Week 5 - Days 1-3 (Monday-Wednesday)

This weekend I attended worship at Vangard Chapel here on base. It was good to see so many young soldiers in one place worshiping the Lord. It was a really good service with good worship and a good message.

The new Chief of Chaplain came to visit the school this week. General Carver was a great encouragement and seems to be a true man of God.
Most of our class time this week has been taught by Chaplains Palmer and Crisp. We are now getting into the meat of what it means to be a chaplain. I find myself hanging on every word because what they have to teach now so directly relates to my days and years that lie ahead

I feel sometimes as though I have jumped into a lake with shores in site. I can swim well, but what direction do I swim in. The challenges are great and many, but I keep swimming. I imagine with time, the things I am learning now will become old hat, but for now I struggle on.

Today is the Fourth of July and our class had the day off. We had a family BBQ this morning from 10am until 2pm. It was a great time of fellowship. There are fireworks going on outside right now, but without my family here, they don't mean all that much to me. I sure do miss them.

Thanks for your emails and encouraging messages.

Happy 4th of July!
God bless you, and God Bless this great nation!

Week 4 - Days 3-5 (Wednesay-Friday)

Chaplain Initial Military Training (CIMT) is over and phase one of CHBOLC begins on Monday. In CIMT we have learned the basic skills of being a soldier. In phases 1-3, we we learn what it means to be a chaplain in the Army. In CIMT we had the largest class ever at this school in SC. and on Monday we will add 41 new students to the class growing to a total of 171. Two weeks later, we will loose about 40 students who have not yet finished seminary and we will again pick up a few more.

The pace has really changed as we have moved toward phase one. We now spend most of our time in the classroom receiving briefs (lectures) on various topics. One of my favorite ones recently was from a retired chaplain that served in WWI, Korea, and in Vietnam. He spoke to us about what it meant to be a chaplain.

One of the not so exciting events this week was our TA-50 gear inspection. We had to haul our gear over to coleman gym and lay it out on the floor for inspection. Can your guess which chaplain forget to bring his sleeping bag? Our platoon still took third place out of five, which means, I guess, that we are average.

The big benchmark this week however was the dawning of the beret ceremony. Up until this point, all we could wear were the field caps (which I love). From now on though, we will look like the rest of the Army unless we are in the field.

We have the weekend free including most of today (friday). I plan on laying low, studying for a test next week, and watchiing Die Hard 287, or what ever number it is.

I love you all! Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Week 4 - Days 1 and 2 (Monday Tuesday)

The first phase of CHOBLC is almost over and we are finishing up with a "thunk". In other words, we are landing hard. This week began our first "real" PT with a very hard run on Monday and a full body workout today. I thought I was in decent shape, but now I feel 40. This week also began the official "Death By PowerPoint" phase. For those of you who are not familiar with PowerPoint, it is basically the same as the old fashioned overhead projectors, but works off of a computer. Imagine with me hour after hour of sitting in a classroom staring at the screen after having given all your energy during morning PT. As you can imagine, it is hard to stay awake. So pictured below is the official CHOBLC survival kit.
The kit includes coffee (to beat morning hypnosis), water (to wash down the way to strong coffee), and Mountain Dew (to keep the eyes propped open after lunch). And of course, no good chaplain goes anywhere without his/her notebook.

My mom supplemented my brown bag lunches by sending this awesome care package this weekend. Thanks so much mom! I knew I could count on you to come through. Not to be trumped however, my aunt and uncle made a second contribution to the "Save The Starving Chaplain" fund today with another great care package. Thanks so much. I love you all!

Well, on another note, I called Ft. Hood today to check on my assignment and discovered that I was reassigned yet one more time. But this is great news because I have be assigned once again to the 3rd battalion, 4th Aviation Regiment. If I had to choose one unit out of the entire 4th ID, this would be it. I was told as well, that this would be my final assignment.
Please keep my family in prayer as we prepare to move our entire platoon of children out to Ft. Hood. Pray that the Lord would prepare our hearts for the soldiers we will be ministering to and that God would open up the doors to a home on base large enough for our family.

Week 3 - Days 2-5 (Tuesday - Friday)

What a week it has been! I am tired, sore, broken down, and loving it. If I had to use just one word to describe this week, it would be the word "comradery". There is nothing like sweating together, smelling together, struggling together, and sitting around and doing nothing together hour after hour, to bring a group of soldiers together into one unit. Here are just a few of the pictures from this week.
We put into practice what we learned on Monday in the classroom. We were given grid coordinates and a map. We had to plot a course on the map and find the exact location of that grid coordinate.

Here is our team after we found our first check point.

On our second day, we received instruction about IEDs and convoy operations. in this picture, Sgt. Loftin and Chaplain Crisp react after there vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. It was good to see this simulation and to get an idea of how to react when attacked.

In between activities we enjoyed MREs (meals ready to eat). There not as bad as they once were, but I am glad to be back to regular food again.

Chaplain Palmer shares from the Word of God in a demonstration of performing a field service.

Chaplains Crisp, Austin, and Palmer administer Communion to the troops.

Toward the end of our second day out, we were marching down a dirt road and I decided to just hold my camera up over my head and shoot a picture backwards over my head. What I expected to see when I looked at the picture was a group of tired and worn out soldiers, but what I saw instead was a bunch of crazy guys taking advantage of a photo opportunity.

My team here successfully performs land navigation at night.


Do I look tired? I was. We arrived back at camp the night before at midnight and were back up at 4:00 am. At the time of this picture, it was almost seven and we were preparing to move out for more training.
Here is my "battle buddy" Lt. Phipps. He is a great guy and will one day make a great chaplain.

Here is what we did most of the third day. It is call the "Hurry up and Wait" formation. I am now able to sleep anywhere at any time.

Leaning to high crawl, low crawl, and back crawl.

Practicing simulated movements under fire. The man leading is playing the part of the Chaplain's assistant, and the one following is the chaplain. Only the assistant is allowed to carry a gun, so the Chaplain has to stay close behind him.

Finally Friday, and after a good nights sleep and a long hot shower, we worked on cleaning equipment and prepared to enjoy a long weekend.

Week 3 - Day 1 (Monday)

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit three different Sunday services here on Post. At 8:00 I attended a Lutheran service at Memorial Chapel. At 9:30, I attended a Jewish service at the same chapel. Finally, at 11:00 I attended a Catholic mass at the main post chapel with one of my neighbors from my apartment.

The question I have to ask, and the question that all people have to ask is, "Who is God?". What I mean is that people tend to "worship" their own perceptions of who they think God is. But, if all of our perceptions are different, and if they are opposed to each others understandings as they often are, can all of us be right.

I am a tolerant person. I tend to believe that each of us needs to discover truth as God opens our minds to understand it. But at the same time, God is God, and not simply a figment of our imagination to be worshiped.

I found myself hurt yesterday when the Rabbi stated that "Jesus said that he came to fulfill the Law, but in my opinion He fulfilled nothing." Now I understand that Jewish people do not believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be. But at the same time, I could not help but to be saddened by the offhanded negative remark aimed toward my Lord Jesus Christ whom I have come to love so much. Sometimes you don't know how dear something or someone is to you until that thing or person is taken or attacked in some way.

Well, enough rambling. Today, we focused our day on learning to read maps and to using a compass.
We are headed to the woods tomorrow for three days of survival and navigation training. I am excited about this adventure and looking forward to learning some new trick. Pictured here is one of the many tents we will be staying in.

Tonight, a group of 45 of us were put on detail to go to the woods and to set up the tents for tomorrow. I was one of that lucky group and had a good time doing it.

Tomorrow starts early and I will be out of touch for several days. I will be sure to update things on Friday night, although I will probably be exhausted.

Week 2 - Day 5

Friday has finally come and gone and two weeks are in the books. We began our day today with our first morning of PT together. I can't begin to tell you how invigorating it is to run two miles in formation in the drizzling rain at 6:00 a.m. All I can say is "God Is Good"!

After an invigorating morning rolling in the grass and running, we returned to the school for a couple hours of touring the building. The chaplain school has a great library and museum as well. It is good to have these resources at hand.

After lunch will finished off our day with a four hour course on life saving techniques used while on the battle field:Kihato here has been treated for a chest wound

Valencia is practicing his life saving techniques on Phipps

After an exciting day of saving lives, my squad (1st Squad, 2nd Platoon), went out for dinner. This is a great group of men whom I'm proud to call friends.

This weekend will be a great time of rest and relaxation as I attempt to heal up my knees, shoulder, elbow, and feet. Yes, I am falling apart. Sunday I will have the opportunity to visit several services here on post. We are required to visit twelve different chapel services which include Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Baptist, and others. I am looking forward to seeing some things that I have never seen before. At 11:00, I will go to mass with my neighbor who is Catholic. That will be a first for me.

Thanks for you prayers and encouragement. I have a new address you can use that will send the mail directly to my apartment. It is:

Chaplain (1Lt.) Mark Olson
3772C Gilmore Ct.
Ft. Jackson, SC. 29206

Week 2 - Day 4 (Thursday)

Can you say your full name, rank, and serial number while standing in a gas chamber? I can! But I never want to do it again!!!I can honestly say that I am glad I did it, but I will be glad if I never do it again. No I did not puke, and no, I did not let anyone take any after pictures.

Can you guess who these three soldiers are?
We were all instructed to go without patches, so that will make it more of a challenge. One hint, I know who the tall guy is.

Here we all are being marched into the chamber.We spent the second half of our day learning how to communicate using the Army's communication system. Here Lt. Burton tries to communicate with God.

Here is the first place winner of the "Feed The Starving Chaplain Contest". My Aunt Pat and Uncle Dick were the first to help make sure that I will not starve during the remaining eleven weeks. Thank you so much for the Blessing!! I love you both.