USO Canteen FReeper Style ~ Guest Military Chaplain Service and Sunday Liberty ~ August 10 2003

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Today's Spiritual Journey takes us to:

U.S Army Air Defense Artillery Center
Fort Bliss, Texas

Click the banner to visit Fort Bliss

It's a great day to be a soldier!

The U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery Center and Fort Bliss, Texas, is the Army’s center for the education and training of Air Defense Artillery soldiers and units, It also hosts the Army’s Sergeants Major Academy. The post comprises 1.1 million acres of land stretching across the far western tip of Texas north into New Mexico. The headquarters and cantonment are located in El Paso,Texas. The Main Post Historic District encompasses buildings and landscape areas in the cantonment that date from 1891 to the 1950s.

Establishment of Fort Bliss
The City of El Paso, Texas, originally known as El Paso del Norte (the Pass of the North), takes its name from the pass through the Franklin Mountains on the American side of the Rio Grande and the Sierra Madre on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The pass, located near a convenient ford, has been of tremendous geographical and strategic importance since the 1500s. Onate and his conquistadors crossed the Rio Grande at what was later to become El Paso del Norte in 1560 on their way to conquer the Pueblo Indian villages on the upper Rio Grande in what is today New Mexico. For centuries, El Paso del Norte, which grew up on the south bank of the Rio Grande, served as an important stopover for supply caravans traveling from the interior of New Spain to Sante Fe.

In November 1848 the War Department ordered the establishment of a post at El Paso del Norte. The first U.S. troops to arrive consisted of six rifle companies of the 3rd Infantry Regiment. These troops established a military post known simply as "The Post Opposite El Paso." After closing and relocating the post, the Army officially renamed the post Fort Bliss on March 8, 1854, in honor of Lieutenant Colonel William Wallace Smith Bliss, an Army assistant adjutant general during the Mexican War (1846-1848).

The Army rebuilt and moved Fort Bliss several more times in the 1860s and 1870s. In the 1880s the arrival of the railroad contributed to the development of El Paso and the importance of Fort Bliss. By 1890 five American and two Mexican railroads converged at El Paso, making the city a vitally important commercial distribution center. In 1889, as part of a consolidation effort, the Army decided to make Fort Bliss the major fort in the region. With the help of an El Paso citizen’s association that purchased and donated land, the Army relocated Fort Bliss to 1,266 acres on Lanoria (La Noria) Mesa, its present-day site.

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Mexico revolutionaries Alvaro Obregon and Pancho Villa, left to right,
met with Major General John J. Pershing at Fort Bliss in 1914.

United States-Mexico Hostilities
When revolution broke out in Mexico in 1911, the United States government at first assumed a stance of neutrality. The War Department began reinforcing Fort Bliss with cavalry, infantry and artillery troops. These troops patrolled the border and guarded the international bridges leading into Mexico in an attempt to prevent illegal arms smuggling and to discourage any hostile acts against the United States. That same year the War Department decided to covert Fort Bliss to a cavalry post.

The revolutionary forces of Francisco Madero seized Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, and forced long-time Mexico dictator Profirio Diaz from power. But the Madero government was soon toppled by a military coup led by General Victoriano Huerta, and Madero was assassinated.

During the second stage of the Mexican Revolution, the forces of revolutionary chieftains Venustiano Carranza, Pancho Villa and Alvaro Obregon, who had fought under the Maderista banner, united to drive Huerta from the presidency, but their victory only set the stage for the third and bloodiest stage of the revolution---the so-called "War of the Winners." The United States initially backed Villa, but gradually shifted its support to Carranza, whose forces combined with Obregon’s to defeat Villa’s Division del Norte in a series of major battles.

When the United States shifted its backing to the Carranzista government, Villa responded, in March 1916, by raiding Columbus, New Mexico, about 50 miles from Fort Bliss. The United States worked out a treaty with Mexico that permitted forces of either nation to cross the border in "hot pursuit" of bandits. It then sent Brigadier General John J. Pershing, whose headquarters were at Fort Bliss, and the Punitive Expedition deep into Mexico’s desolate Sierra Madre in pursuit of Villa.

Carranza, at first, welcomed the Punitive Expedition, but as Mexican resentment against the American intervention grew, he declared that the treaty was not meant to be retroactive. He began to marshal federal forces on the flanks of the Punitive Expedition, and several sharp, if small-scale, clashes between U.S. cavalry troopers and Mexican federal forces ensued. For a time, the United States and Mexico teetered on the brink of war.

By the summer of 1916, with President Woodrow Wilson’s mobilization of the entire National Guard, more than 100,000 soldiers converged at three camps near Fort Bliss. El Paso became the site of the single largest gathering of troops in the United States since the Civil War. The crisis ended, however, when the United States, declaring its mission accomplished, ordered Pershing to withdraw the Punitive Expedition from Mexico.

Pershing did not capture the elusive Villa, but his squadrons forced him to disperse his force and drove him into hiding. Drilling and training exercises continued even after the Punitive Expedition ended and gave the Army an opportunity to conduct much-needed large-scale military maneuvers and warfare training just prior to the country’s 1917 entry into the First World War.

World War I and Border Patrol
Although ineffective on World War I’s Western Front, horse cavalry continued to be the best means of patrolling and defending the U.S.-Mexican border. While Fort Bliss experienced a reduction in troop strength during World War I, the installation continued its transformation from an infantry post to a cavalry post as cavalry units left behind continued to patrol the border.

Eight months after the fighting in Europe ended, the U.S. Army’s attention again focused on the Mexican border when Pancho Villa, having regrouped after the Punitive Expedition, massed his forces and, on June 15, 1919, attacked Ciudad Juarez. On the following day, Fort Bliss received 18 airplanes for the establishment of the Army Border Air Patrol. Pilots flew surveillance missions out of Fort Bliss along the border between Nogales, Arizona, and Sanderson, Texas. A cavalry drill field just east of the Fort Bliss Main Post served as the landing field,

Fort Bliss Between the Wars
In the two decades between the World Wars, horse cavalry nationwide experienced a marked decline as the Army increasingly emphasized mechanization of its forces. The horse cavalry at Fort Bliss, however, was an exception to this national trend. Mounted troops continued to be the most efficient way to patrol the rugged border terrain. At Fort Bliss, separate cantonments were built for the Seventh and Eight Cavalry Regiments in 1919 and 1920.

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Horse cavalry proved the most effective way
to patrol the rugged borderland.

In 1921, as cavalry regiments at other installations were being deactivated, the War Department created the First Cavalry Division by incorporating the Seventh and Eight Cavalry Regiments at Fort Bliss and gave it the task of patrolling and defending the international border. Although the First Cavalry Division never fully achieved its assigned divisional strength, its formation redefined Fort Bliss as the nation’s principal cavalry installation.

Construction continued at Fort Bliss in the 1920s and 1930s, despite the austere defense spending policies of the U.S. government and the economic realities of the Great Depression. William Beaumont General Hospital and a set of quartermaster storage warehouses date to the early 1920s. In 1928 Fort Bliss received funds under the Army’s housing program to build 70 noncommissioned officers’ quarters. Construction started in early 1929.

On October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange collapsed, signaling the beginning of the Great Depression. Fort Bliss benefited greatly from the Depression-era New Deal recovery programs. Between 1933 and 1939, Army housing funds, supplemented by Public Works Administration (PWA) funds, allowed the Army to construct additional buildings. These included NCOs' and officers' quarters, barracks, stables, and other miscellaneous buildings. The new officers’ quarters formed a line extending southwest along the curve of Lanoria Mesa, remaining consistent with the original plan laid out by Captain George Ruhlen.

When the United States entered World War II in late 1941, Fort Bliss was home to the largest horse cavalry force in the nation. The First Cavalry continued to patrol the border during the early years of the war. However, the need for maintaining an outdated horse cavalry along the border all but vanished in 1942 when Mexico declared war on the Axis powers.

In 1943 the War Department dismounted the First Cavalry Division at Fort Bliss. The Army subsequently converted the First Cavalry Division into a mechanized infantry unit and sent it to the Pacific Theater where its men served with distinction. Fort Bliss had begun its transformation into the nation's largest antiaircraft artillery training center.

Fort Bliss is home to:

click the banner to visit the 2-43 ADA

2-43 ADA is a PATRIOT missile battalion located at Fort Bliss, Texas. The battalion has been deployed to various locations throughout the world, most recently to Southwest Asia in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 2-43 ADA soldiers have supported numerous training missions providing air defense coverage and assisting ground and air commanders to understand and develop a cohesive force protection plan.

Click the pic to visit the 2-43 ADA Chaplain's Corner

"But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." -- Joshua 24:15b

Joshua stood before the people declaring who he would worship and serve. The Israelites were renewing their covenant with the LORD at Shechem and Joshua wanted to be sure the people understood the covenant they were renewing. Joshua's insistence that he and his household would serve drew attention to the Israelites that serving God is an individual's responsibility. They could not expect God to watch over them and bless them simply because their forefathers worshipped God. In fact, Joshua draws attention to the fact that their ancestors worshipped multiple Gods while claiming to be God's children. He calls them to stop these practices. This brings us to 2 items for discussion...

1. Many of us were raised in the faith and claim that faith when filling out our religious preferences on data sheets. However, we do not actively practice that faith and we are banking on our parents' faith to work on and in us. Truth is, faith has no beneficiary clause. Every individual must choose for themselves whom to worship. If you're checking the block on a religious preference statement and not practicing that faith then it is not truly your faith. I once heard it said that "God has no grandchildren, only children." Sure, there is an incredible blessing to be enjoyed in generations of families practicing the faith, however, that chain can be broken or strengthened with each link.

2. Every generation carries the responsibility of passing that faith along to the next generation. While we cannot make the decisions for our children, we can teach them the faith we practice as we model it with our lives. We must adhere to our faith and teach our children why we practice our faith. In doing so, we prepare them to accept and then practice the faith when they become old enough to understand and make their own decisions regarding faith.

May God under gird us with strength and perseverance like Joshua to embrace and stand firm in the faith.

2-43 ADA BN Chaplain

For God and Country!

"I am proud to be a modern woman," Asaad said. "

Woman in Burka condemns woman in Chador

GHAZNI, AFGHANISTAN—Outraged by the recent loosening of dress codes in her country, burqa wearer Uliya Salah condemned fellow Afghani Raheela Asaad Monday for appearing in public wearing an upper-face-revealing chador.

"Just look how she dresses, the bridge of her nose visible for all the world to see," said Salah, watching Asaad walk past her in downtown Ghazni. "Has she no shame?"

Not wanting to risk the chance that a stranger might be forced to hear a woman's voice, Salah whispered her indignant remarks through the small mesh square in her garment.

"Perhaps one could wear that sort of thing in the deepest recesses of one's home, where even male family members are not allowed," Salah said. "But doing so in public like that is outrageous. The harlot may as well strip off her veil and reveal her hair to the world."

As a strict follower of Pashtun traditions, Salah said she finds it laughable that Asaad considers herself to be a devout Muslim.

"[Asaad] is clearly pursuing her darkest passions," Salah said. "Now that the Taliban is no longer here to protect their virtue, many of the women in the city have begun to walk around in shockingly immodest garb, shamelessly wearing next to nothing on their hands."

Asaad's garment was not only too revealing, Salah said, but it also bore numerous decorative touches—a mark of the sin of vanity.

"Did you see that small line of embroidery at the border of her veil?" Salah asked. "What is next? A series of stripes at the hem of the garment near the ankles? I pray to Allah that I never see the day."

Salah has been in a near-constant state of outrage since Nov. 13 2001, when the Taliban was ousted from her village. On that day, emboldened by the Northern Alliance victory, hundreds of women threw off their conservative burqas in favor of skimpy, low-cut chadors that exposed portions of their faces.

"It is sinful for a woman to tempt a man by revealing the color of her eyes to him," Salah said. "But the women around here leave nothing to the imagination.

Salah has been in a near-constant state of outrage since Nov. 13, when the Taliban was ousted from her village. On that day, emboldened by the Northern Alliance victory, hundreds of women threw off their conservative burqas in favor of skimpy, low-cut chadors that exposed portions of their faces.

"It is sinful for a woman to tempt a man by revealing the color of her eyes to him," Salah said. "But the women around here leave nothing to the imagination. The pupil, the iris, the cornea... It's all right out there in the open for men to ogle."

Now that dressing less conservatively no longer carries the risk of public whipping, Asaad said she may wear jewelry or Western fashions beneath her chador.

"It is an important part of both my religion and my culture to observe full hajib," said Asaad, who has worn traditional garb since she was 13. "I keep my body covered when in the presence of men. In the mosque, I am careful to keep my eyes lowered at all times. But it would be nice to wear something different once in a while, like a shoe with an attractive but respectful heel."

Salah was outraged by the notion.

"Only whores of Babylon wear heels!" Salah said. "Under the Taliban, it was illegal to wear high heels or any other shoe that produces a sound when walking, because a man must not hear a woman's footsteps. What is this world coming to?"

Asaad said she is eager to return to her old life, before she was confined to her house and only allowed outside when escorted by a male relative.

"Of course, there are many things women should not do, like watch television or go to dances or read Western fashion magazines," Asaad said. "But I did miss being able to leave the house."

Asaad said she also hopes to return to school-teaching, which was her occupation before the Taliban forbade women from working.

"I taught math and reading and other subjects to young girls," Asaad said. "I taught them how to read the words of the prophet Mohammed and how to be a devoted follower of Islam."

Salah questioned Asaad's claims of devotion to Islam, citing a scandal in which she was involved last year. In May 2000, despite restrictions against women being examined by men, Asaad was caught attempting to see a male physician for treatment of kidney stones. It was only through a large bribe to Taliban officials and a three-month period of seclusion in a neighboring village that she escaped execution.

"It makes me sick to look at women like Raheela Asaad," Salah said. "She deserved no less a punishment than death for her blasphemy."

Despite the scandal and her liberal interpretation of Islamic law, Asaad said she is not ashamed of her actions.

"I am proud to be a modern woman," Asaad said. "I believe that women should be allowed to attend the university, so long as the school provides a separate area for women to sit in and they do not speak to the instructor before being spoken to. I even think it is acceptable for a young woman to ride a bicycle, provided she is out in the country where no man can view it. This is the 21st century, after all."

... It's all right out there in the open for men to ogle."