Southland Christian Ministry Training
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By Ian, on March 21st, 2011%
While at the War Memorial a couple of weeks ago, I was reminded of the story of a couple of Aussie soldiers during World War 1.
 Simpson and His Donkey One night in the nightmare of trench warfare, a young lieutenant commanded his men to attack the enemy. Obeying the officer’s command the men left the safety of their trench and began the crawl toward the enemy. They were spotted and the bullets suddenly hones in on them. They quickly retreated to their own trenches. When the gunfire ceased it was strangely still, except for the moaning and groaning of those lfeft behind in no-mans land, wounded.
One of them kept crying for his friend George, begging him to come and save him. George in turn pleaded with the lieutenant to let him go. But the young officer said “No” over and over again, trying to explain that he didn’t want to lose another man in what would be a foolhardy rescue attempt. I’ve lost him, I don’t want to lose you as well”, the lieutenant shouted. But the young digger kept pleading and finally in exasperation the officer said “Okay! If you want to get yourself killed, go ahead! I’m tired of listening to you whinge!”
 The young soldier sneaked over the edge of the trench and inched his way along the ground, grabbed his friend and slowly pulled him back to safety, pushing him into the trench and then falling in on top of him. But it was too late – he was dead. The lieutenant angrily yelled at him “George, I told you there was no point in your bravery. Why did you risk your life? What did you achieve? There was no point, you were a fool!” George answered, “I was no fool. When I got to him he was still alive, and the last words he said were “George, I knew you would come!”
That is the tradition of mateship and friendship that we have inherited. That is what a true friend does. Maybe that is why I am so saddened when I speak to anyone within the military who feels alone and say they have no friends. Yes, development of friends takes time and effort, but we need each other! In fact, that is what Jesus did for us as well, offering us an answer to the despair and hopelessness we feel and promising to be our friend.
Chaplain Ian S Whitley
By Ian, on February 28th, 2011%
 Today I was reminded of how much I rely on my photocopier. The one in the Chaplain’s centre is normally so reliable that I don’t even think about it but over the last few days there have been an increasing number of paper jams, mis-feeds and frustrating delays that has got at me! Yet, when I paused to think about it, I was reminded that they haven’t really been around all that long. I can remember the first one I operated, and had to justify its use since the cost was so high! At that time I was operating a monster duplicator, wax sheets, messy ink drums and a minimum print run of about 50! Before that it was a strange machine that you had to feed copious amounts of methylated spirits to get even a very poor copy! I am even old enough to remember doing multiple copies on a typewriter, with carbon paper…so what?
All of us here at RAAF Wagga are in the business of duplication. When we work with recruits, trainees and subordinates, our role is to teach them to be like us, to reproduce ourselves so that they adopt our practices, our values and our skills. Do we do that just in the classroom setting? NO! So much of what we teach is through our example, how we react to situations, and even how we behave in our free time both on and off the base. Take a moment to reflect…how good a duplicator are you? Is that what you want?
Some of my experiences this week have highlighted the fact that we sometimes expect a higher standard of others than we expect of ourselves, yet such a system is doomed to fail because no matter how we discipline people or force them in a particular direction, they seem to continue to become like their role models – for better or for worse!
The problem is not the photocopi er – but US! If the original is faulty we can’t blame the copy! But if you get the original right you will get right copies. So instead of pointing the finger at others get your own act together. Without pushing the metaphor too far, the answer is not to blame the weather, the paper, or another operator but to get the serviceman out to give it a service! In human terms the manufacturer is God Himself, so take the time go get to know Him.
Chaplain Ian S Whitley
By Ian, on February 20th, 2011%
 What does it take to become a hero? My aging mother, now 88 years old has spent her life telling and collecting stories. I recently heard one that got me pondering, I had probably heard it before but this time it coincided with her acquiring some handwritten letters which gave this story a new level of credibility.
James Cornwall was born about 1836 and apparently while only a young boy joined the Royal Navy. He probably served on several ships learning his trade, but we know for sure that he served on three: HMS Fox, HMS Ajax and HMS Cossack because three letters have survived.
The one from HMS Fox is dated 26 May 1853 and details the action he saw in Burma, and was sent from Rangoon. The next was dated 26 July 1854 after he had transferred to the HMS Ajax and his involvement at the beginning of the Crimean war. The third is from the HMS Cossack dated 11 Feb 1855, in which he complains about the cold, and hopes for an early end to this war because “it is killing work”.
Although the spelling is a bit vague, it would appear that he spent quite a bit of time in the Baltic Sea around Kronstadt and Helsinki. The HMS Cossack was a brand new steam corvette with 20 guns which was originally being built for the Russians, but with the outbreak of the Crimean War in April 1854, she was confiscated, renamed HMS Cossack, and launched on 15 May 1854.
On 5 June 1855 the HMS Cossack was shelling a small outpost on Aland, an island near Helsinki and the enemy forces on shore raised a white flag in surrender. A boat was despatched under the command of midshipman James Cornwall. As they approached the shore the enemy opened fire killing all the crew except one, who miraculously escaped. When the boat drifted out of range of the shore, the one survivor was able to row back to the ship with his slain shipmates, who were then buried at sea.
 A lock of James Cornwall’s hair was sent back to his mother, which was then enclosed in a memorial broach and ring engraved with his name and date of his death, and the comment aged 19 years.
Why bother telling this story? Obviously it is part of my family heritage, but also it is a reminder that God calls each of us to walk a different path. I don’t know if James died a heroic death but I do know that he laid down his life doing what he knew was right. This proud tradition of the RN has been passed down to anyone who serves in the armed forces and every day when young seamen join a boarding party to check a refugee boat, near Ashmore Reef, or young soldiers do a patrol in Afghanistan or young airmen fly in a C130 on a humanitarian rescue mission, they take that same risk. Is that “heroic” no, it’s just part of the job and typifies the Defence values we own. What values guide your life?
Chaplain Ian S Whitley
By Ian, on October 17th, 2010%
 War Memorial, Canberra Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop, was one of the extraordinary figures in Australia’s history, yet what made him different? He was born in 1907 at Wangaratta, county Victoria, and one biographer suggests that he “was exposed to a culture of privation and extremes from an early age” which was typical of farming communities in those days. After finishing school at Benalla he was apprenticed to the local pharmacist, and when he topped his class and won all the other awards in that field he was encouraged to change over to medicine, graduating from Melbourne University in 1934 with a MBBS and granted a fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons.
Somewhere in his spare time he also joined the Coburg/Brunswick Battalion of the Citizen Military Forces and was later commissioned as a Captain in the Royal Australian Medical Corps (RAAMC), where he also picked up the nickname ‘Weary”. When war was declared in 1939, Weary was in England doing post graduate studies, yet was allowed to join an Australian unit in Jerusalem without having to return to Australia first. He proceeded to assist the RAAMC in Crete, Greece and other trouble spots in the Middle East.
When the situation closer to home in 1942 changed, he was posted back to Australia but then diverted to Java, Indonesia to support the war effort against the Japanese. In March the Japanese advanced on the Banoeng Hospital where Weary was working. Apparently he had the opportunity to escape but chose to stay with his patients and became a prisoner of war. He was subsequently shipped to Singapore and then to Thailand where he was made Commanding Officer (and Surgeon) for over a thousand men who were to work on the Burma- Siam Railway, and engineering project also called “The railway of Death”. One estimate it that this railway cost the lives of one hundred thousand lives, yet there were many who survived only because of Weary’s medical skills, compassion and dedication to duty.
One biographer summarises it like this “He displayed extraordinary courage in attempting to improve the harsh living conditions imposed by his captors. With scarce medical supplies and lack of proper instruments, the prisoners manufactured needles and artificial limbs from bamboo – improvisation was the order of the day and often made the difference between death and survival”. He took his role seriously and would often choose to confront the Japanese soldiers and protect his men, yet this frequently resulted in dire consequences for himself. He endured many beatings and other indignities, yet his courage and kindness was respected by all, even the Japanese! One of his men, Don Stuart put it like this:
“When despair and death reached us Weary Dunlop stood fast…
he was a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and suffering.”
That is part of our heritage as military members and against that standard so many of the problems we face seem so insignificant. Dunlop refused to allow helplessness, indifference and fear to control him and he remained positive and optimistic throughout the rest of his full life, till he passed away in 1993, aged 85 years.
What an example for us to follow…
Chaplain Ian S Whitley
By Ian, on October 11th, 2010%
It has been another difficult week in which I have been guilty of letting the negatives get on top of me. Even recognising that this was happening did not seem to help! How come an optimistic person like me could become a pessimist? By focusing on the wrong stuff and letting the negative self talk predominate. I found myself drifting in a sea of emotion and was brought to my senses when I read the following:
The opposite of love is not hatred,
The opposite of hope is not despair,
The opposite of mental health is not madness,
The opposite of remembering is not forgetting,
In every case the opposite is nothing but indifference.
These words were written by Elie Wiesel, a Jew who survived the horrors of the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, who recognised that indifference is so tempting, so seductive yet in the long term it is destructive. That quote reminded me of another from the same era:
“In Germany they came first for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me – and by that time no one was left to speak up.” (Pastor Martin Niemoller, quoted in Be Our Freedom Lord, p254)
We live in a world where there is injustice, pain and suffering, there will be times when negative feelings weigh you down, but resist the urge to just opt out and be indifferent. These people survived and flourished even in extreme circumstances, so can you! This week I also read and was encouraged by the story of Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop and his survival, by “rejecting helplessness, indifference and fear… he was a light and a beacon of hope in those dark days of 1943 and 44…” (quote from Ian McLean) but maybe that is a story for another time. Don’t give up to indifference and negativity, you have what it takes to make a positive difference!
Chaplain Ian S Whitley
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