Posted on 11/04/2005 4:25:23 PM PST by SandRat
MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii (Nov. 4, 2005) -- It might be said that Seaman Travis Lassiter, a religious program specialist serving with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, based out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, was born for the position he currently holds.
After all, his parents had just moved to Surrey, British Columbia, in Canada, to run a church as pastors, before they welcomed little Travis into the world.
After a few family moves throughout his childhood, including ones to Oregon, Texas, and North Carolina, Lassiter said he noticed himself “feeling the call of the Lord” more and more as he got older.
After graduating high school in Charlotte, N.C., Lassiter found himself in Indianapolis, studying theology at Indiana Bible College.
“I planned on staying for all four years, and, after graduating, wanted to become a minister,” commented Lassiter. “But at the time, I didn’t have the discipline to wait another three years, so after my freshman year, I left college and headed to Florida to start ministering right away.”
At the church in Florida, Lassiter found himself as a minister’s assistant, but said he soon realized, like anything else in life, he would have to pay his dues.
“I guess my head was in the clouds a little, but looking back, I think I was expecting to be the pastor of the church before I was ready. Things don’t usually happen overnight like that in life, and after six months, I think I became a little disillusioned. I moved back to Charlotte and worked construction. I still attended church every week, but the next few years were pretty dark for me.”
During those few years, Lassiter said he never forgot his dream of one day becoming a minister, but that he became depressed for not actually taking steps to realize that dream.
“I was basically miserable during those years back in Charlotte,” recalled Lassiter. “I would work construction jobs all day, and then come home and sit on the couch and watch television in an empty apartment. Then, I’d wake up and do it all over again. This went on for a long time, day in and day out.
“One day, I was walking up the steps to my apartment after work, with my head down, feeling like I would never make it to my door. Not because I was physically tired, but because I was so down on myself. Then, I felt the Lord’s presence, and I just started crying. It felt like He carried me to the top of the steps. He told me He loved me and I knew then that I had to follow my faith and not just go through the motions.”
Still, it would be a couple more years before Lassiter followed through on changing his life.
“I wish right then and there that I would have made a change in my life, but more time went by, and I kept living the same life. Then, finally, I started to quit watching TV right when I got home after work, and instead started praying. Every day I would come home after work and just pray. Then one day, after praying, I flipped on the TV and one of those ‘Accelerate your Life’ Navy commercials came on. I wrote down the 1-800 number and they put me in touch with the local recruiter. Pretty soon I was signed up.”
Before shipping to basic training, Lassiter went to Ohio to visit an old friend. It was there that he ran into the woman who would later become his wife.
“The Lord is truly amazing,” exclaimed Lassiter when recalling the trip. “I ran into a girl, Stephanie, who I had met years before at a Bible camp. We didn’t really know one another back then, but she had given me a school picture of herself. After all those years, I had still kept it. When we saw each other again, I knew right away she was the one.”
Soon after reuniting with Stephanie, Lassiter shipped off to basic training and then went straight to the Navy’s religious program specialist training.
After graduating, Lassiter received orders to Kaneohe Bay, but he continued to write letters and telephone Stephanie.
Then, not long after arriving in Hawaii, Lassiter received the orders that would have a deep impact on him. The battalion he was assigned to was shipping out to Iraq, and Lassiter was going with them.
“Fallujah was a different animal,” said Lassiter, describing the Iraqi city that has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the war. “I was with a chaplain who believed strongly in a ‘ministry of presence,’ which I believe is good. We would do six or seven services a day throughout the combat area, so it was very scary moving around so much under such dangerous circumstances, but it was our job to be there for the troops. We had a lot of close calls.”
According to Navy Lt. Brian Shearer, 1/3 battalion chaplain and a native of Pittsburgh, part of a religious program specialist’s job is to provide security for the chaplain.
“A chaplain is a noncombatant, and doesn’t carry a weapon,” explained Shearer, a former Marine rifleman who served in the Corps from 1982 to 1986. “It’s one of the jobs of an RP to basically serve as a body guard for the chaplain.”
While in Fallujah, Lassiter found himself in firefights with the enemy on numerous occasions.
“The Marine Corps gave me an M-16 and trained me how to use it long before we deployed, just for those types of situations,” said Lassiter. “It was my duty to protect the chaplain, and also to aid the brave Marines in any way I could. I didn’t have any problem with it then, and I feel the same way about our upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. I will do my duty no matter what.”
For his service in Iraq, Lassiter was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon.
After 1/3 returned from Iraq, Lassiter spent some much-deserved leave back in Charlotte. Not one to waste any more time after having come so close to death in battle, Lassiter got down on one knee and proposed to Stephanie at the airport as soon as he got off the plane.
She said “Yes.”
“I am so proud of him and all the Marines and Sailors he is serving with in 1/3,” said Stephanie Lassiter, shortly after her husband returned recently with 1/3 to Kaneohe Bay, following a six-week pre-deployment training exercise in California. “The hardest part is that he is gone a lot, but he is serving his country and willing to serve on the front lines with the Marines who are protecting all of us back here, so it is worth the sacrifice. I believe God has him in His hands, so I don’t worry about him.”
According to Lance Cpl. Sean McDaniel, a 1/3 rifleman from Tucson, Ariz., having a religious program specialist like Lassiter deploy with the Marines “does a lot to help lift our spirits.”
“People get depressed or lonely on deployment, and sometimes they need someone to talk to other than just their buddies,” said McDaniel. “It’s a good feeling knowing that RP and Chaplain Shearer are right there with us. They aren’t worried about someone’s religious preference. They are worried about being there for the Marines.”
Lance Cpl. Joshua Jones, a 1/3 machinegunner from Decatur, Ill., said he couldn’t agree more.
“It’s scary what can happen in combat. Anybody who tells you different is either crazy or lying,” said Jones. “People need prayer. Even if a Marine isn’t religious, sometimes he needs someone to talk to, or to pray for family back home, should anything happen to him in battle. It’s good to have RP around.”
For his part, Lassiter, who most of the Marines, like McDaniel and Jones, refer to simply as “RP,” said that the “best part of being an RP is meeting Marines, and when a younger Marine comes to me and says, ‘Hey, RP, I have this problem, and I don’t know what to do.’ I don’t necessarily think he’s asking me to fix the problem, but he wants to know that I care enough to listen.”
Lassiter, a Pentecostal Christian, said he likes meeting people from multi-cultural and religiously diverse backgrounds.
“I like people. I like helping people. If they want to talk, I like to have an ear open for them. It’s not important to me if someone is Muslim, Mormon, Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, or has no religious preference. What’s important is that we are all God’s children. Myself and the chaplain are here for everybody.”
According to Shearer, there are three main areas that RP Lassiter is exceptional in.
“Number one is his people skills,” remarked Shearer. “He has an ability to make people laugh and relax, regardless of their rank or religion. Number two is his combat skills, combat experience and overall battlefield awareness. Number three is his ability to take care of other people’s religious rights. He goes out of his way to make sure people of different religious faith groups are provided for. He understands that freedom of religion is one of the main reasons why we have such a great country.”
After his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan is complete, Lassiter said he is considering reenlisting for one more tour, and then he plans on returning to college, and eventually would like to earn a Ph.D. in psychology.
“I’d like to be a counselor, so I can continue to help people, and I definitely still want to be a minister,” commented Lassiter. “I’ve been so blessed in my life. God has been so very kind to my wife and myself, and I’m just thankful for His grace and mercy.”
Lassiter said he is also proud to be serving with the Marines of 1/3 on their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.
“The Marines are the finest fighting men the world has ever seen,” said Lassiter. “I pray for them. I pray that God would build a hedge of protection around them. I pray that God would have angels surround them, and make them safe.”
Marine PING
BTTT
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