A Heroic Spirit

Where does courage come from?

People are not born with courage, but with innocence.

A baby will appear fearless because they have not learned that some things can hurt them.   Once they figure that out, things change.  They have learned to fear some things.

Not all babies and small children are the same.

One day, when I was not paying close enough attention, my son burnt one of his hands on the heater floor vent.  He then proceeded to try with his other hand to see if he would get different results.  I scooped him up when he was about to test with his face.

My youngest daughter decided to climb over her crib rail when she was supposed to be sleeping.  She stacked up her stuffed animals in one corner, stood on top of them, and flipped herself over the rail, landing right on her head.

She cried when she hit the floor, so we figured that she would not do that again.  We were wrong.

She did this multiple times, but made sure that she did not make any noise when she hit the floor.  Landing on her head over and over never caused her any issues.  I guess she got her hard head from her father.

However, an itsy, bitsy spider bit her at a young age.  It was not poisonous, but she did have a bad reaction to it.  So, when she was a teenager and came across even the tiniest of spiders, she would come running to me in fear, instead of just squishing it with something.

She was literally a million times bigger than the spider.  However, it is as the German proverb says - fear makes the wolf bigger than it is.

She is no longer irrationally terrified of spiders, but she still does not like them.  I hired an extermination service just to git rid of all spiders that might be in our house or yard.

Yet, she has a heroic spirit.

The ironic thing is that the Impossible Girl had absolutely no fear of death.  Everyone was amazed at how bravely she faced down death time after time.

According to the doctors, she had six fatal medical conditions.  All of them were incurable by medical science and 100% fatal.

No one is born with this kind of courage.  She developed an heroic spirit due to a close relationship with the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ).  She wanted to be with him more than she wanted her next breath.

She was able to develop this heroic spirit because her father had developed an heroic spirit to impart to her before she was born.

Her brother and sister also have a heroic spirit.

Now, some people thought I was brave before I came into the House of Truth, because I would do crazy things like catch water moccasins with my bare hands.  I also drove like a maniac.  I put two cars on their roof in a year.

The truth is that I was not really brave.  I was crushed with heartbreak and anger.  People will take all kinds of foolish risks when they do not care if they live or die.

I could not learn true courage until I had something to live for.

I used to live in constant fear of the monster within - until I came into the House of Truth in 1982.  That fear left when I surrendered my life to the Man of Truth.  This was when I first began to develop an heroic spirit.

There is more to a heroic spirit than being delivered from the source of your fears.    

I began reading the Renewed Covenant and praying every chance I got.  This gave me even more boldness.

Five days after I came into the House of Truth, the Father of Truth told me that I needed to marry my wife.

I had generally been shy and scared to talk to women.  However,  I was overwhelmed with confidence and asked her to marry me that very night.  We were soon married after a whirlwind romance.

I was very poor and had no idea how I would take care of her.  Then she got pregnant with my son.

Yet, I never once felt fear that we would not last.  I had been given a heroic spirit by the Father of Truth.

In 1983, I was healed of a chronic disease when a preacher laid hands on me in the name of the Man of Truth.  So, I became bolder and started doing the same.

My spirit became more heroic a month later when I was baptized in the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost) and began producing the sound of power.  This heroic spirit became amplified as I spent more and more time praying in tongues.

I started going to church.  I boldly witness to everyone I could about the Man of Truth every place I went.  I would lay hands on sick people and cast out demons in public.  All of my shyness was gone.

Of course, this lead to persecution.  I needed to make a radical change to better take care of my family.  

Then my wife had the idea that I should join the US Air Force.

This idea appealed to me.  My father, his father, and so on, had served in the American Army since before the Revolutionary War.  It was now my turn, but I was more brain than brawn, so the Air Force was a better choice for me.

So, I talked to the recruiter, Tech Sergeant Dave Posie.  He was getting ready to retire and did not care about meeting any recruitment quotas.  He asked me why I thought that I was good enough to join his Air Force, so I told him.

I thought that we were going to have to help the Contras fight the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.  The Sandinistas were being backed by the USSR and the Cold War was escalating.  The Sandinistas taking control of Nicaragua would put the Communists too close to Mexico.  I was ready to do my part to help stop this, even if it meant I would have to give that last full measure of devotion.

Sergeant Posie admired my patriotism and heroic spirit, but I was in no shape to be in the Air Force.  I was thirty pounds over the maximum weight.  He told me to come back when I lost the extra weight.

A heroic spirit is determined to overcome every obstacle.

So, my wife and I came up with a plan.  With the help of the Spirit of Truth, I lived on 300 calories a day.  I also started running.  The first day I made it to the end of the block.

One month later, I had lost all thirty pounds and walked back into the recruiters office.  He could not believe it.  He said that I had real class, but I needed to get in better shape.

He gave me a document that contain the minimum guidelines that I would need to be able to meet on the first day I arrived at Basic Training and the minimum guidelines that I would be expected to meet to complete basic training.  So, I signed up under the delayed entry program.

This also gave me more time read the Renewed Covenant (B'rit Chadashah aka The New Testament) and pray in the Spirit of Truth.  My faith was being built up.  This was important, because most people expected me to never make it through basic training.

I also began doing what I could to prepare.  I read the materials the recruiter had given me and started doing what they said in my own home.  I also got busy preparing to meet the physical requirements.

Soon, I was sent to the MEPS station in Little Rock, Arkansas.  This is where I had to overcome my next obstacle - my irrational fear of needles.   Even seeing someone holding a needled could cause me to panic.  (I was probably tortured with needles as a kid.  A well placed needle can create a lot of pain without leaving much of a mark. )

The Spirit of Truth comforted me before I even saw the first needle.  By what seemed the tenth time I was poked with a needle, all fear of needles was gone.

After that, the days went by quickly.

Soon, I drove my family to the bus station. My mother came down from Missouri to see me off and to help my family be taken back to live with her, until my wife and son could join me again.  My father also drove down from Indiana to see me off.  For the first time in my life, he told me that he was proud of me.

So, I got on the bus and headed for Lackland AFB, gateway to the US Air Force, in San Antonio, Texas.

When I arrived, I was already able to complete most of the physical requirements needed to complete Basic Training.  My preparation had paid off.

A heroic spirit has heroic resolve to never quit in the face of hardship.

However, marching was extremely hard for me.  I am left and right impaired, not to mention somewhat clumsy.  I practiced marching every opportunity I got.

The training instructors yelled at me a lot.  Most of my flight thought that I would end up recycled or crack under the extra pressure or just plain quit.  However, the Spirit of Truth gave me strength beyond my own strength.

Worse yet, one of the training instructors took the name of the Father of Truth in vain while yelling at me.

A righteous anger swelled in me and the Spirit of Truth filled me with boldness.  I went to the office of the training instructor and respectfully explained to him that the Father of Truth was worthy of honor.  I told him that the Father of Truth would not hold any guiltless who took His name in vain.

A look of shame came over the face of the training instructor.

I also explained the extra psychological trauma that yelling and cussing me out over my left and right impairment was causing me.  I then showed him the L and R shaped scars that had been carved into my hands when I was young to "help me" tell left from right.

He told me that he did not know about my trauma.  The he actually told me that he was sorry for what he had done. 

After I was dismissed, he came out and told everyone that no one in our flight was use cuss words around me.  Everyone was startled.

I had won the respect of my training instructors and my fellow airmen.   They could see that I had heroic resolve.

Even though the worst part was over, the rest of Basic Training was still hard on me psychologically.  I would have never withstood the pressure without the Spirit of Truth.

However, I understood that we had to be put under a lot pressure to test us out.  If we were going crack under pressure, then it was better that we did so before someone handed us a gun or put us in a nuke silo.

Also, my fellow airmen had given me a nickname on the first day we met - Rambo.  I was not sure why they kept calling me that.  I certainly did not look the part.

One of them explained, that it was because I was so patriotic and gungho about our training.

I took every bit of training very seriously.  I was there to defend our country from Communists.

This heroic spirit was contagious and all of our airmen graduated without anyone being recycled, which was unusual.  My enthusiasm had kept them from giving up or cracking under the pressure.

One of them told that they had thought that they would have to carry me, but in reality I had carried them.

At last, the forty-three longest days of my life came to an end.

I could pass the marching requirements, but I had to really be focusing on it to do so.

So, I was set in the back standing at parade rest with some other airman during the graduation ceremony.  Our job was to catch anyone who passed out from the heat while standing at attention for a long time and drag them off the field.  A few of the airmen did.

On graduation day, everyone went with their families, except me.  I made the best of it, visiting the Alamo, eating at a wonderful Mexican restaurant near the Mary's Street bridge on the river walk, and going to a movie theater to watch a couple of movies about America military heroes fighting against Communists.

After that, I went to Biloxi, Mississippi for training in general electronics and computers.

A heroic spirit does the right thing when nobody is looking.

I lived in the dorm until my wife was able to join me there.  I had missed her every day of those three months.

I did well in tech school, although I had a little trouble with things that required coordination.

I learned that the reason my screw driver was always slipping and cutting my hand was because I was holding it wrong.  There was a technical order - which is not a suggestion in the Air Force - for how to hold a screw driver when using it.  Once I did it that way, I never had a screwdriver slip and cut my hand again.

There were technical orders for about everything in the Air Force.  The Air Force had figured out the best way to do about everything and that was the way we were to do those things - period.  The idea that there is a best way to do almost anything was one of the valuable lessons that I learned in the Air Force.

I did something in Biloxi that I had never done at the University of Arkansas - I made some friends in school.  We went to the movies, played games, and sometimes went to church together.

During that time, and even afterwards, some of the women I went to school with hinted not very subtly that they were willing and available to take care of my sexual needs.

I was not interested.  That time I spent praying in the Spirit of Truth had made me immune to their feminine wiles.

So, school was fine.

A heroic spirit speaks up when people are doing wrong.

Before my wife came down, I started looking for a church for us to attend.  The Spirit of Truth led me to some pretty interesting places.

In one church, I was the only European American there.  Some of the people looked at me like "Shouldn't you be with your own kind, whitey".  You would have thought that I was a member of the Klu Klux Klan sent to spy on them.

Personally, I had a great time.  I had never been in a congregation like this before, where people were so lively in their worship.  They were also unabashed in expressing their feelings.  There was lots of weeping over sin.

At the end of the sermon, the pastor asked for testimonies.  I did not know what that meant.

After a few people gave their testimonies, I felt led by the Spirit of Truth to say something.  So, I raised my hand and the pastor called on me.

I gave a message from the Spirit of Truth.  "This is what the Lord is saying.  There are not two Heavens, one for white people and one for black people.  The church is not segregated in Heaven and it should not be segregated on Earth."

A look of conviction fell across the pastor and congregation.  He thanked me for bringing the word of the Lord.

I went to several other churches where similar things happened.

Finally, I went to a church that had members of both colors in it.  The only thing was that the people with darker skin sat on one side, while people of lighter skin sat on the other.  There was an invisible line that went from the front doors to the baptismal.  It divided the choir based on skin color.  Even the pastor and his associate stood on their appropriate side of the line.  It was like something out of a B movie.

I felt led by the Spirit of Truth to go to the front pew and sit on the dark color side.  So I did, and there were gasps all over the room.  Again, at testimony time I delivered the same message that I had delivered to the other congregations.

A heroic spirit is not dependent upon being in control of the circumstances.

I was eventually back with my wife and son.

It was funny when they showed up during formation and my son went around asking each airman if they were his daddy.

(My mother had let go of his hand.  She thought that a two year old would just stand there and wait for us to be dismissed!)

However, there were some definite downsides to living in Biloxi.

Life in Biloxi was no picnic.  When I had told my technical instructor at Lackland that I was going to Biloxi, he called it the armpit of the South.

Shortly before my wife arrived, I had felt led to go to the Assembly of God over in Ocean Springs.

That congregation was very different.  The pastor was warm and friendly.  The members had an even mix of skin colors.  The services took the best from their various cultures to create something unique to them.  This is the congregation that my family went to.

In fact, Ocean Springs seemed like it was in a different state than Biloxi and Gulf Port.

The people in those cities seemed to evaluate everyone on a point system.  Basically, the more you were different than them, the more points you had against you.

Not being from America was a point against you.  Not being from the South was another point.  Not being from Mississippi was another.  Not being from one of these cities was another.  Having skin that was different was another.  Being a woman was a another.  Being in the military was definitely a point against you.  There probably other ways to get points against you.

How they treated you depended entirely upon how many points you had against you.

My landlady at the trailer park just outside the gates of Keesler Air Force Base treated us badly.

There was a hole below the water heater closet and a raccoon moved in.  Even though the air conditioner was on, I never did stop sweating the entire time I lived in the trailer.  Numerous other issues developed as time went on.

Whenever I brought up any problem to her, she did nothing about it.  She knew that I was a student on the base and she could outlast me.

So, my wife was glad to be with me, but she hated living in Biloxi.

She also developed some medical issues that needed attention about a month before we were slated to leave.  The medical personnel on base put up obstacle after obstacle to prevent her from being treated there.  They knew that I was a student, my time would be up soon, and they could outlast me.

They finally did the minimum that they could get away with after I told my commanding officer what was going on.

Then there were the hurricanes.  My wife arrived in August and my schooling ended in October, so we there for the bulk of hurricane season.

In fact, we were there for the record hurricane season of 1985.  We had to take shelter from hurricanes five times in four months.  We were inside the damage zone for Hurricane Danny and Kate.

We were also there when Hurricane Elena ran over Biloxi - twice.  As we headed towards the shelter on base, we could see tornadoes touching down and destroying whatever was there.

Yet, I had complete peace.  The Spirit of Truth was telling me that everything was going to be alright.

While in the shelter, my son wandered near one of the windows.  I felt a strong need to move him away from it.  Just as I got him and wrapped him in a blanket, the window broke sending flying pieces of glass everywhere.

I carried him to my wife and grabbed a mattress to put up against the broken window.  Several other airmen joined me in pushing the mattress against the window until the winds died down.  Then a sheet of plastic was taped over the hole to keep the rain out.

My son and I were wet, but unharmed.

Elena caused the most damage of any hurricane in the entire 1980s.  When it was over, our trailer park was devastated, but our trailer was unharmed.  However, we could not get to it due to live electrical wires all around it.

So, we ended up being put in the visiting officers quarters.  It got electricity before anything else on base, except for the hospital.  The air conditioning worked great.  It was quite nice.

When we got back to our trailer, electricity had been restored.  When we went inside, it looked like nothing had happened.  Everything was in place and nothing was missing.  Even my car had not been damaged in the base parking lot during the hurricane, despite cars all around it being destroyed.  We had nothing to declare as damaged.

This was not luck.  I had obeyed the voice of the Spirit of Truth, and the Spirit of Truth made sure that everything was alright for us.

At last the day came for us to go to Wichita Falls, Texas, to complete my specialized computer training.  My wife was not feeling well, but she insisted that we stay up all night and pack the car, even though we were given a day to do that.

So, at six in the morning, on the earliest day possible, we put Biloxi in our rear view mirror.  It would not be missed.

However, Wichita Falls, Texas would proved to be very different.

A heroic spirit does not exist due to conflict.

Life in Wichita Falls, Texas, was pleasant and peaceful.

There were no Native Americans of the Wichita tribe there, nor was there any water falls there, so the name seemed strange.  Apparently, the Wichita (Washita) had been moved to Oklahoma and the falls had been destroyed in a flood.

However, there was an effort to replace the original water falls with artificial water falls that the city would turn off after visiting hours.

When we got there, the base hospital took care of my wife right away.  The doctor ordered me to come home at lunch every day to check on her.

My new commanding officer did not like it, but like everything else in the Air Force, medical orders were just that - orders.  Doctor orders overrode just about all other orders.

The off-base housing people helped find us a really nice apartment that was within walking distance of the base.  Below us was a nice African American couple that we became friends with.  Albert was also in the Air Force, and Shirley was a really good friend to my wife.

In the same apartment complex, my wife made friends with another African American woman.  She invited us to the church service that her family conducted in their apartment each Sunday.

This was very different for us, but I felt led by the Spirit of Truth to go there.

We found it refreshing and it was our church home as long as we lived in Wichita Falls.  We would often eat together after services.  These people were were a real blessing to us.

During this time my son needed some help from a specialist in San Antonio.  So, the Air Force gave me orders to take him down there for a few days for testing.

While we were there, we went to the Alamo, and ate at the same restaurant below the Mary's Street bridge that I had eaten at when I had completed Basic Training.  I was getting to spend the time with my family in San Antonio that had I been denied before.  Best of all, the Air Force was paying for it.

We got to drive through the hill country of Texas, which is my favorite part of Texas that I have seen so far.  It was like the Ozarks, only a lot warmer and dryer.

On the way back, I saw a sign on a barn for Merrimack Caverns in Stanton, Missouri - more than 500 miles (800 km) away.  It reminded me of how the signs of the times are announcing the Return of the King.

I wanted to go home for a visit during Christmas break, but my car battery died.  I did not have enough money for another battery until my next payday.  However, our church heard about it and bought us a battery.

A heroic spirit is willing to go into the unknown.

My training at Sheppard Air Force Base was working on Autovon switches.

The Autovon was the military's private telephone system.  Switches were the computers that connected long distant calls together.  There were only a dozen Autovon switches in the world and all of them were overseas.  It was certain that I was going overseas.

After we got back from our trip, I had to fill out a form telling about my preferences for my next duty assignment.  I had to list three preferences.  The Air Force did not guarantee that I would get any of my preferences, but it did make a real effort to send people to one of their preferences when possible.

My first two preferences were easy.

My brother Richard was stationed at an army base in Germany and the Air Force base with the Autovon switch was not far from him, so that was my first choice.  My good friend Tom Yancey was stationed at a Naval base in England, and the Air Force base with the Autovon switch was not far from him, so that was my second choice.

However, I was required to put in a third preference.  There were some countries in Europe, some countries in Asia, and Panama on the list.  I did not know anyone in any of them.  I prayed about which of these I should put as my third choice.

The Spirit of Truth brought back to my remembrance the tin container that my mother had kept her stamps in.  On each side, there were landmarks from different countries in Europe.  I was reminded of how I always felt drawn to one of those landmarks since I was a young child - the Parthenon in Greece.

So, I put down Greece as my third choice.  This proved to be a monumental decision.
 
A heroic spirit never leaves anyone behind.

I went home on leave before heading to New York City to be flown to Greece.  We had filled out the paperwork for our passports, but my wife still had not gotten hers.

I had to make a number of phone calls, before discovering that my wife's parents had never filed the paper work to get an official birth certificate when she was born.  So, we had to fax a bunch of paperwork to California to get her official birth certificate that was needed to get her passport.

While we waited, I got updated orders in the mail that said I had to be in Philadelphia a day earlier to catch my flight to Greece.

Needless to say, this came up in my prayer time.  The Spirit of Truth told me to wait for the passport and everything would work out.

So, I called the local post office and asked them to call me as soon as the passport came in.

I was given three days to drive to Philadelphia, but when the day came for me to leave, my wife still did not have her passport.  I had confidence from the Spirit of Truth that it would work out.

The next day it still did not arrive, but I still trusted that my prayers had been answered.  So, I went to bed full of confidence that it would be there in time.

The next morning, before 6 am, the post office called and told me that her passport had arrived.  I went to the back of the post office, and they handed me her passport.  Then off to Philadelphia we headed.

When I had to stop for gas in Ohio, my car refused to start, but I was confident that everything was going to work out.

My car was a standard and I had roll started it before.  However in this case, the only slope was behind me.  So, I put in neutral and roll started by switching to reverse.

When I got to Wheeling, West Virginia, the interstate just turned into a city street and stopped being marked.  I found the only gas station open that early in the morning and asked them how to get back on the interstate heading towards Philadelphia.

The worker explained that the old interstate did not bypass Wheeling, but the new interstate was still under construction.  The old signs had been taken down, but the detour signs had not been put up yet.  So, he gave me directions.

After following his directions, and coming to a highway based on those directions, I pulled out my map.  I realized that his directions had sent me about twenty mile south of the new interstate.  However, I was confident that I would find my way and I started driving in that general direction.

So, two hours after I had stopped for directions, I was back on the interstate heading towards Philadelphia.

My wife and son slept several times.  My only companion was a tape I had made from my Resurrection Band album that I played on a small battery powered tape recorder.  Yet, I never felt drowsy.  The Spirit of Truth was energizing me.

When we got to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, my wife thought that maybe I should sleep for a few hours.  I felt grimy and really would have like to have taken a shower.  However, we really did not have time if I was going to be in Philadelphia by the time specified on my orders.

Finally, we arrived at the airport after 28 hours of driving.  I went up to booth where the military personnel got their tickets.

The lady at the booth could not find my tickets, so she started looking at her records.  She said that she showed that I was supposed to catch a flight from New York City the next day!

So, I showed her my new orders.  She asked me if I wanted to go ahead and catch the New York City flight the next day.

I cried, "Nooooo" in a desperate voice.

So, she gave me tickets to fly out of Philadelphia.  She also arranged for my car to be shipped from Philadelphia as my new orders stated.

So, we waited in USO area.  I went and washed up, but I could not get rid of the grimy feeling.

Not long after that, we got on our plane and headed to Germany, where we were to catch a flight to Greece.  Soon after the plane left the runway, I was dead to the world.  Everything had worked out, but I was exhausted.

A heroic spirit adapts to changing circumstances.

I only woke up once briefly on the 12 hour flight, when the captain announced that if we looked out to the left we could see Ireland.  I briefly glanced at a patch of emerald green jutting into the ocean and fell back asleep.

When we arrived in Germany, we learned that we would have to be there for an extra day, since they also were expecting us a day later based on my original orders.

So, I called my brother and we took a short tour of Frankfort with him.  I had not seen him in a few years and I would not see him again for a few more.  So, everything really did work out as the Spirit of Truth had told me.

The next day, we got on a MAC flight to Greece in a C-17 cargo plane.  We sat on seats made of parachute webbing.  After an hour or so, it started being feeling cold.  The heater had went out.  I took my heavy blue uniform coat and wrapped it around my wife and son.

I am generally hot natured, but after an hour or so, I began to shiver.  A Tech Sergeant sitting near me offered his wind breaker, which I gladly accepted.  Then the captain announced that we were being diverted to Izmir, Turkey to repair the heater.  This added another three hours to our flight.

When we arrived in Izmir, we had to wait for a few hours until we could catch another plane.  So, we walked around to see what we could see.

One thing that became very apparent quickly was to not touch the grass.  Apparently, it was very hard to grow there and they were very protective of it.

Then we saw a woman outside the base carrying Turkish rugs across her back while her husband rode a donkey and gave her directions.

Lastly, we saw a bunch of Turkish men on a porch, talking with each other, playing cards, and smoking hookahs.  There were some heavily clothed women working out in the field, apparently their wives.  Every once in a while one of them would look over towards the field to be sure that the women were still working.

When we went into the AAFES store on the base, we noticed that every time we picked up something and looked at it, that one of the Turkish people would do the same.  It was as if it was made more valuable or something because an American had shown interest in it.

When we got back, we informed that there were no direct flights from Turkey to Greece, because they had a long history of not getting along with each other, even though they were both our NATO allies.  So, we were all being sent to Torrejon Air Base in Madrid, Spain instead.

After we boarded the plane, my wife told me that she never wanted me to be stationed in Turkey.

When we arrived in Spain, the entire base was on lock down due to a terrorist incident that had happened during our flight.

We were not allowed to leave the airport.  We were all patted down and everything was searched, including the pull-up that our son was wearing.   When my wife went to the restroom, an armed guard followed her to the stall.

There were no flights to Greece from this airport due to the lock down.  So, a few hours later we were put on a plane that took us back to Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfort, Germany.  We arrived there almost exactly 24 hours after we had left.

The next day, on April 15, 1986, we had another flight to Hellenikon Air Base, in Athens, Greece.  It was dark when we arrived, but I could see the outline of some mountains.  I thought, you can take the boy out of the Ozarks, but you can't take the Ozarks out of the boy.

Paul Leeka, my sponsor, had gone home on PTO, so another airman named John, who was leaving Greece soon, met us.  He took us to the Apollon Palace in Vouliagmeni, Greece and gave us a 5,000 drachma note.

When we woke up the next morning in this five star hotel, the real adventure began.

A heroic spirit does not run away from danger.

In the morning, all we heard was people in the hotel who were leaving Greece, talking about how glad they were to get out of there.  Some of it was whining about Greece not having some of the things that they were used to, but mostly these people were genuinely apprehensive and scared.

When I asked John what was going on, he explained to us that a bomb had been set off in Bobby's Bar in Glyfada that injured about 50 Americans, including 34 airmen.  Various groups claimed responsibility, but most people believed that it was the work of November 17.

They were sure that things were going to get worse.  As far as they were concerned, the Americans should just pull out of Greece.

Later, I learned that there were a number of Greek terrorist groups, but the two main ones were called November 17 (Revolutionary Organization 17 November) and ELA (Revolutionary People's Struggle) by the Americans.

ELA was the largest of the two groups.  It was against capitalism and the presence of foreign military on Greek soil - like the Hellenikon Airbase.  It mainly bombed buildings and property.  It was careful to do so when the targets were unoccupied.  It caused a lot of physical damage, but no injuries.

However, November 17 was a very different animal.  It was a Communist operation that wanted the Americans to leave Greece, so they could stage a Communist revolution.  What it lacked in size it made up for in ferocity.  It mainly tried to injure and kill as many people as possible using a large variety of tactics.

When I heard this, I became determined to do whatever I could to help Greece remain free from Communism.

Greece was the only country on the Balkan Peninsula that was not behind the Iron Curtain.  The strategy to cause Communism to self-destruct through containment included denying the USSR a warm water port.  If Greece fell behind the Iron Curtain, then the USSR would finally gain a warm water port.

As far as the United States Department of Defense (DOD) was concerned, giving in to terrorism and handing Greece over to the USSR was not an option.  I felt the same way.

After that, I went outside to take a walk to experience Greece.  I did not go far when I saw Communist Party posters plastered along a long wall.  I immediately tore them down in anger.

When I got to the base, I could see that the mountains I had seen the night I arrived were nothing like the Ozarks.  They were semi-desert covered sparsely by small thorny plants.  The Ozarks were covered with trees, for that is the meaning of the word Ozarks.

After I got in the base, I was taken aside to discuss the matter of tearing up the Communist Party posters.

When I explained why I had done that, they understood how I felt, but made it clear that I would never do anything like that again.  They reminded me that Greece was the host country and we were their guests.  The Greeks had a right to join the Communist Party and advertise their party in Greece.

So, I never did anything like that again, but I was determined to help the Greeks keep Greece free from Communism.

After a few days, I learned that the bombing at Bobby's Bar had happened over a year before I arrived.  The way people were acting, you would have thought that it happened the day before I arrived.

(However, November 17 did assassinate a Greek industrialist as he was leaving his home a week before I arrived.  About a week before that, Abu Nidal - a branch of Fatah (current "Palestinian" governing organization of the West Bank) attacked a TWA Flight 840 as it was landing at the Athens International Airport (the runway was shared by Hellenikon Air Base).)

When I went up to the communication site on Mount Pateras, some of the airmen had heard about my destroying the Communist Party posters.  One of the airmen who went to class with me in Wichita Falls told the people already stationed there that is why they called me "Rambo".

The nickname had followed me from base to base to Greece.  Some people from my flight in Lackland had went to school with me in Biloxi.  Some of my classmates in Biloxi went to school with me in Wichita Falls.  Some of my classmates in Wichita Falls ended up assigned to the same unit in Greece.  It's funny how something like that can follow you around the world.

When I got up to the site, they showed me the Greek National Forest that had went up to the fence of the site.  I found the term "national forest" strange since there was not a tree over ten feet tall (three meters) in sight.

They explained that a year or two earlier the Greek National Forest had been set on fire by arsonists.  Most of the Greeks blamed a Turkish terrorist organization, but the US suspected November 17 as the culprit.  The reason was that the fire had almost destroyed the communication site and had only been put out about ten feet from the fence.  I could still see the evidence of the burnt ground.

So, a lot of the Americans were scared and just wanted to leave.  It was plain that not every American in Greece had a heroic spirit.

I had joined the US Air Force to help fight Communists, but I had not expected I would be doing so in Greece.

I was more determined than ever to do my part to help keep Greece free from Communism.  A heroic spirit cannot be scared off by acts of terror.

A heroic spirit goes where most fear to tread.

Still, my wife and I were having a hard time finding a place to live.  Most of the Americans lived in a group of apartments that were almost completely occupied by Americans.  Somehow, this made them feel safer.

However, the only furniture we owned was a collapsible playpen for our son.  We could not afford the rent that many of them paid and also buy furniture.

Besides that I felt led by the Spirit of Truth to live among the Greeks and learn as much of their culture and language as possible.  It never once crossed my mind that it was dangerous for an American airman to be embedded among the Greeks.

We had thirty days to find a place to live.  On the thirtieth day, we were walking back towards the base, when my wife noticed a Greek man putting out a sign in English that said, "To let".  My stopped me and had me ask the man how much it was.

The man did not speak any English and I did not speak any Greek, but he could tell that I was an American.  He signaled with his hand for me to wait.  In a few minutes, he came back with his wife, who spoke some English.  I had a hard time understanding her, but my wife was able to communicate with her.

They showed us the place.  It was a little 80 square meter (about 800 square feet) summer house behind their house.  It only had a small closet and few end tables.  We could afford it and we loved it.

We told them that we would take it.  However, they told us that it would not be ready for about two weeks.  We had to ask the Air Force to let us continue to stay at the Apollon Palace until it was ready.  The Spirit of Truth was telling me to give them the deposit money, so I did.

The Father of Truth gave us favor, and the Air Force agreed to let us continue to stay in the Apollon Palace for no more than two weeks, while they got it ready.  After ten days, we were told that it was ready.

We had been staying in a five star hotel for forty days near the beach, but we were ready to have a place we could call home.  We left that very day, even though we lacked a bed to sleep in.

We were the nearest Americans to the front gate of the air base.  We also did not have another American living within a kilometer (over half a mile) from us.  We were completely surrounded by Greeks, most of whom could not speak English.  We were ready to learn Greek culture and language by total immersion.

What we did not know was that we gaining Greek parents as well.

Vagelli and Litsa Samiotis were not just our landlords.  They treated us like family.  The truth is they treated us better than our parents had treated us in so many ways.

They loved Americans, especially airmen.

They had lived through the terrible occupation of Greece by the Nazis.  They remembered how the Americans had liberated them, after the US Air Force destroyed the Kalamaki Airfield used by the Nazis.  They were there when the US Air Force built the Hellenikon Air Base in the same location.  They were thankful for the Americans keeping Greece outside of the Iron Curtain.

We ate dinner every evening with them on their veranda.  Litsa would make me a lunch to take with me when I went to the site.

There was a two year wait to get a phone in Greece, so their phone became our phone.  Our home phone number was 961-8055 while we live in Greece.

The summer house at 4 Pontou, Sourmena, Attica, Greece was in many ways the first place that really felt like it was our home.  We would been content to have lived there the rest of our lives.

Many Americans that had married Greeks did just that.  As an American living in Greece, you really could often have the best of both worlds.

A heroic spirit has concern for the plight of others.

However, it was different for many Greeks living there.

Greece historically has not been great at handling money.  At times certain Greek cities had unbelievable amounts of wealth, but they never seemed to be able to keep it for very long.

When we lived there the prime minister was Andreas Papandreou, and he gave us real insight into why.

Papandreou had been arrested by the Greek government for working to bring Communism to Greece via the Trotsky model while attending Athens University in 1938.  His father convinced the Greek government to allow him to immigrate to the US instead of going to prison.

While in the US, Papandreou got his PhD in economics at Harvard in 1943.  He then served as a civilian volunteer to the US Navy during World War II.

After World War II was over, he returned to Harvard as an associate professor of economics until 1947.  He then served as an economic professor at three very liberal universities in the US.  His mentors were socialists who wanted a single global economy and government.

After publishing his economic ideas, Papandreou sudden found himself out of demand as an economic professor in the US.  His fellow economists thought that his ideas would bring disaster if ever put into practice.

So in 1959, Papandreou moved back to Greece to research economic develop for the prime minister.  The next year, he was appointed as an advisor to the Bank of Greece - similar to the US Federal Reserve.

In 1963, his father became Prime Minister of Greece. The next year, he renounced his American citizenship and was elected to the Greek Parliament.  Upon election, he was immediately appointed the assistant Prime Minister - a position similar to the US Vice President.

In 1965, the King of Greece forced his father to resign as Prime Minister and appointed his main opponent inside his own party as the new Prime Minister.

In 1967, Papadopoulos, a colonel in the Greek Army, led a coup against the Greek Parliament, and Papandreou was imprisoned.  The CIA officer involved in the coup advised them to shoot Papandreou, or he would cause them grief for years.

However, American friends of his father were able to pressure Papadopoulos into exiling Papandreou from Greece instead.  So, Papandreou became an economics professor in Stockholm, Sweden in 1968.  He then formed a socialist political party to rally Greeks not living in Greece to work together to bring an end to the rule of Papadopoulos.

In 1973, the monarchy of Greece was formally dissolved upon the death of the King of Greece, setting off a revolt again Papadopoulos.  The military rule of Papadopoulos came to an end in 1974, and Papandreou returned to Greece as a member of the Greek socialist party.

In 1977, he became the head of the Greek socialist party.  In 1981, his party won the elections and he became the Prime Minister of Greece.

Papandreou now was in a position to put his economic theories into practice.  The results were disastrous to the Greek economy, leading to rising prices and falling wages - similar to stagflation during the presidency of Jimmy Carter in the US.

As a results, as lot of young Greeks felt that their only chance to earn a decent livelihood for their families was to move to another country - preferably America.

Other Greeks blamed the US for their issues.  This was somewhat understandable.

The Greeks had loved their constitutional monarchy.  They loved their king and the idea of having a king.

However, the CIA had been willing to deny the USSR a warm water port at any cost. 

So, the American CIA had helped the military dictators to bring an end to their parliament out of concern that many in it were either Communists or sympathetic to Communism or to the USSR.  The military dictators backed by the CIA were very much against the Communists and the USSR.

It was the Cold War, and this happened during the term of President Johnson, so that was considered adequate justification for helping the military dictators overthrow the Greek parliament.  These same military dictators dissolved the monarchy after the death of the King of Greece.

One of the results of this was the formation of November 17 and ELA.  These two terrorist groups used this justifiable anger against the Americans for meddling in Greek politics as justification to wage a war of terror against Americans.

However, this was just a cover for their real objective to turn Greece into a Communist country, or at least an ally of the USSR.  They were proxies for the USSR just as the military dictators had been proxies of the US.  This was how the Cold War was fought.

Often the average people in countries like Greece were caught in the middle.  They just wanted to live a peaceful life like most people, but people never knew who they could trust.  So an otherwise awesome place to live became a rough corner in a bad neighborhood of the world.

My wife and I understood how the Greeks felt.  We wanted Greece to once again be a place where Greeks could live in peace and prosperity.

A heroic spirit remains remains focused on the mission.

The Cold War also shaped the mission those in the American military in Greece.

Everyone who worked on the site at Mount Pateras had at least a secret clearance.  It was inevitable that we would overhear things while doing line checks on the Autovon system.

Sometimes, I would hear some disturbing things that I could not discuss with my wife.  She could tell that something was bothering me, and it bothered her that I had to keep it to myself.

The fact is that I learned lots of things, which I could neither confirm nor deny at the time.  You can read about most of them in Wikipedia today, although there are still a few that have not been declassified to my knowledge.

Also, our site was the closest US military installation to the Iron Curtain in Greece - perhaps within 30 miles (50 km) of the Yugoslavia border.

I was also involved with a group that smuggled Bibles into Yugoslavia.  I never got to go personally, but there was always a chance of one of my friends getting caught and imprisoned there.

However, I did actively tell people about the Man of Truth, which was a crime in Greece.  I could have ended up in Greek prison if I was not careful, which is not like American prison.  American prison is confinement, but Greek prison is punishment.

(We also helped with a prison ministry in Greece, as well as raised funds for a girls orphanage in Greece.)

However, the Spirit of Truth gave me wisdom.  There was a loophole in the SOFA agreement that would allow me to discuss the Book of Truth with the Greeks, if they asked me.  I found creative ways to raise up the curiosity of the Greeks, so that they would ask me questions.  I learned how to work the Book of Truth into about the answer of any question, which led to more questions about the Book of Truth.

I loved our congregation in Greece deeply.  The family of the pastor and ours were the only European Americans in it.  Once again, I was surrounded by African American Children of Truth.

Lastly, I did all that I could to help the Assemblies of God missionary in Greece operate under the radar.

I was a man on a mission.  I was helping in the fight against Communism on two fronts.

A heroic spirit stays calm in the face of danger.

Even the driving in Athens was dangerous.  According to the insurance industry, Greece had the highest accident rate in the world at the time.  Of those Americans with privately owned vehicles in Greece, I am the only one that I know of who did not get into a driving accident in two years of driving.

Greek driving has been described as attempting to defy the laws of physics.  For many of the Greeks, speed limit signs might as well been billboards.  The Greek police rarely pulled anyone over for speeding.  It was not uncommon for someone on the Greek interstate to come to a screeching halt in this high speed traffic to buy watermelons from a nearby fruit stand.   This frequently led to pile ups.

Lane markers, traffic signs, and the like seemed to have no meaning either.  You had to be on the look out constantly for Greek drivers doing the unexpected.

Then there were the Greek Orthodox priests.  They expected all traffic to come to screeching halt whenever they stepped on the road to cross it.

I barely avoided hitting one once.  I managed to stop within inches (centimeters) of hitting him.  He had simply stood there making the hand gesture for cursing five generations of my family, instead of stepping off the road.

As a bonus challenge, the paved roads were made with marble chips.  When these roads got wet it was like driving on a thin layer of ice.

On top of that, the roads from Athens to the site on Mount Pateras consisted of steep inclines, sharp turns, and no guard rails.

Fortunately, driving for years in Northwest Arkansas had prepared me to be alert for hazardous road conditions and aggressive drivers.  Also, the Spirit of Truth would alert me to stop or switch lanes or take a different route before the conditions occurred that resulted in a multi-car wreck.

However, driving in Greek traffic was probably safer than riding the bus to the site when Fighter Pilot was driving.  We called him that because he had the intense focus of a fighter pilot engaged in combat when he drove.  He hated the drive outside the city and strove to get it over as quickly as possible.

The site record for driving from the front gate of the base to the front gate of the site was something like 43 minutes.  It was done by an airman with a sports car that had a powerful engine and wide tires.  The best I ever managed in my Toyota Celica GT was about 45 minutes.  Fighter Pilot made in 44 minutes driving the bus once.

More than once the wheels on one side of the bus left the ground when Fighter Pilot was going around a curve. (The bus was about half the size of a Grey Hound bus.)  When you told Fighter Pilot "Pame" (Let's go) you might as well have been waving a flag to start a stock car race.

However, Fighter Pilot was not the only thing that made riding the bus to the site dangerous.

In 1986, the Cold War was coming to a climax.

The strategy of President Reagan to create a massive military build up to collapse the economy of the USSR was working.  The USSR and the countries it controlled behind the Iron Curtain had to keep committing an unsustainable portion of their industrial output to keeping what they felt was an adequate amount to match the military power of the US and it's allies.  This resulted in the USSR being able to produce a great tank, but not a decent or reliable car.

The USSR had to change the game if it was going to win the Cold War.  One way to do that was to place Greece behind the Iron Curtain, giving it an increasingly important warm water port.

So, in October of 1986, November 17 bombed the Greek tax offices.  This was the start of a massive wave of terrorism to drive the Americans out of Greece by the proxies of the USSR.  Greece suddenly became a very dangerous place to live.

However, I had been spending tremendous amounts of time fasting and praying tongues.  I had been reading about the exploits of those with a heroic spirit in the Original Covenant (Tanakh aka The Old Testament) as well.  I was so filled with faith in the Father of Truth that there was no room for fear.  My soul was calm in the midst of danger because I had been given a heroic spirit.

After that, ELA blew up the US Air Force Commissary building, which was located off base.  It also proceeded to blow up several other buildings over the course of next year or so.

There were also attacks by November 17, including attempts to assassinate American Military personnel via motor cyclists using pistols against people in their privately owned vehicles.  There were also pedestrians trying to stab people with knives.

In one incident, one of the motorcycling shooters collided with a semi-trailer.  His rolling head came to a stop a few yards (meters) from the feet of my wife.  If she had been his intended target, he had picked the wrong American.  She was covered by my prayers and protected by the Father of Truth.

Then in April of 1987, November 17 used an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in a stone wall to shred a Greek Air Force bus carrying US Army personnel from a Greek Army Base with shrapnel.  There were injuries, but no deaths.

Immediately, the US military in Greece went into Threatcon Charlie.  There was discussions of raising the Threatcon to Delta.  This would have sent all dependents and civilians away from Greece, and recognized Greece as a war zone.

After a few days of deliberation, the Pentagon decided against raising the Threatcon to Delta.

There was some concern about the negative impact that it would have on morale of the military personnel stationed there.  The bigger concern was that it would signal to November 17 that their terror campaign to drive the Americans out of Greece was working.

This could have emboldened November 17 to even bigger terrorist attacks.  It would have also signaled to the USSR to aid their proxies in Greece even more.

There was far more at stake than just the safety of the military personnel stationed in Greece.  The decision for the Americans to hold their ground in Greece was a clear message to the USSR that the US was not giving up Greece to them.

However, they did give us anti-terrorist training.

Basically, since we were not going to be able to go around Athens carrying M-16's, we were going to have to outsmart the terrorists.  One way was have an unpredictable routine, so the terrorists would not know where we would be at any given time on any given day.  If we did have an encounter with a terrorist, then we had training on how to confuse and evade the terrorist.

On top of that, I had the added advantage of the Spirit of Truth giving me directions.  More than once, I was directed off into unknown street and through unknown neighborhoods.  I do not know if I avoided a traffic accident or a terrorist attack when these unplanned excursions occurred.  I do know that terrorists could never outwit the Spirit of Truth.

Outwitting terrorist is all fun and games until someone gets shot, stabbed, or blown up.

However, none of this stopped November 17 from continuing to try to drive Americans out of Greece.  So, I immediately began praying for the Father of Truth to protect the bus that went to our site and the bus that went to the other remote Air Force site in Greece.

During this time, my wife became pregnant and soon found herself in the fight of her life.  She became completely bedridden.  At one point, some doctors on the base tried to talk me into sending her to Germany for an abortion.  They believed that without the abortion my wife would die.

My wife was in no condition to decide anything about this, but I flat out told them no.  I told them that the Father of Truth would keep her and the baby safe through the pregnancy.  They had not even considered this option, but they did not have the Spirit of Truth living inside them.

Later, November 17 tried to use an IDE on the bus that carried airmen to the other geographically separated unit, but the shrapnel completely missed it and no one was hurt.  If they ever tried to attack our bus, then they failed miserably, because there was never even a detonation of an IED against it.

Of course, they tried to make smaller attacks on individuals as well, but were unsuccessful in killing any American airmen while I was there.

In August of 1987, November 17 did manage to damage a bus at the Naval Air Station south of Athens with an IED.  Again, there were injuries, but no deaths.

In 1988, a couple of weeks before my first daughter was born at Mitera Hospital in Kifissia, Greece, November 17 tried unsuccessfully to assassinate an American official.  A couple of weeks after she was born, November 17 successfully assassinated another Greek industrialist on the road to the city of her birth.

About three weeks before we left Greece, November 17 assassinated the US Military attache by blowing up his car when he entered it in the birth city of our daughter.

Four days before we left Greece, on July 11, 1988 Abu Nidal - a branch of Fatah - opened fire with automatic machine guns and hand grenades on a passenger ship killing 10 people and wounding 98, before their leader was killed by ship security.

During the last two years we lived in Greece, there were 17 terrorist incidents - averaging one every six weeks.  Greece had the second highest rate of terrorism in the world.  (Israel had a very solid lock on the number one position.)

During this entire time, the Spirit of Truth kept me in perfect peace.  I possessed the calmness in the face of danger that comes from a heroic spirit.

A heroic spirit sacrifices their own desires for the good of others.

On July 15, 1988, Vagelli and Litsa drove us to the Athens International Airport.  Our eyes were swollen with tears that we could barely contain.  Leaving Greece made our hearts ache, but my time there was up.

The Cold War was coming to a close.  The USSR and its proxies had failed to run the Americans out of Greece.  Greece remained outside the Iron Curtain and the USSR was beginning to crumble from with in.

So, the USSR could no longer afford to provide aid to November 17 and ELA.  They were on their own.

As a result, the US Air Force handed maintenance of the communication site on Mount Pateras to civilian contractors.  Our mission had been accomplished and it was time for us to go to the next place where our country needed us.

In fact, the entire Autovon system was being handed over to civilian contractors. 

I had less than a year left in my enlistment and I would require cross training to work on some other type of equipment.  So the Air Force gave me a choice - extend my enlistment by ten months or be discharged upon arrival in the US.  So, I chose to extend my enlistment.

This time we had a direct flight to New York City from Athens.

On the way home, the pilot told us to look out the right side of our plane and we could see the southern tip of Greenland.  It looked like one giant chunk of snow and ice.

When I stepped out of the plane, I kissed the ground.  I loved Greece, but America was my home.

We met my mother and my aunt there.  We spent a couple of weeks driving back to Monet, Missouri.  During that time we saw various historical sites, museums and the like.

We spent a week in Washington, DC.  It was the most beautiful city I have ever seen.

There was so much to see there.  I could have spent a month just seeing the museums of the Smithsonian Institute.

Finally, we made it to my mother's house.  We stayed there until I had to leave for my next assignment.

While there, I was notified that my car was ready to be picked up in New York City.  I was given six days to go get it, three to get there, one to pick it up, and three to get back.

So, we left my kids with my mother, rode a bus to New York City, and had a nice few days to ourselves as we drove home.  My wife and I had a romantic get-away that the US Air Force paid for.

I had been given a list of stateside Air Force Bases where I could be cross-trained in a new skill.

My first choice was Whiteman Air Force Base - home of the Stealth Bomber.  It was in Knob Noster, Missouri.  It was about a three hour drive from my mother.  My mother really hoped that I would be stationed there.

However when my orders came, I ended up with my second choice - F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

I had selected it, because I hoped to be able to see Yellowstone National Park.  It was in the opposite corner of Wyoming from Cheyenne, but I would be a lot closer to it than any of the other choices on the list.

On the drive to Cheyenne, my wife let me know that she wanted me to leave the Air Force.  This was not a complete shock, but I still had to wrestle with this decision.

I had originally planned on only serving for one four year enlistment like my father and his father had done.  However, after I went to NCO school to become a sergeant, I had realized that there was a lot about the Air Force that I loved.

I was also eligible to complete my college education and become an officer under the bootstrap program.  I was sure that I could make excellent grades with the Air Force paying me to go to college.

Mostly, I loved the semi-nomadic lifestyle that the Air Force offered.  I was going places that I had never been to, seeing things that I had never seen, and doing things that I had never done.  Best of all, the Air Force was paying me to do it.

When we got to Cheyenne, things were very different than Greece.  It was a culture shock to say the least.

In Greece, the people were outgoing and friendly - except for the ones trying to kill us.  Over two hundred days a year there was not a cloud in the sky.  The beach was nearby and so were the mountains.  Athens was a bustling city about the size of Los Angeles at the time.  The Greeks were always doing something interesting.  The people in the churches were very active in bringing people into the House of Truth.

In Cheyenne, the people were aloof and reserved, but at least no one was trying to kill us.  The skies were frequently cloudy.  The land was flat and barren - covered with sage brush and pronghorn antelopes.  Cheyenne was so small that we had to drive to Colorado to go to a Wal-mart.  The people of Cheyenne lived for their yearly rodeo called Frontier Days.  For the most part, the people in the churches there lacked any zeal to bring people into the House of Truth.

My new assignment in Cheyenne was to repair equipment in the nuke silos.  These were underground facilities for launching nuclear missiles.

The nuke silos were a very important part of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) that kept the USSR from launching nuclear missiles against the US.  So, I was still helping in the fight against Communism. 

It turns out that the US Air Force is really picky about who they let work in a nuke silo.

So, I had to get my clearance upgraded to Top Secret - Special Background Investigation.  This was the highest security clearance that there was at the time.

My daughter needed some medical treatment that was not available in Cheyenne.   So, I was given three days and some money to cover travel expenses to take her to Denver.  After she was done with her treatment, I took my family to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Yet, another family trip paid for by the US Air Force.

Then one day, I was told that I had to either re-enlist or leave the Air Force soon.

I had been praying about this for months.

I had no real marketable skills to take care of my wife and two kids, if I left the Air Force.  I had guaranteed employment and a clear path to a college education, if I stayed.

However none of that mattered, if my wife was going to be miserable.  We were partners in life.  If staying in the Air Force was not good for her, then it was not good for us.

So, the Spirit of Truth gave me the strength to lay aside my desires and the courage to face an uncertain future for the sake of my wife.

So, I told them that I would leave the Air Force.  I was given a choice of dates and I picked the earliest one.  Soon, we were back living with my mother.

I had done my part to keep America free.

Later that year, the Berlin Wall fell signaling that the USSR was falling apart internally and the Iron Curtain was coming down.

The next year, the Contras became a political party and took control of the government of Nicaragua in a peaceful election.

The Cold War was over.  Communism had been defeated and America was safe. 

Like all wars, victory came at a great price.  Many of those who served during the Cold War are remembered each year during Memorial Day, because they had faced death with a heroic spirit.

I had learned many things in the Air Force.  Among them was this:

A heroic spirit does not come from natural strength.

It does not take a heroic spirit for someone bigger and stronger to go to battle against someone smaller and weaker.  It takes a heroic spirit for someone smaller and weaker to go to battle against someone bigger and stronger.

King Saul was taller than any other man in Israel (1 Samuel 9:1-2).  He led Israel in battle (1 Samuel 11:11).  Yet, he was afraid to battle against Goliath, who was bigger than him (1 Samuel 17:8-11).  King Saul did not have a heroic spirit.

David was not even old enough to be in the army of Israel (1 Samuel 17:12-15).  He had never fought in battle (1 Samuel 17:33).  Yet, he was not afraid to battle against Goliath, who was much bigger than him (1 Samuel 17:48-51).  Kind David had a heroic spirit!

Where did that heroic spirit come from?

David had previously relied on the Father of Truth to save him from a lion and a bear, so he expected the same results with Goliath (1 Samuel 17:34-37). This heroic spirit came from his faith in the Father of Truth - not his own strength (1 Samuel 17:45-47).

So, anyone can have a heroic spirit.

A heroic spirit is not just for those who face enemies in battle.  A heroic spirit is not limited to the strong. A heroic spirit is not just for those facing a life and death situation.

A heroic spirit is for anyone who has to overcome adversity that is greater than them.

For example, my older daughter displayed a heroic spirit as a young child, when she stayed calm, and went to get my wife out of the shower when the neighbor kid set our garage on fire.

For another example, my son, displayed a heroic spirit by carrying his Bible and preaching to his fellow students in High School.  He took on the principal and won, when the principal tried to shut down his Bible club.

It is faith in the Father of Truth that gives someone a heroic spirit to overcome any circumstance.  People in all kinds of impossible situations faced them with a heroic spirit because they had faith in the Father of Truth (Hebrews 11:4-38).

A heroic spirit causes them to speak about their faith in the Father of Truth (2 Corinthians 4:13).  A heroic spirit causes them to act upon their faith in the Father of Truth (James 2:21-26).

The Children of Truth have a heroic spirit, because the Spirit of Truth is not a spirit of fear, but a heroic spirit (2 Timothy 1:7).  A spirit of fear comes from the Father of Lies (HaShatan aka Satan Aka The Devil) through the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).

The Man of Truth had a heroic spirit to endure suffering and death, because he trusted the Father of Truth to raise him from the dead (Matthew 16:21).  The Father of Truth validated that heroic spirit by raising him from the dead (Acts 10:39-41).  Those who are convinced that the Father of Truth raised the Man of Truth from the dead, have a heroic spirit that comes from confidence that He will also raise them from the dead (2 Corinthians 4:14).

Those with a heroic spirit overcome the Father of Lies through the word of their testimony about the death of the Man of Truth, and being unafraid to die due to his resurrection (Revelation 12:10-11).

It is faith that living in this world is only for his glory, and that it is gain for them to die, which gives them a heroic spirit (Philippians 1:21).  It is faith that it is FAR better for them to die and be with the Man of Truth, which gives them a heroic spirit (Philippians 1:23).  It is faith that causes them to desire to be absent from their body to be present with the Man of Truth, which gives them a heroic spirit (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).

The Children of Truth have a heroic spirit, because they know that they are literally better off dead.  They have a heroic spirit, because they know that they only die once, so they are willing to die for the glory of the Father of Truth. They have faith that the Father of Truth will make them victorious in every situation.

That is where courage comes from.

A heroic spirit begins to be developed when you come into the House of Truth.

You can begin to have a heroic spirit, if you will surrender control of your life to the Man of Truth, because you believe that His Father raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9).

Come into the House of Truth!

When Worlds Collided

Was the arrival of Columbus a blessing or a curse for Native Americans?

When I was in elementary school, Columbus Day was a big deal.

We learned all about how Christopher Columbus crossed the ocean blue in 1492.  We learned about his three ships, the Nino, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.  We learned that Columbus sailed west from Spain, doing what no man had done before. 

We learned that Christopher Columbus did this, because he believed that the Earth was round.  We learned that this was contrary to what most people believed in his day.  We learned that most people believed that the Earth was flat, and if you sailed too far out, then you would fall off the edge of the Earth.  We learned about how King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella paid for his daring adventure.

We learned that Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean islands on 12 October, and named the people there "Indians".  We learned that he did this, because they looked like people from the Indies, the islands of Indonesia, whose inhabitants who had came from India.  We learned that Columbus had discovered a whole new world.

We learned of how the news of the New World changed everything.  We learned of how this began the immigration of first Europeans, and then later Africans, as slaves, from the Old World to the New World.  We learned, that the day that Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, was the day when worlds collided.

We learned about how Christopher Columbus was greatly honored for discovering the New World, and that many places were named after Columbus.  This included cities like Columbus, Ohio, the country of Columbia (literally "land of Columbus") and the District of Columbia, that contains Washington, the capital of the United States.

Best of all, we learned that the discovery of Christopher Columbus was so important, that we got to take a whole day off from school.  So after doing fun Columbus related arts and crafts, like making little ships, and hearing about the daring adventures of Christopher Columbus, at school, then we spent the morning of Columbus Day, watching Columbus Day parades and the like, at home.  Columbus Day, October 12, was so important, because it marked the day when worlds collided.

Of course, as I grew in my education, and began to start investigating things for myself, I began to discover, that things were not as simple and peaceful, as I had been told in elementary school.

The fact is that Columbus acted as a tyrant during his time as governor over the islands, which he had discovered.  Even those who loved Columbus the most among his men, admitted that he had committed terrible atrocities, when they were questioned under oath.  Columbus was brutal to the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Africans, that he ruled over.   However, he treated the native people of the lands that he ruled over, even more terribly than others.

For example, he gave to his friend a beautiful young native woman that his friend had captured.  His friend then forced this young woman to act as his own personal prostitute, beating her naked body with a rope, any time that she did not do his bidding.  Columbus did nothing to stop this treatment, and even encouraged others to capture native women for the same purposes.

He was supposed to cause as many native people as possible to become "Christians"  by getting them to join the False Church of Rome.  Instead, he frequently did whatever he could, to prevent them from being baptized.  Only people, who had not officially been baptized into the False Church of Rome, could treated be slaves in almost all of western Europe.  Once they were baptized, then they could not be made into slaves and sold.

Columbus wanted to sell them as slaves in Europe, where he perceived that he could make a tremendous profit from their sale.  He realized, that it was a terrible loss of potential income to even tell the natives about the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ), because they might get baptized right away.

In some places, Columbus all but wiped out the natives by either attacking them, often after they came out peaceably to meet with him, or by enslaving almost all of the native population.  In fact, the slave policy of Columbus lead to the business of buying slaves in Africa, and transporting them to the New World with in ten years time.  The Portuguese, and later others, bought slaves from Muslims in Africa, because the native population had been so decimated by Columbus, that there was now a market in the New World for Old World slaves, to carry out the ever increasing labor demands of the Spanish empire building that Columbus had begun.

So while Columbus was revered as a hero in his day, he was also one of the most hated men on Earth for his evil deeds, especially against the natives.  He was eventually removed from the office of the governor of the Spanish colonies to bring about an end to his tyranny.

He was so despised for his brutality, that the new governor refused to allow his ship into the only harbor in the New World, to escape an approaching hurricane.  The new governor could not trust the word of Columbus, and was certain that Columbus was lying about the storm, so he could cause trouble in the capital of Santo Domingo.

(Ironically, Columbus was telling the truth, and survived the horrible ordeal of being at sea for days in the hurricane, while the new governor died at sea, on one the twenty-nine out of thirty ships, that had sunk after sailing out of Santo Domingo, and into the hurricane.)

In time, the sins of Columbus caught up with him.  He was not only stripped of his governorship after his third voyage, but also his admiral title after his fourth voyage.  He was also arrested, and lost the the compensation, that he had originally been given for discovering the New World.  His health continued to decline and he spent months of his last years, bedridden and in severe pain.

After twelve years of acting as a brutal tyrant in the New World, he might have finally repented of his evil deeds during the last two years of his life in Spain.  He finally owned up to the evil that he had done in the New World, especially to the natives.  His last act was to write a book entitled "The Book of Prophecies", where he detailed how the Father of Truth (YHVH aka God aka THE LORD) had given him success in finding the New World, so the Good News could be preached there, as a necessary step to bring about the return of the Man of Truth to Jerusalem to rule over the entire world.

Of course, the atrocities, that Columbus started against New World natives, did not end with Columbus.  As more and more Europeans came over from not just Spain, but also from Portugal, France, England, and even Russia, many of them often repeated the pattern that Columbus had established.

They would sometimes attack natives, who had came to them in peace.  They would sometimes enslave the natives. They would sometime drive the natives from their land to sell it to other Europeans.  They would sometimes force native women into a life of prostitution. They sometimes brutally tortured and killed the natives.  The truth is, that their treatment of the natives, was often downright savage.

Of course, this treatment varied greatly from one European power to the next.  The French by and large attempted to build their New World empire primarily through trade and diplomacy, frequently through intermarriage with the natives.  The Spanish were by and large the most brutal in their methods, and took control of the most territory, frequently forbidding intermarriage with the natives.  The rest of the European powers fell between these extremes, with the English and Russians being closer to the French model of colonization, and the Portuguese being closer to the Spanish model of colonization.  Later, the Americans would often move around between these extremes, depending upon who was in power in a given area, at any given time.

So, it would be fair to say, that the day that Columbus discovered the New World, began a long period of mistreatment of the natives by Europeans, to various degrees.  In this regard, it seems that a great curse came upon the Native Americans when worlds collided.

For this reason, many Native Americans, and others refuse to celebrate Columbus Day.  Instead, most of them celebrate something else on October 12th each year (or frequently the second Monday of October instead of the actual date).  In fact, in many states and cities in the United States, a holiday celebrating Native Americans and the like is observed instead, on the anniversary of the day when worlds collided.  In Canada, Thanksgiving is observed instead on that day.  South of the US border, often a holiday celebrating the beginning of the resistance of the natives to Europeans, that began on the day when worlds collided, replaces Columbus Day.  It is obvious, that the arrival of Columbus is perceived as the beginning of a terrible curse upon Native Americans by many people - and not just Native Americans.

However, it is not quite as tidy as that.  Despite the wishful thinking of some, not all of the natives were peace loving people, until the day when worlds collided.

In many cases, Europeans who approached natives in peace, were attacked.   Europeans were sometimes enslaved by natives.  European women were sometimes forced to act as prostitutes to their native captors.  Europeans were brutally tortured and killed by the natives.  The truth is, that the treatment of the Europeans by the natives, was often downright savage.

This was not some payback for the treatment that Europeans inflicted on the natives.  Long before the day when worlds collided, the natives were already treating each other like this.

In many cases, natives who approached other natives in peace, were attacked.  Natives were sometimes enslaved by other natives.  Native women were sometimes forced to act as prostitutes to other native captors.  Natives were brutally tortured and killed by other natives.  The truth is, that the treatment of the natives by other natives, was often downright savage.

The truth is, that this brutality was not born on the day when worlds collided.  Columbus was at least five hundred years too late, to be the first European to make contact with the natives of the New World.

The Norwegians had began colonizing Greenland at about 980 AD.  They had then began colonizing Canada by 1000 AD.  The remains of their settlements in North America have been discovered in numerous places, including an entire Viking village.  Artifacts like Viking helmets, have been found as far south as the Hudson River, near present day New York City.  Rune stones, written clearly in Viking era runes, have been found inland as far as the middle of Oklahoma.  Sometimes three of these stones, separated by tens of miles, form a straight line as a boundary marker.  This could only be accomplished by people who had a compass and were familiar with using it for positioning.

The Norwegians did not leave Greenland until about fifty years before Columbus arrived in the New World.  In the end, their colonies tended to be small, and they found the Native Americans, that they called the "Scraeling" (roughly "monsters" or "savages"), impossible to effectively resist, despite their superior armor and weapons.  (Some of these were probably the Crees, the far northern relatives of the Apaches, who were also known for their military cunning, like the Apaches.)  The Vikings could not effectively deal with the brutality of the Native Americans.  The Native Americans had learned this brutality, long before they ever encountered Europeans.

This is also ample evidence, that other Europeans may have encountered Native Americans at least a thousand years before Columbus.  However, none of these encounters were of long lasting importance, like the day when worlds collided.

So to determine if the arrival of Columbus was a curse or blessing to the natives of the New World, we have to first look at how well the natives of the New World were doing before the day when worlds collided.

Long before the first European contact, the natives of the New World were already doing to each other, the same kinds of things that the Europeans would later do to them.  The Aztecs, the Incans, and the Mayans had all created empires by enslaving their neighbors, taking the land of their neighbors, and then forcing their neighbors to mine the silver and gold from their own land.  The brutality of these native groups against their neighbors stands shoulder to shoulder with the brutality of any other group in history.

In fact, some tribes, like the Carrib and the Tonkawa were cannibals, while many other natives engaged in human sacrifice.

It is for these reasons, that Cortez was able to conquer the fifteen million strong Aztec Empire in a short amount of time with only five hundred Spanish soldiers.  He had no trouble at all gaining allies from the enslaved populace of the Aztec empire, who hoped for better treatment by the Spanish.  (Which they did actually get, despite the brutality of the Spanish.)  The same was true for Pizarro, when he conquered the Incan Empire.

Things were no better north of the Mexican border.  While there were no massive empires there by the time that the Europeans arrived, the natives were in a constant state of war with each other.  This atmosphere of war persisted for generations and across centuries, where one tribe could never make any kind of lasting peace with its neighboring tribe, even to protect themselves from a greater threat.  For example, when the surviving Yamasees fled to the Muskogee (Creek) tribes and Seminole tribes after being almost wiped out by the British, these tribes either killed off or enslaved every member of the Yamasee tribe down to the last man.  Similar things had happened earlier to other tribes such as the Westo tribe.

Also, there is great evidence that there had once been an empire throughout much of the United States, that had died out sometime before the arrival of Columbus.

For example, landsat photos show that a massive road system once existed that branched out of Canyon De Chelly in three directions.  One road went south to the area of present day Mexico City.  A second road went northwest to the Puget Sound, near present day Seattle.  A third road went northeast to the bottom of Lake Michgan, where present day Chicago is located.  It is reasonable that there was some sort of city at the terminus of each of these roads as well.  Undoubtedly, on each of these two thousand mile (3,000 km) long roads there would have been other cities as well.

Also, there was also once plenty of mound cities across the eastern United States, some with tens of thousands of people.  In like manner, there were cities with large stone fortresses in the western United States, like the one at Mesa Verde.  Yet, all of these were long gone or abandoned by the time that Columbus arrived.

There is definite evidence of a far reaching trade network, with conch (giant sea snails) shells being found more than a thousand miles from the ocean.  Yet by the time of Columbus, all of this was gone.

Also, there was general trend of going backwards in technology.

When Pizarro encountered the Incans, he noted that they did not have the wheel, but had llamas pulling travoises to drag loads from one location to another.  Yet I saw in a museum an Incan toy cart that had been discovered, that dated about five hundred years before Columbus.  The Incans somehow managed to lose the wheel in that time.

The natives north of Mexico had lost all skill in mining and refining metals.  The only metal that they had was copper, because copper is the only metal that can occur naturally without needing mining or refining.

Similarly, the Mayans, whose descendants still speak their language, abandoned their cities and lost their writing system about five hundred years before Columbus.  They basically went from living as educated people in well organized cities to illiterate tribes.

Generally, the natives of the New World were not that healthy either.  They died in alarming numbers from diseases that gave Europeans the sniffles.

I once talked at length to a Cherokee man, who had spent his entire adult life studying everything that had been discovered about the pre-Columbian natives of the eastern United States, especially the southeastern United States.  I asked him about the health and average life span of Native Americans before Columbus arrived.  He surprised me greatly, by telling me, that all of the evidence which had been discovered, indicated an average lifespan of about thirty-five years of age!

So in summary, the natives of the New World, were in some sort of dark ages at best, when Columbus arrived.  They were in a state of constant warfare, had largely abandoned living in organized cities, had mostly became illiterate, were progressing backwards in technology, and were in poor health.

The fact is, that the majority of the natives of the New World are far better off today, than their ancestors were before the arrival of Columbus, despite the brutality of Columbus, and those who came after him.

Considering all of the evil that has been done to Native Americans and other natives of the New World, the question becomes, why has the net effect been improvement?  What brought about these blessings, despite all of of the curses that came as a result of the day when worlds collided.

The truth is that the natives of the New World were not unique in their condition.  The very Germanic tribes, whose descendants sat on the thrones of the countries that colonized the New World, had been in the exact same state as the natives of the New World about 1,300 years before Columbus arrived.  The same thing that changed the direction of the Europeans earlier, changed the direction of the natives of the New World, when worlds collided.

So what brought about this change in direction in both cases?

They both were in their pitiful condition because of what they worshiped.  Just like the Romans worshiped idols while the Germanic tribes worshiped rocks and trees, so also the natives in the cities south of the US-Mexico border worshiped idols, while the rest of the natives worshiped rocks and trees.  Nothing good ever comes from worshiping idols or rocks and trees.

In both cases, their ancestors had rejected worshiping the Father of Truth in order to worship idols, because they wanted to follow after the evil desires of their own hearts (Romans 1:21-25).  Since their ancestors did not keep the Father of Truth in their minds, He handed them over to a reprobate mind, that was caused them to do every evil thing imaginable (Romans 1:28-32).

In both cases, they followed the same pattern as the Jewish people did, when they turned against the Father of Truth.  They corrupted themselves by worshiping the sun, the moon, the stars, and every other thing that the Father of Truth had created (Deuteronomy 4:16-19).  They made idols out of trees that could not help them in their time of need (Isaiah 44:9-20).  They worshiped idols made out of stone in the midst of the green trees, where they made human sacrifices (Isaiah 57:4-6).  They came to look to rocks and trees as their creator, and called out to these things to save them from trouble (Jeremiah 2:27).  When their condition became bad enough that they could not make idols, they just started worshiping the rocks and trees (Jeremiah 3:9).

In both cases, they began to leave their darkness when the light of the Word of Truth came into their lives (Psalm 119:130).

Despite all of the evil that Columbus did, and the evil of those who came after him, Christopher Columbus was the instrument for the Father of Truth to begin to bring about what the name of Christopher Columbus meant.

Christopher literally means "Christ bringer".  No one was bringing the Good News of the Man of Truth to the New World, until Christopher Columbus encountered the New World, on the day when worlds collided.

Columbus literally means "Dove".  The word "dove" speaks of the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost), which came upon the Man of Truth, when he went into the waters of baptism (Matthew 3:16).  No one in the New World had the opportunity for the Spirit of Truth to start living in them, until the day when worlds collided.

The natives of the New World could not have come into the House of Truth, without someone preaching the Word of Truth to them (Romans 10:13-15).  They could not have faith in the Word of Truth, until they heard the Word of Truth (Romans 10:17).  They could not begin to live a life that was pleasing to the Father of Truth, without faith in the Word of Truth (Hebrews 11:6).

The natives of the New World were lost without hope, until the day when worlds collided, set into motion the events, that made it possible for them to come into the House of Truth (Ephesians 2:12). Since that day, they can now experience the greatest blessing of all time, that of being born twice, and only dying once (Revelation 20:6)!

The Father of Truth had promised Jacob (Ya'acob aka Israel), that the Messiah of Israel would cause all of the families of the Earth to be blessed (Genesis 28:13-15).  So the Man of Truth could not bring about the completion of the salvation of the human race, without the Good News being preached to the natives of the New World (Matthew 24:14).

So what Columbus, and many who came after him, may have meant for evil, the Father of Truth used to bring about the salvation of many people in the New World (Genesis 50:20).  When the conditions were right, the Father of Truth gave Christopher Columbus success, so the the natives of New World could have the Spirit of Truth living in them, instead of worshiping rocks and trees (Galatians 4:4-8).

So while Columbus, and many of those who followed after him, were a curse to Native Americans, the arrival of Columbus was a great blessing to Native Americans, as well as all of the Children of Truth (those who obey The Father of Truth because they love Him).  The Atlantic Ocean, that brought Columbus to the New World, carried the waters of salvation.

The Native Americans are no different than anyone else, because they are part of the same human race, and have been placed where they are, by the same Father of Truth (Acts 17:26).  All people have been cursed with death from the actions of Adam, the father of the human race, and they can all be blessed with life from the actions of the Man of Truth (Romans 5:12-17).

All people can be blessed by coming into the House of Truth, when they make the Man of Truth their king, because they believe the message of the Word of Truth, that the Father of Truth raised him from the dead (Romans 10:8-10).  All people, who come into the House of Truth, leave their old world and enter a new world, on the day when worlds collide (2 Corinthians 5:14-17).

Come into the House of Truth!