge and I do my best to follow His orders and cooperate.  That is why I am here…   To follow His orders and be any help that I might be to you.  I pray for you daily and I will do whatever is within my power to do for you whenever I have opportunity but you have to ask if I cannot know any other way…  That is His will for me in relation to you no matter where you are.

Peace Keepers, Thank you for all of your service that you have given, are giving and will continue to give.  Thank you for every sacrifice you have made.  Thank you for everything it has cost you to give this service.  You are the living extension of the Patriots who began our nation, set it up for our good and then passed it on to us.  You are the glue and mortar which holds what they built together for the rest of us to live in and live through…  And to enjoy the Fruits of Liberty and Freedom.  Every human heart desires the kind of Freedom they put together and passed down to us.  The USA is the last great experiment in giving man the power to govern himself and live for his own good and for the good of the world in which we live.  You do such a great job.  I have been continually amazed at how well you do this great job of peace keeping.  Because you are so important to me, I leave you with this usual injunction…

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

“Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.” William Penn

“…who swears to his own hurt and does not change;” Psalms 15:4b

Now, there is a good definition of an oath and an Oath Taker!  The Oath Taker is making a commitment to do what is demanded of him/her in relation to the purpose for which the oath is taken.  People entering the military take an oath.  People entering law enforcement take an oath.  All of them take an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies whomsoever, foreign or domestic.  These can be very high stakes.

This commitment says, “I will follow any lawful order…”  It also says, “I will be a self starter”…  That means that if I see a thing that needs to be done that I can do, I will give all that it takes to get the thing done.  It means I am committed to the last ounce of strength, to the last puff of breath, to the last motion of my physical body, to the last thought of my mind and spirit.

Oath Takers are a most awesome breed of human being.  In some cases the oath was between the person and his/her own conscience long before it was taken before someone with the official power to administer oaths.  The 300 Spartans at the Gates of Fire were Oath Takers.  The landing parties of Normandy’s “D” Day were Oath Takers.  The pilots of Doolittle’s Raid were Oath Takers.  All of our military in the World Wars, in the Sandbox and Afghanistan are Oath Takers.  Every Law Enforcement Officer who has or is working in defense of the Homeland is an Oath Taker.

All of the hundred’s of thousands of military personnel who have given their lives in the service of this country were Oath Takers.  All of our allies with whom we engaged a common enemy were Oath Takers and they fought along side us and we along side them to rid the world of Despotism giving all they had to give just as our Oath Takers did, many of them dying in the process.  Over 17,000 Law enforcement Officers memorialized on the Police Officer’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. were Oath Takers.

Whether on a battlefield, on a ship at sea, in a plane in the sky, in a guard duty situation, in a patrol car, walking a beat, riding in/on any kind of vehicle…   All of the Oath Takers are our first line of defense and the basic fabric of our nation’s being.  Weary, strained, duty tested… They all fall into my most often used and respect delivering term… Peace Keeper.

If it were not for each of them and all of them, each of us would have to live in fortified dwellings and resort to armed self defense or be ravaged by the self centered takers of this world.  Without the system of laws and defense the nation would not exist.  The first thoughts given by those who won the land by battle and defeating the forces that held it were to set up a system of laws, government and enforcement.  Even in those lands we conquered and intended to give back to the original inhabitants, our forces had to establish a ruling occupation force until an acceptable and functioning home government could be re-established.

Most of my recent hours have been taken up with this subject running all through my thoughts.  I have remembered history, battles, soldiers, peace officers and individuals.  All of these are indelibly impressed into my being.  In every case, each of these individuals, whether alone or in groups or armies, saw a need and took on the task of meeting the need for peace, safety, defense and enforcement.  In every case they provided what the people needed until something better could be established.  All of the civilized world exists today because of these people.  Definitely the United States Of America as we have known it exists today because of just such people as these.

They secured a land…  Then they secured a nation…  They secured a Representative Republic so that all of us could be involved in the operation of the government if we wished to do so.  They did not choose a kingdom with a king…  They did not choose a Dictatorship…  They did not choose a pure democracy…  They chose a system of checks and balances…  They chose a system of laws and enforcement with courts to balance the enforcement…  They chose to distribute the power and have it so that no one part of the Representative Republic could rule over any other or all other parts the system set into operation.  They enumerated the rights of all citizens.  They set up the requirements that must be met by those who would desire to be our leaders.  They fulfilled a dream and gave us a nation unlike any other before or since the USA was established.

Now, as President Lincoln said at Gettysburg, we are in a struggle to see if this nation will survive as we know it.  Some people want change just for the sake of change and to try new things.  The wise ones only want change where change is necessary for better function.  The most important ingredient necessary is peace.  All Peace Keepers desire peace and we are committed to it…  But we recognize that peace must sometimes be obtained by a show of force or actual use of force.  No one knows that more than a seasoned Peace Keeper whether of law enforcement or the military.

Peace in our streets means quick follow up when the peace is broken plus quick action to restore the peace and safety.  Peace in our nation means a system of laws and courts that recognizes and enforces the laws and ethics for the good of the people.  Peace in our nation means a strong homeland defense and a strong standing military.  Any nation to exist as it desires to exist by the will of it’s own people must be stronger than those who wish to destroy it and take it over.  In our existence of over 230 years we have become just such a nation.  If we are to continue and if we are to further improve on what we are, we must remain strong in laws, enforcement of those laws and maintain a standing military that is sufficient to meet the threats that could be inflicted upon us by our enemies present and future.  We must be greater in wisdom and force that the power of any who would be against us.

The will of all of our people must be for preserving and continuing the nation as it is while we research laws and ethics to see if there are areas where we truly could improve the overall condition without attacking the rights of any of our own citizens.  That is why we have the system of sending representatives to Congress to determine the best way to govern and the best ways to implement change…  But we as citizens must be diligent to let those representatives know our thoughts in relation to the laws and changes they are considering.  Peace Keepers might say we have voted for how we feel by taking the stand for peace and safety…  But the representatives will not consider you in most cases unless they hear from you on whatever level of government the considerations are being made… Federal, State or Local…  So let us understand that we must take part in the function of our own government besides the duties we serve for the sake of peace, safety and liberty by letting the representatives of our Congress know what we think in relation to the actions they are considering.

Peace Keepers, you took an oath to defend the country and the Constitution…  Part of that defense is letting your voice be heard in the halls of government by communicating with the representatives we have sent to speak for us.  Be aware of current events and what they can mean.  Be well informed.  Take proper action when action can make a difference.  Let us keep our nation strong by adding our voices to our actions.  Let us be active citizens as well as active Peace Keepers.

Some have been among us as Oath Takers and decided it was not for them and departed from among us.  That is just what they should do when they can no longer comply with the commitment to which they had bound themselves.

Peace Keepers, thank you for who you are and for what you do and have done to make peace, keep peace, restore peace and to continuously keep secure our rights to Freedom, Liberty, Justice and the Pursuit of Happiness.  We would have none of these for very long without you being there and doing what you do and have done.  My Commander-In-Chief and I are Eternally grateful for your service.
“BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!”  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others.  See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you.  Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.

Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

My daughter, Donna, is experiencing a lot of pain in the area of the new wound because we had to see the surgeon on Wednesday to clean up and debried the wound to make it easier to get to some new trouble spots that I had found.  We will probably have some more cutting and trimming on Monday because it needed more than she could take all at one time.  Thank you for your prayers, support and concern.
This new wound will take a good while to close by normal means so my return to the streets is postponed until we can get it into a better condition.

As it has always been… So it still is!!!

“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not…
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper…
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
===============================================================
All rights reserved.  May not be duplicated without permission, except to be
forwarded with all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452

Another busy week…  We are already into the 2nd week of June.  Yesterday I was privileged to give the invocation and benediction at a most unusual but much appreciated event.  It was an Annual Awards Ceremony where officers and other local citizens have been recommended to receive certain medals, awards and recognition for actions above and beyond those actions usually expected.

I listened to the actions of 36 Police Officers, 10 military personnel and 16 citizens…  62 people who did things so far beyond the expected activity that other people recognized that they should receive special recognition for their actions.  Thirty four of those awards were for Life Saving.  Six were for citizens coming to the aid of police officers as the officers were conducting their duties and were obviously in need of physical assistance.

I saw and heard the Spirit of America in action. Two awards were for an undercover officer of my department who was shot and killed in the line of duty last year.  Every account was a riveting story of observation and action that is far more than is ordinarily expected of our personnel and our citizens.

Much is said about the imperiling of the USA by the current actions and events of our times.  I wish my whole nation and every citizen could see and hear what I saw and heard yesterday…  And what I see every time I work with Peace Keepers or perform my own duties alone.  Peace Keepers and some of our citizens who have no immediate connection to keeping the peace are extraordinary people whom I call Peace Makers.  When they are faced with a challenge – they act.  The do what they can until the job is finished or until help arrives that is more capable of handling the need.  Even then, they make sure it is all being handled before they leave.

The living Spirit of America is far from dead or dying. It is alive and well in my city of over 450,000 citizens that swells to millions on some summer holiday weekends.  I get many news sources and hear from many who are concerned about the current state of affairs in our nation.  It may appear to be very bad…  It may sound so very threatening…  But it is not a new thing to the country, it is just a new thing to us of the current citizenry.

I have studied history.  I have delved into the state of affairs at different times.  I remember conversations of my parents when my father would get laid off from his railroad job in slow times.  I was raised in what is now called poverty but I did not know my life was very much different from the children with whom I attended school…
Nor from the children who grew up in the same small rural village.  We just did not have a lot of money and we had to work to get what we wanted.  Sometimes we had to work for a long, long time.  In my teens I walked or hitch-hiked where I wanted to go.   I worked for the local farmer when he had something he needed help with.  I have tossed hay and straw, harvested corn, shoveled grain and hauled rocks from the fields.  Our source of water was a well where I had to draw the water up with a bucket and chain hand over hand and then carry it inside the house.  I sawed and carried wood for the cook stove and carried coal for the heater…  Sometimes I had to break up the coal with a sledge hammer because broken coal was not available.  Work was part of life everyday.  Some days the work was harder or more of it than other days but no day was free of work.  I had one pair of shoes for summer, one pair for winter…  Two pairs of dungarees, one for school and one for play/work.  I bathed in an enameled wash pan with a washcloth or in the tub of rinse water after the weekly washing was finished…  But then some of the people I work with say I am older than dirt.

The Spirit of America runs in my veins.  I came from a long line of ancestors who fought for freedom and liberty in their countries of origin and here.  I am part of the great number of Public Safety workers and Peace Keepers.  When I work and when I am in the presence of or talking with any of any of this great number I see hope…  I see life being preserved…  I see life being provided for and continuing.  I see a spirit in these people that will not be deterred from their course and their efforts to make/keep peace and preserve life.

While it may be that this great number of people are a minority compared with all of the people in this country, we will not be overcome and allow this way of life handed down to us to go away and disappear.  Whenever this great nation has needed the help of it’s people in order to survive and go on, the people have responded with great effort and energy.  If we must we can and will do it again.  Life is that simple for those of us who care for and about this great nation.  Age does not matter in many cases.  I just read about a man whose law enforcement career covered  a VERY LONG PERIOD… 
“NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – The oldest active duty police officer in the United States, who battled the Nazis on the beaches of Normandy and the chaos which ravaged New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, has died at the age of 84.  Sergeant Major Manuel Curry served with the New Orleans Police Department for more than 63 years until he became ill several weeks ago.  “He’ll be buried as a hero,” said William Trepagnier, a 44-year NOPD veteran who was among the generations of officers mentored by Curry.  Policing was Curry’s life. New Orleans his only home…”
Such are the people upon whom the foundations of this great nation rest. They are the raw material that holds it all together!!!

I know that most of the readers of this message will be Peace Keepers but some will be Peace Makers.  I also know that we would have nothing in this great nation if it were not for these Peace Keepers and Peace Makers.  I have been both an observer of life and a participator in life for all of my years.  I watch the actions.  I note the results.  I learn from what I see and hear.  When I learn well it works well.  When I do not apply what I have learned until I am in a problem, I have experienced one more time the truth that he who does not learn by hearing and seeing has to learn by feeling.  To you who are concerned with making, keeping, and maintaining peace, I send the love and appreciation of both my Commander-In-Chief and myself.  We will be ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR ALL OF YOUR DEDICATION AND EFFORTS!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU TODAY AND FOREVER!!!

“BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!”  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others.  See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you.  Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.

Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

This week has been difficult for my daughter, Donna.  We saw the surgeon on Monday, had surgery on Tuesday and brought her home Thursday.  When I examined the wound it is now ten inches long, very deep on the right end, about three inches wide on the right end and has several trouble spots that need special attention.  She is in great pain and is under the care of a Pain Management Specialist.  Life is now more demanding for both of us, especially after that period of time when she was doing so well and I was able to handle some outside assignments.  Now I am locked down here again or must get a sitter when I must leave her here.  The germ that caused the last eruption has not been identified but we have the promise of the Infectious Disease doctor that he will keep looking until he discovers what it is.  It does not react to any known tests for source so we may find an entirely new one this time when we do find out what it is.  Thank you for your continued prayers.  This too shall pass!!!

As it has always been… So it still is!!!

“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not…
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper…
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
===============================================================
All rights reserved.  May not be duplicated without permission, except to be
forwarded with all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

We gain strength, courage, and confidence by each experience in which we move to face anything we fear… we must do that which we are tempted to believe we cannot do in order to succeed, gain and live.

Adapted from a statement by Eleanor Roosevelt

I never cared much for tree climbing.  I was always happy with any height as long as I could keep one foot on the ground.  One of my early professions involved the fabrication of structural steel for buildings and bridges.  I was a draftsman and eventually the Chief Draftsman for a long time.  Then I was a troubleshooter.  One day my boss came in and told me to not come to the office the next day but to report to a job site where the structure being erected was not going together well because the fabricated steel was not fitting.  We had not done the steel ourselves but subcontracted it to another company.  He needed a troubleshooter on the job site to examine the problems and direct the corrections because we were responsible for the job even though we did not make the steel members.

The job was a conveyor system involving two transfer towers running from a ship unloader on the waterfront to a tower where the conveyor turned to run to another tower that dumped into the building where the material was to be used in manufacturing.  Some of it was over water and all of it was high.  None of the problems were at ground level.  I had to climb, evaluate, sketch the corrections and make sure the corrections were made properly.  I left my fingerprints in the steel but I did get the job done and completed.  I was well experienced  to handle the steel connection corrections but I had to face my fear of climbing in order to be successful with my assignment.

After living in my current house about eight years, it became necessary to repair the caulking, paint the wood shingles and make any necessary repairs.  I could not afford to pay anyone else to do it for me.  I have lived in the same two story house 41 years.  I bought an extension ladder and the materials.  At first I clung to the ladder like a leach, wrapping myself around it.  As time passed doing the job I became more and more free to move about more easily.  After a while I was hanging from the ladder by one foot and one hand to reach those places that it seems are almost impossible to reach.  I succeeded in finishing the job to my own satisfaction with no falls.

I have intervened in disputes where I have had to face crowds of size from a few people to hundreds of people alone either to get the problem solved, protect a fellow officer or disperse the crowd.  I have driven into and through spaces where it would not appear that a car could go…  and at speeds that were unbelievable to those who knew about it.  I did most of these things because there was nothing else to do and usually no backup immediately available to assist me.  All of these actions were performed in the line of duty and because there was no other way to succeed.

I always greatly detested public speaking even though I was trained in it as a Trooper.  Then I was called to preach.  The first time I was asked to preach in my home church you could hardly hear me in the front row.  Then I wound up preaching outside without the benefit of a sound system except my lungs and voice…  Then in a tent…  Then in very large rooms…  All without a sound system.  Now I do not need a sound system, my lungs and voice carry well.  I faced the fear, made the effort and received what I needed to get the job done.

I had to learn to face officials, boards and assemblies to gain the necessary equipment for getting the job done in my assignments in all of my career.  I had to learn to make my case and personally present my case in order to gain everything necessary to meet the demands.

Every job I have had since graduating high school demanded more and more from me in order to be successful.  Each time I changed jobs and/or professions it was for a greater challenge.  Even when I temporarily left peace keeping it was to find the answer to a greater challenge.  Change is one of the things in life that most people avoid whenever possible but I had this certain internal knowledge that there was something that I had to find and I had to do the looking and seeking.  When I found what I was seeking, I then faced the greatest challenge I had faced up to that time…
Everything had to change and I had to re-gear my profession and my thinking.

Each change was scary but I faced each change and it all became worth the effort because each of those changes brought me to here and now.  I have been here in this city for forty one years this week.

The first traffic stop…  The first high speed chase…  The first face to face confrontation…  Having to stop a fleeing felon…  Having to face a man who wants and tries to kill you..Having to face an angry crowd threatening to become a mob…  Answering that first summons to appear in the Captain’s office or the Chief’s office…  Being in the front line of a riot control formation that must move a crowd…  Being called upon to go into places where no one wants to go…  Scraping up what was once a human body from the surface of a roadway for the first time…  Climbing down mountainsides suspended on the cable of a wrecker because there is no other way to get to the wreck site…  Cradling a wounded buddy in your hands and arms as you await transport or assistance… These and many other situations that inspire fear the first time they are faced, and often alone, have honed us and shaped us.  We have trodden the path of fear…  We have faced it…  We have overcome it and we have succeeded in our efforts to keep the peace because it was our sworn duty…

And I am only one out of over 800,000 in the homeland security of law enforcement who have taken this Journey for the sake and welfare of the citizens of my home and my nation… And to that add all of the millions of the military personnel who do the same…  Then go still further and add all of the security contractors who are contracted to the government in many places around the world to provide peace, security and protection for governmental personnel…  It is the sum total of all of these who have traveled the Journey and furnished the raw material of our liberties, peace, freedom and justice and they continue to do it every day no matter what the threat…  Faithful to their oath to perform that duty.

Multiply my story and my journey by many millions who have faced fear and done the job that needed doing and you might begin to comprehend the moment by moment cost of peace, liberty, freedom and justice.  These millions have secured it for all the rest of us.  These are the ones I call Peace Keepers.  Each of these is my Compadre’ ( people of the same heart) whom I love so very much for all that they do and have done for the peace and welfare of all the rest of us and so many other people of this world.  They have sacrificed that we might live as we choose in peace and safety.  That was their oath…  That was their duty…  They did it well and they continue to do it well every moment of every day.

THANK YOU, PEACE KEEPERS, THANK YOU…  ETERNALLY THANK YOU!!!  We would not have what we have as life in this nation if it were not for you and your predecessors.   “BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!”  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others.  See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you.  Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.

Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

Today as I was away from home for a couple hours to gain a training certification, my daughter’s beautiful wound exploded and poured out smelly infection from a pocket that had been hidden under the flesh at the end of the wound.  She had been telling me and the doctors that it was coming because of the pain and the fever she has been experiencing.  Up until today everything looked clean and beautiful but today it blew open and drained…  The tunnel that opened is six inches long running just below the skin around her waist away from the wound.  In the middle of the tunnel is an open void that is very tender.  This will probably require more debrieding and extended wound care because it will double the length of the wound…  Plus extending the time I must be here to care for her and the wounds.  This is just one more challenge to face and conquer.  Thank you for your prayers and support.

Thank you for all of the challenges you have faced and you are still there! Peace Keepers are not arrogant…  Peace Keepers are courageous and persistent!!!  Peace Keepers make sacrifices because Peace Keepers have and always will love freedom for ourselves and for everyone else.

As it has always been… So it still is!!!

“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not…
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper…
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
===============================================================
All rights reserved.  May not be duplicated without permission, except to be
forwarded with all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

me⋅mo⋅ri⋅al   -noun

-adjective

“Jesus wept.”  (John 11:35)  His friend Lazarus had died.  He had been in the tomb four days.  Jesus arrived at the location of their home.  He was greeted by first one sister and then the other.  Both were hung up in their own thoughts and did not appear to have heard what He said to them… He wept because He told them truth they would not hear because they were thinking something else.  Not only did they not listen and comprehend…  They did not even hear.

This morning I prayed…  I remembered…  I wept.

I prayed because that is the instructions from my Eternal Captain…  To pray daily for His kingdom to come, His will to be done and for everything else that I and those I pray for need…  And to pray for all of those who are my assignment who are important to me and to Him.

I am in a remembering mode because it is Memorial Day weekend…  And because I have attended three Celebrations of Life of people who were my close Compatriots and one Memorial Service for those who have fallen in the line of duty involving the police department that I am part of…  All of this in less than one month’s time.  I am also remembering because, compared to most of the world’s people, I know too much history about what has caused the rise, preservation and fall of so many civilizations…  Including our own that is now on the downward path if the course is not quickly adjusted.  It is as though those who are responsible for making decisions that affect all the rest of us, plus most of our citizens, do not know the same history that I know and appear to not know the cost of how this nation came into being nor do they know the cost of preserving and maintaining it.

I wept…
Because the cost has been so great…  Is still great today…  And will be greater still tomorrow…
Because so few even realize that they are supposed to be well informed and participate in the governing process of this nation from local government to national government…
Because there are so few to depend upon for meeting the crisis that arise except for the Peace Keepers of law enforcement and the military and we are so few in number compared to the population of this nation and the rest of the world in                 need…
Because we have recorded 8 line of duty deaths among law enforcement in the 20         days of this month May and over 17,000 in the history of this nation not counting the     ones who were medically discharged or medically retired who subsequently died         from some job related influence or cause…
Because this week I received an e-mail that showed pictures of the Military                     Cemeteries for our war dead in Europe with interments totaling over 101,000…
Because I remember The Wall in D.C. that lists our Viet Nam war dead with 58,260         names…
Because I remember all of our wars from Tripoli to Cuba, to Mexico, to Africa, to             Europe, to Hawaii, to the Pacific Islands, To the Flying Tigers in Asia, To Korea, To     Viet Nam and to all of the other places where our citizen soldiers have given their         lives in the preservation of someone’s liberty including Iraq and Afghanistan…
Because we are called an arrogant people because we have been willing to go, fight     for liberty and sometimes have the lives of our Peace Keepers cut short because     they thought the battle was worth the price they were called upon to pay…
Because even our own citizens do not usually realize the true value of our Peace             Keepers at home and abroad…
Because I remember the tragic cost of that great conflict we had among ourselves to     see if this great nation would survive or be divided…  And what that war cost us in     lives lost to us…
Because I personally have stood in Arlington and other Veteran’s Cemeteries,                Gardens of Stone, read the stones and took in the sweeping vistas of the sights…  It     breaks the heart…
Because of all of these things I feel an ache and an emptiness…  A pain of reverence     as though walking on the Holiest of Ground as I tread among these memories…

And because this week I attended the Celebration of Life memorial service for the one man in my professional career who did more for me and the personnel of our department than most will ever know.  I worked directly for and with this great man from the time he came here in 1981 until he retired in 1999.  Nine years of that time were on his direct staff and under his immediate guidance and direction.  Never before have I personally nor professionally known such a great man who had the talent to administrate so effectively and so well.  He was a Compadre’ and I was allowed to be close and see his heart.  We did not always agree but I always respected him deeply and never objected to him being the “Boss”.  This world has suffered a great loss at his passing from among us.  I missed him after his retirement on disability.  I shall miss him even more greatly now, and for as long as I live in this world.

I was privileged to see him last Sunday for a very pleasant hour and he died on Monday evening.  The news on Tuesday caused me to operate very slowly and to experience a mood of great loss.  Mourning the loss of one so great and so dear is difficult.

I also wept because I would like to be able to do so much more with and for all of you who are involved in peace keeping…  I am never able to do enough…  I am seldom able to work exactly where I would like to work if I were given a choice…  The restrictions of time, place and obligations seem to always be limiting what I would try to do if I did not have those limitations.  Ahhhh, but someday I will no longer be limited by any of this here and then, as is promised to all of us, I will know the fullness of our creation and the life we are destined to experience because I will have finished the Journey.  I know my destination because of the price paid by my Eternal Captain and the plan and provision of my Commander-In-Chief.

Peace Keepers and Veterans, today I extend to you my deepest love and respect for all of you and to each of you.  If I could I would hug you, shake your hand and salute you…  Then I would like to spend some time with you.  No words I have are explanatory enough to convey my appreciation, love and respect for you and what you have done for us (and remember I include all law enforcement, all military and all in their support systems in my term Peace Keeper).  I send to you the eternal appreciation, love and respect of both myself and my Commander-In-Chief.  We will be ETERNALLY GRATEFUL!!!

When there was a need to be filled it was filled by citizens who were ready and willing to take the responsibility of keeping the peace and preserving the nation, each one that we remember today stepped into that place of need and filled the need to the best of their ability.  We are thankful today and we still exist today as the United States of America because they did.  While some fought overseas there were those in the homeland who kept the peace for the safety and welfare of the families of those who had gone to war.  Some came home and took up their lives again.  Some came home with disabilities that caused them to have to make great adaptations in order to live.  Some did not come home at all.

Now in the needs of today you are there…  We are still the good old USA because you are there…  And we still have those who come home with great needs and some who do not come home at all.  We still have those of you in the homeland that are keeping the peace for our families and for all the rest of us.  In all that we are it is the Peace Keeper that we have to thank.  Nothing else would have lasted nor prospered without them up until now…  And nothing will prosper without those of you who are our Peace Keepers now.  You have kept us and you still keep us both at home and on foreign fields.

“BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!”  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others.  See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you.  Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.

Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

My daughter, Donna, is experiencing a great new growth rate of tissue in the wound.  It has done marvelously well this week and still looks beautiful.  Thank you for your prayers and concern.

As it has always been… So it still is!!!

“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not…
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper…
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
===============================================================
All rights reserved.  May not be duplicated without permission, except to be
forwarded with all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

Yesterday a law enforcement officer in our area died from the result of a traffic crash while he was on the way to a Burglary call.  That’s four law enforcement officers of whom I have received news of their deaths in the line of duty just this month.

I have seen officers crash into vehicles at intersection when the opposing traffic did not yield to the emergency lights and siren.  I have seen patrol vehicles struck by other traffic when the patrol vehicle is sitting still and in a usually safe place.  I have seen death and injury where it should never have happened.  Sometimes the cause of these incidents is because the officer assumed something not true…  Was in too great a hurry…  Or, in most cases, someone else was not paying attention and not maintaining proper attitude and/or control.

Today I officiated a Celebration of Life Service for a retired officer with whom I worked through a most difficult event in his life over thirty years ago.  I was a new chaplain/officer here just after the mid-seventies (having been a Virginia State Trooper before coming here).  About midnight I received a request to respond to assist the Investigative Division with a death notification and subsequently to minister to an officer who had been shot.  After being shot he had shot and killed the man who had shot him.

I got to the officer’s hospital room about 4 AM just after they had finished molding and pinning his leg back together and hanging his leg in a cast from a specially built supporting device.  The room was dark as I entered.  Just as soon as I was silhouetted in the doorway from the hall lighting, the officer burst forth with a question that had been demanding to be asked and answered if possible…   “Chaplain, does God understand?”   I was ready …  “YES!!!  He expects you to do what needs doing.
If that man would shoot you, he would likely try to hurt or kill someone else as well.  Where he was and how he was acting prove he was up to no good activity.  He dictated the situation by ambushing you.  It was your duty to try and stop him.  He died in the process of breaking the law and the peace.  He dictated the circumstances…
You had to respond to those circumstances as best you could.  His death was the result of his own actions and his assault and the injury he inflicted upon you.”  The answer brought quick relief to the wounded officer.

The officer had been assigned to investigate a suspicious individual behind a 24-hour gas station in a semi-rural location.  There were no other businesses close by.  A field filled with trees and brush was behind the suspicious individual.  The only attendant had spotted a man wearing a hood and peering toward the collection booth from over the top of a dumpster.  When the officer arrived and approached, the suspicious individual began running away from the officer and firing a handgun at him at the same time.  The officer was struck in the leg above and below the knee shattering the bones like broken glass .  The officer returned fire, striking and killing the suspicious individual.

Today we gave him the Memorial Service he desired and gave him full Military/Police  honors.  He had also served in the military in Nam as an MP.  The reception afterward was well attended and many stories were shared.  His family heard facets of him that they had never known because he seldom talked about his job and activities involving his career with them.  Several of them said they had a treasure of new information to take home with them.

This officer had given us twenty one years of very good service and had been medically retired since 1994.  He experienced a bout with cancer a few years ago and had beaten it then.  Cancer resurfaced in his Pancreas and this battle he did not win but he never lost his sense of humor, compassion and love even to the very last moment.  He was surrounded by family and they are more fortunate than most Peace Keeper families…  They have some very rich memories to share and cherish in spite of the tragedy of the illness.

We had Police Memorial Services Monday to honor our officers killed in the line of duty.  Tonight, Saturday night, we are ending our 2009 National Police Week.  The national celebration of Police Memorial Day was celebrated in Washington, D.C. this week at the National Police Memorial that already contains over 17,000 names of officers killed in the line of duty in this nation in our short history..  We have been wearing mourning bands on our badges all week.  I spent a lot of time thinking on and preparing for all of these memorial services and participating in the two here.

I have periodically sounded alarms before in these messages…  Especially about careful approach to individuals, call locations and ambush possibilities.  No matter how often I mention these situations, it will never be enough.  My intent is to adjust your thinking.  If I can’t do that, well, maybe I can get you hot enough that it will cause you to make adjustments.  If no change is brought about, it will not be because I did not try to get your attention.

I have been there…  This Journey started for me in 1962.  I am here today because of God’s Amazing Grace.  I made foolish mistakes in the rookie years.  I learned lessons the hard way sometimes, but I did learn them.  I learned to watch my partners when I had one to watch.  I learned to not relax on a call.  I learned not to let down my guard.  Sometimes my vigilance saved me…  Sometimes it saved my fellow officer…  Sometimes it preserved an attempted arrest and brought success without injury or destruction to anyone.  Sometimes it surprised a perp who thought he had it made and was going to hurt someone or make an escape…  But some of it was learned the hard experience way rather than the easy way… And I am trying to keep you from that hard method of learning if possible.

I once watched the results of an eager officer chasing a man wanted for homicide wind up with the eager officer being shot with his own weapon.  He had outrun his partner.  His partner was not capable of keeping up with him and also was ill.  Eager-Beaver stopped and called to his partner but got no response because the partner was not close by…  He did not wait for partner nor backup…  He went searching for the wanted man alone and was ambushed, beaten, disarmed and shot with his own weapon. Thank God he was shot full in the body armor and he was not seriously wounded…  But no extra trauma plate, so he was temporarily down and out from the concussion over the heart.  A sharp-shooter/sniper took out the wanted man immediately after he shot the officer.  There was no need for Eager-Beaver to rush. The wanted man was inside a building and the building was under surveillance and surrounded before Eager-Beaver was shot.

Your safety is of utmost importance…  At least the preservation of the best safety possible under the circumstances.  Taking your time and moving slowly, deliberately pausing to listen, is more effective than rushing in.  Caution gives survival and success the very best chance.  I know because I have been there!

I have evaluated calls I have been on after they were over and noted the things that might be done a better way.  I have made my career a life-long learning process.  I am not blowing smoke.  I am not just passing gas into the wind…  I am trying to do all I can to gain your attention and convince you that there can be better ways of accomplishing the job we all took an oath to achieve for the peace and welfare of the people…  And ourselves.  If we do not survive, then someone else has to come take care of us and still do the job we were sent to do.  Maintaining a careful attitude is the first key to survival.  The second key is careful action.  Rushing into any situation is seldom wise and can be very dangerous to the Peace Keeper.

I could fill many pages with more experiences of the types I have just used.  Over 3000 hours of training plus many personal experiences have brought me to this keyboard tonight.  I have seen too many deaths and injuries.  I have attended too many Memorial Services.  I have stood by too many open graves that were receiving the remains of friends and fellow Peace Keepers.  I have dedicated my life to learning how to live, learn, survive and be successful.  I am called to care for and about you and do all that I might ever be able to do to affect you for your good.  I can encourage.  I can instruct.  I can listen.  I can weep with you if you need that.  I can laugh with you if that be your desire.  My Commander-In-Chief has led me through a great deal of life in my time on this Earth.  My retired Chief used to tell me I had to be at least a hundred years old to have done all that I have done in my life…  And that was over ten years ago the last time he told me that.

I am under constraint to the depths of my spiritual heart to own all of you in peace keeping as my family.  My relationship with you is thicker than the relationship of blood or marriage.  We are Compadres’ (people of the same heart).  We are family…  We are Warriors…  We are Peace Keepers.  My Commander-In-Chief and I are so very glad that you are here and that you are who you are and do what you do and have done.  There is not enough time in this life for me to convey the fullness of our appreciation to you…  So once again I will simply say THANK YOU…  THANK YOU…  THANK YOU!!!…  UN-NUMBERABLE TIMES THANK YOU!!!

Military Peace Keepers, I know that this message is aimed more toward the law enforcement Peace Keepers than for you but it could be a very great help to you as well.  Please remember that when I use the term Peace Keeper, I mean all of you in all levels of law enforcement and the military because I do not see any separation between us and our goals.  We all work for, and took an oath to defend, our people and see to the preservation of life, liberty and peace for all of them and all of us.

All of you, “BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!”  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others.  See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you.  Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.

Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

My daughter is still doing better except for the pain.  It is my hope and prayer that it subsides soon.  Life will be much easier for her when it does.

As it has always been… So it still is!!!

“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not…
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper…
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
===============================================================
All rights reserved.  May not be duplicated without permission, except to be
forwarded with all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

“Freedom works best when we serve each other!” From the movie FIRST KNIGHT…

I have pondered this statement since it struck me as I viewed this movie the last time I saw it.  It struck me how clearly it states the attitude of the Peace Keeper.  Peace Keepers give up their own way and desires to dedicate themselves to the safety, survival and welfare of others.  Peace Keepers choose to put themselves under the command of the government to provide a safe world in which citizens might live and prosper.  If not for the Peace Keepers there would be no peace and no life as we have known it in recent past times, especially since the War Between the States when the aftermath dictated that there become a well developed system of law enforcement and military to avoid more war with and between citizens.

Aye, we put ourselves under the command of the people who run the government…  But in the past the leaders of wise government put the Peace Keepers under the command of experienced Peace Keepers who knew how to lead and how to instill the knowledge to do the best job into the ones who would voluntarily enter into the field of peace keeping.  Peace, safety and justice were the most sought after goals.

There have been times there was no government or no good government.  In those times men of peace stepped up and began to work at forming a workable government for the peace, safety and welfare of all the people.  Sometimes it was one strong personality…  Sometimes it was a group of such persons such as the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  Their stand cost all of them very greatly.  It cost some of them everything including their lives and families…  But they gave this United States of America to us to carry on the pursuit of the fullness of life to which all men are entitled.  For us today it comes through the Chain of Command.

In all of my years of experience I have always had a Colonel over me…  But that Colonel was over Majors who were over Captains who were over Lieutenants who were over Sergeants who were over the Peace Keepers who did the field work…
And the Peace Keepers who do the field work; patrol, investigation, public relations
and all of the other duties; usually have no visible supervision because they are trained to be self starters and conduct the business of peace keeping without any visible supervision or assistance unless it is requested.

On day shift I would probably see the people in my local command structure if I went to the local office or the precinct.  In the State Police I might even see all levels up to Captain, but mostly at the office.  Occasionally I would have a car pull abreast of me, hear a horn toot and turn to see the Colonel and some other high ranking officer with him with a trooper driving the Cadillac and they would pass me by and go on their way.

Currently when I am working I am assigned to a precinct but I am often sent to HQ with packages or to make pick-ups and I could see numerous people in command level all the way to the Chief…  Almost all of my work is alone in car patrol duty or on assignments unless I am assisting at emergency scenes.  As it is with all Peace Keepers, what happens in my day is up to me unless I am assigned to a specific task by a supervisor or dispatch.  I can be as busy as I want to be.  Where I go and when I go within my assigned duty area is up to me as long as I get the job done.  On evening or night shift I see hardly any other Peace Keepers except those assigned to car patrol unless a situation happens that demands supervision and command level presence.  Many officers want to know how I find so much work to take care of.

Walking patrol is very different…  I might see numerous supervisors and all levels of command on walking patrol duty on a busy night.  On a not so busy night I might not see any other Peace Keepers for up to an hour.

I have worked extremely large areas and extremely small areas.  I have worked where I saw few cars and I have worked areas where I saw thousands of cars that kept the roads and streets covered and traffic hardly able to move.  I have patrolled areas where I saw very few people and I have patrolled areas where the people were so plentiful that we had to shut down vehicular traffic on the streets to give the pedestrians a place to be able to walk and move.  I have dealt with individuals and I have dealt with crowds.  I have never been bored nor have I not been able to find something that needed my attention.   I love the job of watching traffic and I love the job of watching people.  I love patrol whether on foot or in a vehicle.

Some nights on foot patrol I have had young officers complain that there was nothing going on.  My response is always, “Isn’t that what we are trying to accomplish?”   Our first job is to keep the peace.  If the peace is broken, then our job is to restore the peace.  These jobs may take one of us a few minutes or thousands of us several years…  Yet our jobs are always the same…  Keep the peace or restore the peace.

What draws us to this profession?  It is likely because we have learned some version of the statement above from FIRST KNIGHT…  We give up our freedom to serve in preserving or restoring the peace in the lives of others including in the lives of those that we love and who love us.  We saw the need and we decided to do it if we could get accepted.  Once in the profession, if we hear guns, explosions or crashes, we run to it as others are running away.  If there are injuries, we try to relieve suffering even as others just stand and gawk.  And it is likely that we are Peace Keepers because we probably could not be happy doing anything else…  This applies especially to the ones who stay in it until they are forced to leave it by death, injury or forced retirement.  Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for his brethren.  It actually says,  “No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.” (John 15:13 Amplified Bible)…

“…lay down (give up)”…  That does not mean just the ones who die performing their duty…  It also means every one who signs on to become a Peace Keeper and receive the assignment to fulfill the tasks assigned to them, whatever that assigned task might be.  It means the ones on the front lines of the effort and it means the ones who support the ones on the front lines…  Those in the supply lines…  Those in communications…  It means Doctors, Medics and Nurses…  The ones with the guns and the ones who help them do their jobs.  To stretch a point it even means the mechanic who keeps the vehicles running and the air units flying and everyone in-between including fire fighters, emergency medical personnel and chaplains whenever we work together.

I think and meditate a lot on this subject and I am always amazed at the great lengths to which Peace Keepers will go in order to perform the duties of being Peace Keepers.  It is not that we have no fear…  We simply put fear to work for us instead of allowing it to hinder us.  It is not that we have no emotions…  It is that we have learned how to control our emotions until the job at hand is finished and we are someplace where we can release our emotions safely.  The most important thing is that we must learn to vent the checked emotions and not allow them to build up to an explosion…  And we must learn to use positive coping techniques and not the negative ones which will do us more damage in the long run.

Peace Keepers, there are few outside the profession that truly understand us.  Most of those whom we love and who love us do not understand us.  The people with whom we must deal seldom understand us…  But without us there is no peace and safety for very long any place in our nation or in our world. Therefore we must do that which we are drawn to do even if no one else understands us except another Peace Keeper.  That is why I am here writing every week to let you know that there is someone else who knows where you are and, who not only cares for and about you but who also understands you and how this profession affects you.   I am here to encourage you in your efforts and to encourage you to continue to do the best that you are able to do.  We are God’s Ministers of Rightness ( He says so in His Book).  We are here to do what it takes to protect the peaceful people and execute His wrath upon the people who will not be peaceful.  We are provided the authority and the weapons to accomplish the jobs to which we are assigned.  I have been engaged in this profession in one form or another for 47 years and I do not look forward to the day that I will not ever be able to continue.  I have done the field work of patrol, forensics,  investigations of all kinds… And I never wanted out of those actions but then I was called to become a chaplain and I passed through all levels of that duty to being the Administrator.  Age forced me to have to retire from being a law enforcement officer and I hated it.  I sought for other ways to serve even as I continued service as the Chaplain Administrator.  I was then given a position as a traffic safety officer in Community Services and put back into a patrol car where I could work with the officers and assist them as well as perform my own duties.  That met my needs until my daughter became so ill that she needed constant care.  Daily I look forward to being able to get back to that job and being with the officers.  For the past nine months I have supervised and administered the chaplain program from my office in my home while I care for my daughter.  I also look forward to the day that I will be able to get back to the streets in chaplain duty as well.  I do miss the work and the department personnel. 

THANK YOU FOR BEING THERE AND THANK YOU FOR THE JOBS YOU DO AND HAVE DONE FOR ALL OF US!  My Commander-In-Chief and I are eternally grateful.

“BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!”  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others.  See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you.  Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.

I shall never cease to give this message to you and for you.  Your worth and value are not capable of being estimated.  What you do on any one tour of duty is not understandable to most people outside the profession…  They just do not know the value of what you do nor the value of what it costs you to do it…  But, thank God, you just go right on and do it anyway.  All of you and each of you are amazing and marvelous people.  I am most honored to be among you and to know many of you as my Compadres.

Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

My daughter is doing much better and not hurting as badly.  It has been a much better week.  Thank you for your prayers and concern.

As it has always been… So it still is!!!

“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not…
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper…
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
===============================================================
All rights reserved.  May not be duplicated without permission, except to be
forwarded with all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452

I have been surveying the news sources…  reading the internet blogs and outlets…  Who are we to believe?  I evaluated quite a while back to find a path in our times for me.  In all that has and is taking place in our world I see that it is still the Peace Keeper committed to peace and justice that is the only human hope that is holding our world together and holding evil in check.  I have no comments on the politics of our nation or our time.  I am here to support and encourage the Peace Keeper.  The only message I have is for Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness and the right to live as one chooses to live as long as he does not violate the rights of someone else in his process.  I know many things.  What I know is what I have experienced.  If I have any facts in my possession that I have not personally experienced, I only know about them until I can apply them and have them work in my own life.

I am as a man born out of his time.  In my own mind and in the minds of some others, such as my deceased wife, I would have fit much better in an earlier time.  I am from a time that was so different from this time that it is hard to fathom…  Yet here I am.  I am as the one who cried out in the wilderness described himself…  “A voice  seeking to gain the attention of the people of my time…” and most do not want to hear or be told what the message is.  The common cry is, “Don’t confuse me with information, I have my mind made up and I will go my way.”  When I take a stand for the Peace Keepers, with some people it is a very unpopular position to take.  When I take a stand for my Eternal Captain that is usually not popular either.

Most of us are being assaulted with much information every day.  Much of it is difficult for us to personally put to use.  Some of it is too costly for us to personally put to use.
Some of the information we cannot put to use unless we band ourselves together with others who have the desire to accomplish some like goal such as a political party.

I must evaluate much information that I cannot immediately put to any kind of use but can only file it away and watch until more information that works with that on file is revealed to me.  In the midst of all of this flood of information I must still live and handle the problems of each event and each day.  My Immediate goal is life as it comes and living it to the very best of my ability.  I suppose you could look at my life and call it crisis living because the course for me is to live as best I am able and to help others in need, when I am able and allowed to assist, to do the same.

This week I called in a report to my daughter’s surgeon on her wound condition.  I received a return call requesting me to bring her in and let him evaluate the wound.  In the office we looked at the wound together.  I pointed out the difficult areas and problems that needed his attention.  He asked my daughter if she wanted to go back to the hospital or if she wanted him to do it in the office under local?  She chose then and there under local.  I assisted him and watched his magnificent hands in the most efficient, tender, compassionate action I have ever watched.  He was so smooth and gentle that it was a wonder just to watch his hands and instruments function.  He did exactly what I would have done if I had been in his place and we are very happy with the outcome.  The open wound is now so much easier to care for.  The good news is that she suffered no worse doing it this way than she has suffered being an in-patient and staying one or two nights in  the hospital.

I am designing a new regimen of rest, herbs, vitamins, minerals, food and exercise to help pull me out of the constant fatigue that life and stress have dealt to me these past months.  The last couple days have been much better for me.  The wound care is going to be easier for both of us.  All of these things taken together are easing the load on me plus I am reapplying some old knowledge to help myself recover as I have done many times before.  The most difficult part of being a Peace Keeper, a Peace Maker or a Care Giver is remembering to take care of yourself while you provide care for others.

In our world things change so quickly that if you are out of service for any long period of time it requires re-acclimating and almost completely starting over until you get back into the regimen of performance.

Bombs are still exploding and killing in Iraq.  Afghanistan is a quagmire.  Pakistan is quickly becoming a problem with which our nation and our world will have to deal.  Our highways, streets and roads are still the scenes of much injury and death.  Crime and killing are loose and stalking victims in streets and homes.  Will it ever end?…
Probably not as long as there are at least two people still living in the immediate proximity of each other anywhere in this world.  What keeps it from getting so out of balance that there is more mass murder and more blatant thievery than we already have?…

The only effective check, ever, will be the Peace Keeper using the Rule of Law and Justice to protect the innocent and bring the perpetrators to justice for their actions.
The Peace Keeper is indispensable in our society today.  No civilized society can exist without them because peace and morality will not last unless there are those
who will dedicate their lives to the good and welfare of others to see that actions of people are kept in proper check and improper actions are dealt with as speedily as possible.  Peace keeping requires commitment, dedication, training, practice and participation on a continuous basis.  Peace keeping is not just a job…  It is a way of life…  And often it consumes those who enter into it in some way or another.  Much learning and constant vigilance are required by those who are Peace Keepers to last, to be effective and to survive the profession.

I have dedicated my life to trying to be of encouragement and assistance to any Peace Keeper who might need anything I can give to them.  I started in this profession 47 years ago…  I have progressed through it… And have survived to offer assistance to those who might recognize that they have a need and allow someone who has been where they are to help them survive and last.

Thank You Peace Keepers, each of you and all of you, past and present…  You are the raw material of our nation…  You are the wall of defense between each of us and the evil that would come out of our world and attack us…  You will always be our best and lasting defense.  My Commander-In-Chief and I are most thankful that you are there.  Time and again, the Peace Keepers of the day came to John the Baptist, Jesus and to the Apostles.  In each case they were encouraged and their needs for action or information were met.  The Peace Keepers were encouraged…  They were not ridiculed nor put down for who they were not for what they did in keeping the peace.

So now…  Again…  And again…  And again…  And again still…  I must always fulfill my dedication to you and once more say…  “BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!”  ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others.  See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you.  Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.

Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

As it has always been… So it still is!!!

“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not…
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper…
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
===============================================================
All rights reserved.  May not be duplicated without permission, except to be
forwarded with all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

The provision for peace… Warriors, soldiers, governmental forces to fight against
all threats against peace… paying for peace with commitment, action, personal
sacrifice and sometimes their own serious, debilitating injury… or death.

But peace is not in the hearts of many humans… and because they have no peace,
they are searching for something to satisfy that monstrous hunger within.  This
hunger is worse than a ravenous wolf… a stalking lion…  a circling shark…  It is a
horrible driving force.  Humans try to satisfy it by external means… but that does not
work… it only causes destruction, war and death.

Because so many humans are insatiable there had to be a balance… Legally
constituted authority acceptable to most of the people who live under its rule was
and is the answer…  And the mechanics of it are made up of those who step out of
the herd of humanity to be the buffer between those who want peace and safety
and those who want to take everything for themselves and make slaves or tools of
satisfaction of everyone else.  Every surviving society in history has had a strong
standing army or the society did not survive in a free state.

The standing armies became reduced to local law enforcers for the general
population and armies were used to put down those who revolted against the
constituted authority of the local enforcement… and also to repel national invaders.
Sometimes all levels of this constituted authority became corrupt… revolutions
developed… some governments were toppled, overthrown and replaced…
but often these were either immediately corrupt… or soon became corrupt.
Power brings with it terrible temptations… temptations which some do not want
to resist… power and companions that eventually lose the detestable quality
because of familiarity… and authority is corrupted again.

This process is the reason most civilizations have risen and fallen in a
comparatively short time.  Kings of every variety abound in history… from the best
of the best to the worst of the worst.  Lackadaisical kings who trusted their generals
were soon to be replaced by the strongest general… and this process repeated
over and over until the present time.

We in the United States of America are the last and greatest experiment of this
process of people wanting peace and safety… and constituting the legal authority
to be responsible for that peace and safety.  We have come far using constables,
sheriffs, marshals, armies, navies, mechanized forces, flying forces and local
forces designed to cover the needs of the population, locally, in villages, towns,
cities, counties, states and nationally.  These forces are constituted of people who
handle every kind of job… logistics, communications, enforcement, courts, jails,
prisons…  repelling of invaders nationally… assisting our allies when they are
attacked… resisting despotism and tyranny wherever the awful enemy of peace
arises and the people under its grinding heel cannot do for themselves that which
needs to be done to restore peace and safety.

All of these are the people I call Peace Keepers… from the smallest town or village
with one law enforcement officer to the largest  departments with thousands of
officers, sheriffs and deputies, jailers, bailiffs, courts, prosecutors, judges and all of
the support staffs for each of these… from small elite specialized military units to
whole armies and navies with all of the logistics personnel and support staff
necessary in order to function well… THESE ARE THE ONES I CALL PEACE
KEEPERS…  ALL OF MY LIFE I HAVE ADMIRED AND LEARNED WHAT I COULD
ABOUT ALL OF THESE WHO HAVE AND STILL DO PROVIDE PEACE AND SAFETY FOR ALL THE REST OF US.

First I learned about them when my father was drafted in 1945… then I learned to
read, go to movies, listen to radio… from preteen and all through high school you
would often find a book under my nose or sticking out of my pocket… I explored
history and the world this way.  I also learned about the force of greater strength
from older boys, bullies and a very strict father and mother… all of these formed my
early years… very little love and care as it is spoken of today… but all lessons
learned by experience.  An education learned by experience will either teach you
how to avoid those hard lesson forces… or it will draw you into the same habits as
those who forced their ideas and wills upon you… so that you will either do the
same to others or go to whatever length necessary to stop those harsh lessons
from being forced upon others who are unable to defend themselves against the
harsh forces.

Those who have succeeded in law enforcement learned what needed to be done
so that peace and safety could flourish… and then they made it their life’s work to get the job done as much as it depended upon them… and they are never happy when they cannot be doing the job for peace and safety.  When it cannot be done one way…they do it another… much of that activity today is manifested in people becoming law enforcers, military or security contractors… and the world as we know it cannot live without them… not now… AND NOT EVER!!!

I believe in PEACE AND SAFETY with all of my being.  I am a man of Peace…
unless someone tries to take peace and safety from someone else in my presence…
then I will use any method from gentle to hard to protect the innocent and to restore
Peace.  Some have thought my white Clergy collar to be a symbol of pacifism
and acted upon their assumption.  Boy, were they surprised when they wound up
on the ground face down under my knee in the small of their back and my long
flashlight across their neck in such a way as to make movement painful… or
impossible to accomplish.  They were not injured… just immobilized… and surprised.
One said, “Hey, you are a preacher, you are not supposed to do that (while he was
on the ground under my knee and light).”  My response was simple and plain… “Hey,
you are under arrest… You are not supposed to run!”  He had just tried to escape from the officer who was patting him down for weapons and contraband.  I saw it coming and was waiting for him.

Today is A NEW DAY and it is aimed differently than yesterday.  Today I attended the Celebration of Life service of one of the chaplains who served under my guidance and who was also a friend.  I spoke one night about the Chaplain Program to a group of citizens attending a Citizen’s Police Academy.  Two men came to me afterward.  The first introduced the other and the second man said I want to be one of your chaplains…   I gave him my number to call and he followed through, took the training and became one of our chaplains in Virginia Beach Police Department.  He was one of the best chaplains I have ever known.  I offered him the opportunity and he took it like a hungry dog grabs a bone and ran with it.  Chaplain Douglas R. Twiddy served in the U.S.Army and in the U.S.Marine Corps Reserve.  He knew how to wear a uniform and he knew how to meet the needs of people in difficult circumstances.  Doug succumbed to the ravages of cancer during his sleep earlier this week.  Today we celebrated the life of a friend and fellow Peace Keeper.  He received full Military Honors and his casket was carried by eight police officers who knew him and loved him for his service to the personnel of the department and assisted the officers with those in crisis.

It has been a difficult and busy week with the passing of Doug from this world being only part of it.  My daughter, Donna, had another surgery Wednesday.  Early this morning I received the announcement of losing the services of one of the chaplains I supervise.  Today when I arrived home from the service I received a message that another Peace Keeper who is medically retired had been overtaken by the cancer he was fighting and died just as we were beginning the service for Doug so I have another service to plan for very soon.

I have several dreams that I long to see fulfilled.  Today, as every day, I asked my Commander-In-Chief for His direction.  He knows my heart and my dreams far, far better than I do.  He has closed some of my dreams with a definite “NO”!!!
Today He fills my inquiries with other instructions… Mine is a life of PREPARATION AND RESPONSE  just as it is supposed to be… and just as each of yours is supposed to be.

I read of the lives of the contractors in Iraq… and I ask, “Should I be there?”  The
answer is clear, “NO”.  I visit my mountains and I ask, “May I be here?”  The answer
comes back clear and plain, “NOT NOW!”  I examine my dreams and goals and I
ask, “Which course?”  The answer is just as plain, “Do what you have been
assigned to do and what you know to do.  Take advantage of every opportunity and
continue… Leave the rest to Me or whomever is responsible.”  I occasionally dream
of my career as a Virginia State Trooper… My officers ask, “Do you ever miss it?”
My standard answer is, “Only every day.”  I think on the speaking engagement I had
with a local military group… If I had my choice I would be ecstatic doing that
particular duty often… even daily would be OK with me.  I think of my career here
with VBPD and am saddened that the law said I must give in, retire and surrender my commission to enforce the law.  That signified a major change coming from my Commander-In-Chief… and with faith and gladness I look forward to His way and His direction.  My most important current course is tending to the health and immediate needs of my ill, disabled daughter, Donna, as she recuperates from sixteen hospitalizations in fifteen months.

I am like a ship of old times… casting off and aiming in a known direction… just not
knowing the details of the trip ahead but willing to trust the pilot at the wheel to take
us on the proper course.

In that vein, my thoughts turn to each of you… today each of you embarked upon this
day just as I did… all of us traveling in the same way… aiming for a destination… but
never knowing all the details ahead of time…  BUT MAKING THE TRIP BECAUSE
WE HAVE PREPARED… AND WE WILL RESPOND TO EACH SITUATION AS
WE ARE INVOLVED IN THEM… BECAUSE WE HAVE PREPARED TO
RESPOND TO THE NEED FOR PEACE AND SAFETY.  Some of us are paid to
do this activity… from very poorly paid to quite handsomely paid… and some of us
are  REALLY NUTS… SOME OF US DO IT FOR NO PAY AT ALL FROM THOSE
WE PROTECT AND SERVE… because we must do it… and we cannot help
ourselves… but this includes all of us who put ourselves into this job of being PEACE
KEEPERS… WE ALL VOLUNTEERED FOR THE JOB… WE ARE NOT LIVING IF
WE CANNOT DO THE JOB… OR IN SOME WAY SUPPORT AND ASSIST THOSE
WHO DO THE JOB.

Whether your job is as a contractor making the trip as a body guard from the airport
to the green zone… or as a military person manning a turret gun, a guard tower, riding
in a protective convoy… ducking bullets, rockets and grenades…
or a a law enforcement officer patrolling a lonely stretch of rural road… patrolling a
residential area jammed with the underprivileged or in a spread out, placid and
quiet suburban residential area… patrolling a freeway or an Interstate… walking a
beat… sitting on surveillance… planning a raid… making a SWAT action… saddling
up on a bike, motor or a horse… NO MATTER the place or course of your action and
duty…  YOU ARE THE RAW MATERIAL OF OUR FREEDOM!  WITHOUT YOU
BEING THERE AND DOING YOUR DUTY WE WILL HAVE NO LIFE AND NO
NATION AS WE KNOW IT IN THIS MOMENT!  THAT HAS NEVER IN OUR HISTORY BEEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN IT IS TODAY!!!

I LOOK IN MY MIND’S EYE AT THE PEACE KEEPERS OF THE CENTURIES…
I SEE THE FACES SET LIKE STONE AND DETERMINED… MARCHING TO AN
UNKNOWN FUTURE… ROLLING FORWARD TO A DATE WITH DESTINY…
A DATE TO SEE TO THE WELFARE OF SOMEONE ELSE AND NOT
THEMSELVES…I MOURN WITH THE FAMILIES OF THE 300 MARCHING TO
THE GATES OF FIRE… WITH THE WAVES OF TROOPS LANDING AT
NORMANDY FROM WHERE MY ANCESTORS MIGRATED… WITH THOSE
WHO RAN SILENT AND DEEP BENEATH THE WAVES LOOKING FOR THE
SILENT ENEMY WHO IS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR ABILITY TO MAKE WAR
ON THEM…

I HURT WITH THE NAUSEA OF THE UNKNOWN AT GUADALCANAL, TARAWA,
IWO JIMA,CHOSEN RESIVOIR… I SHUDDER THROUGH THE HELL OF THE BATTLE IN THE IA DRANG VALLEY WITH THE 1ST CAV…  I FEEL THE FLEETING MOMENT IN THE LIFE OF EACH ONE WHO COMPRISES THE PAST AND PRESENT STATS ABOUT THE HISTORY, THE WOUNDED AND THE DEAD…

YES I CHOSE TO BE HERE WHERE I AM… BUT JUST AS SURELY… IT CHOSE
ME… AND I MUST SAY THAT ALL I DID WAS RESPOND TO THE LIFE LONG
CALL OF MY COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF WHEN I LEARNED HOW TO DO THAT…
I NEEDED THAT EDUCATION BEFORE WE MADE PERSONAL CONTACT AND
THAT  MARVELOUS EDUCATION HAS CONTINUED AS I HAVE BEEN ONE
AMONG YOU.  MY DEEPEST THANKS TO ALL OF YOUR PREDECESSORS
AND TO EACH OF YOU. NO MAN HAS EVER BEEN BLESSED WITH MORE
EFFECTIVE, NOR MORE PLEASURABLE COMPANY… AND THE MARVELOUS
THOUGHT THAT JUST ILLUMINATED FOR ME IS THAT I WILL ALWAYS BE IN
YOUR COMPANY.  LIKE THE CONTRACTORS WHO HAD TO GET BACK INTO
THE FIGHT IN ORDER TO LIVE WITH THEMSELVES… I KNOW THAT I, TOO,
WILL ALWAYS BE IN THE FIGHT SOMEWHERE.

SOME WILL ASK WHY THIS PREACHER CAN’T JUST BE SATISFIED WITH
PREACHING?… A PREACHER MUST ASSOCIATE WITH THE CONGREGATION
TO WHICH HE IS CALLED OR SENT… AND I HAVE BEEN SENT TO YOU…
I MUST SERVE WHERE I AM APPOINTED JUST AS EACH OF YOU MUST…
AND I HAVE FOUND THAT MY MOST PEACEFUL, SAFEST,
PLEASURABLE PLACE TO BE IS EXACTLY WHERE I AM APPOINTED TO BE
EVEN IF ALL HELL IS HAPPENING THERE ALL AROUND ME… I AM MOST
HAPPY AND MOST AT PEACE WHEN I AM FUNCTIONING EXACTLY WHERE I
AM DESIGNED TO FUNCTION… AND I KNOW THAT MOST OF YOU ARE THE
VERY SAME WAY ABOUT YOURSELVES!  WE ARE PEACE KEEPERS!  WE
CAN DO NO OTHER AND LIVE… WE CAN DO OTHER AND EXIST… BUT
EXISTING IS NOT LIVING… WE MUST BE PEACE KEEPERS IF WE WANT
TO TRULY LIVE.

AS ALWAYS… “BE CAREFUL OUT THERE“… WHEREVER YOU FIELD OF
BATTLE IS… BE ALERT, WATCHFUL AND SUSPICIOUS… BE WARY LIKE A
FOX… AND COME HOME WHEN YOUR TOUR IS OVER… WE ALL LOVE YOU
AND NEED YOU.  TAKE THE BEST OF CARE FOR EVERY PART OF YOU…
BODY, MIND, EMOTIONS AND SPIRIT.  YOU CANNOT REALLY LIVE IF YOU
DO NOT DO THIS FOR YOURSELF AND NO ONE ELSE CAN DO IT FOR YOU.
IF I COULD I WOULD GLADLY BE WHERE YOU ARE TO GIVE YOU A HAND
CLASP OF FRIENDSHIP AND APPRECIATION… AND A HUG OF THE
DEEPEST RESPECT AND PRIDE IN YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE AND FOR
WHAT YOU DO.  MY COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AND I ARE ETERNALLY
THANKFUL.  I SALUTE YOU, EACH OF YOU AND ALL OF YOU!!!

Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.

My daughter, Donna, is in much great pain since the surgery this week.  The surgery uncovered a large number of old sutures that are involved with nerves so sensitive that she weeps as I tend the wound.  Then I must pack it with the solution that feels like setting it afire and it burns for hours…  But the wound is easier to tend now that the trouble areas are all open and accessible.  Thank you for the prayers and concern.  Some of you wrote this week and I have not answered.  I will get to your messages and respond as soon as I can.  Thank you for caring.

AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN… SO IT STILL IS…

“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu

Training and practice are everything!
Without them, the best results are not obtained!

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not…
For God, Country and the Peace Keeper…
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
Surviving Peace Keeper,
Virginia State Police Alumni,
RETIRED Police Officer Virginia Beach Police Dept.,
Senior Chaplain and Chaplain Administrator VBPD,
DCJS Certified Police Instructor,
Community Service Officer (Traffic Safety) VBPD
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
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