My Friend Tom

Here is a pic of Tom (Captain, USA, Chaplain) and me in Columbus, GA. Tom is attending jump school at Fort Benning and will be jumping out of perfectly good airplane this coming week. Tom and I met when we attended Naval Officer Candidate School in 1985; in fact, we were roommates the last half of OCS. Tom spent 4 years active duty Navy, got out, had a couple of jobs, attended seminary, pastored a couple of churches, and then joined the Army as a chaplain. He spent about 10 months in Iraq and returned in late in the summer (or early fall) of 2007.

I drove over to Fort Benning this morning and we attended church together at a base chapel. We spent the rest of the time eating and catching up. We had not seen each other in nearly 19 years. He and his wife (Jeri - great pair of names) attended our wedding and that was the last time we saw each other. We have kept in touch via email and Christmas cards over the past years.

Good luck Tom on your jumps this week. He is in great shape, but like me, he is 45 and past his prime (even though he probably tougher than most of the others in his class).