Day 26-27 Victory Tower, Ethics, and Gas Chamber

As we hit the home stretch of the Direct Commission Course, there is no better way to finish the initial military training phase than to take part in two time honored Army training traditions: the rappel tower and the CS gas chamber.

Day 26: Rappel Tower and The Army Ethic

Today we started the day off with Victory Tower, the rappel tower here on Fort Jackson. I love rappelling. I think ROTC drilled it into me. I am not the best with heights but the best advice I got while in ROTC is to just train your brain to shut off and get it over with quickly. Eventually I learned to love it. With four FTX's and Advanced Camp I had rappelled at least five times before Victory Tower. The one where we did our Field Trainings with ROTC was a 70 foot tower that looked over extremely flat land. You could see for miles on it. The rappel tower at Fort Knox and Victory Tower here at Fort Jackson is only 40 feet tall and you can't really see anything from them because they are surrounded by taller trees. It was definitely one of my favorite events we did here though.

After the rappel tower the only notable event we had left today was a class on the Army Ethic. I don't even know where to start in explaining that class. It was incredibly content dense. To put it as simply as I can, the Army wants its Soldiers to live by a certain...ethical lifestyle. It purposely uses vague and ambiguous ways of defining those things that are not agreed upon by most ethic scholars. It defines ethics as a prescribed set of behaviors that you are required to live by and it should be reinforced by morals which are the beliefs about right and wrong that you bring from your own personal beliefs which for most people is God. The ethic is expressed in vague moral principles, Army values, oaths, creeds, laws, and regulations. It is saying, "here is the way we ideally want to behave as an Army. We don't always reach those goals but we want to achieve it."

One interesting topic that was brought up that was relevant to us as Chaplains was the concept of the Army values. The Army values are the heart of what the Army does. The Army's mission is to employ ethical land combat power to win America's wars. What does that look like and what kind of Soldier carries out an "ethical" land war? One who represents the Army values.

L: Loyalty: Bear true faith and allegiance to the nation and Army and your unit.

D: Duty: Fulfill your obligations.

R: Respect: Treat others the way they should be treated.

S: Selfless Service: Put the welfare of others before yourself.

H: Honor: Live up to all the Army values.

I: Integrity: Do whats right even when no one is looking.

P: Personal Courage: Overcome adversity and fear.

This is the Army's attempt at creating a virtue ethic. Most Soldiers don't question the Army values. They sound great in theory and are plastered on every wall in every building on every Army installation. Soldiers are expected to absorb these through osmosis. None of these are bad things. The problem is, are they precisely defined and are they always applicable? For instance, Loyalty. Loyalty to who? Your unit is an example that the Army gives. But what if your unit is making poor unethical or even illegal decisions? That could cause you to get in trouble pretty quick. Or how about Honor? What does honor even mean? There is no agreed upon definition of honor. Even the Army values describes honor as just living up to the other values. To be honorable is to live up to the army values. What is an army value? Honor.

There are issues in some of these values when they are not precisely defined. That is where the chaplaincy comes in. We must bring precision into this ethic. It requires a source of ultimate truth so that our ethic does not shift and bend with ambiguous terms and definitions. If we can provide ultimate definitions of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage with grounding in eternal truth than these values have meaning and are incredibly powerful. Without them, they can be misleading and confusing. But they serve a place. When in a culture that does not agree upon right and wrong, the Army prescribes what every Soldier must hold to be true about ethics. This conversation led us to practical exercises where we would help advise commanders and Soldiers walk through difficult ethical dilemnas and problems. They aren't always black and white but asking the right questions can help you come up with an answer that you can be comfortable with and be able to look yourself in the mirror later with.

Day 27: Gas Gas Gas

We started off the day with a road march. It was four miles but while it was hyped up to be a ruck it turned into a pleasant stroll. We only carried an assault pack with a few clothing items. I got some extra PT in by being a road guard and running up and down the formation to stop traffic. We stopped about two miles in for a break and then kept going. It took like an hour and a half. I get why we went that slow though. For most people who were new to the Army they would have never walked more than a couple miles at once, give or take in boots that they are still probably breaking in and carrying any kind of weight. The Army uses a progression of "crawl, walk, run." This was our crawl stage. It was a nice and pleasant walk and it was nice and cool outside. I enjoy rucks because they are usually quiet and gives me a lot of time to think and process my thoughts.

In between the ruck and the gas chamber we did a short class on the Code of Conduct if taken prisoner of war. We watched an inspiring documentary about Chaplain Kapaun who gave his life for his Soldiers in a korean prisoner of war camp. It was a very surface level class but it got me thinking about if that ever happened to me, how I would serve my Soldiers and keep them safe without compromising the mission. Can I trust God in the darkness of torture and commit my life into Christ's hands? Father Emil Kapaun did. He trusted his God enough to endure torture to protect his Soldiers and to provide them spiritual care. Here is a quick video on Father Kapaun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZuPrQBSDCs I hope to be half the chaplain Father Kapaun was. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4)

Afterwards we did the infamous CS gas chamber. Can't say I was super enthusiastic and pumped to go fill my lungs with CS gas but I guess I was excited enough to be one of the first to go through it. As our 1st Platoon motto goes, IF YOU AIN'T FIRST YOU'RE LAST. Having done the gas chamber before at Advanced Camp probably made me a little less excited about it as well. I want to be a positive chaplain but I also want to be an honest one and I can't fake being excited about it. But it did exactly what it is supposed to do which is make you TRUST YOUR EQUIPMENT. This is why this training is so important and that can't be emphasized enough.

The scenario is as follows. Someone yells GAS GAS GAS and you have 9 seconds to put on your mask, clear it and breathe normally. After putting it on you are shuffled into a room where CS gas is filling the room. CS Gas agitates any kind of pore in your skin that holds mucus. Basically if you sweat, cry, breathe or drool from it, its going to be agitated by the gas. So when you walk in and you are already sweating you start to feel a slight burn on your neck. The cadre running the range has you do some basic head movements to make sure you have a good seal on your mask. If you don't have a good seal than you will experience CS gas breaching your mask because you didn't put it on right. To help you see that your equipment will be operable even in combat circumstances they have you do exercises in place while wearing the mask. My personal belief is they just want you to get sweating more so that the gas reacts with your skin more.

The most important part of the range is that you practice clearing your mask of contaminants in an actually contaminated area. This is supposed to be a real-life scenario. To do this the cadre commands you to take a deep breath, hold it, close your eyes and break your seal and lift it up to let gas in your mask. You feel the quick wave of gas hitting your skin and it starts to feel like a bad sunburn. After you get the ok, you put your mask back on and clear it of contaminants and return to breathing normally. Once that is completed you then get to the fun part. You do a left or right face towards the exit and grab the persons jacket to the front of you. You grab your mask with your other arm and then the cadre will tell you to exhale as much as you can and then take off your mask. And then you get to experience a face full of CS gas. Thankfully at this range all we had to do was sit there in the gas for like 30 seconds and then they filed us out of the room. At Fort Knox we had to sing happy birthday to the army since it was the Army's birthday. Most privates have to recite the Soldier's creed. In order to be let out of the room everyone has to open their eyes and take a breath in. You could tell the ones who had been in before because they stood straight up, tried not to move so that they didn't sweat, squinted their eyes and took shallow breaths. I'm sure if you google "CS chamber" the first video that comes up will be a funny video of everyone flapping their arms like birds when they come out of the chamber.

Can't say it was a blast but I'll tell you what. I trust that mask, which is exactly what the training is for. Hooah!

Tomorrow is the last day of DCC! I am looking forward to getting a couple of privileges as we finish CHBOLC A and enter CHBOLC B.

Loving every minute.

Road marches rock.

Before the gas chamber

After the gas chamber. I should frame this picture.

(A video from STX)