AETC command chaplain speaks at Annual Wing Prayer Breakfast

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jacob Corbin
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The command chaplain for Air Education and Training Command recently offered words of wisdom, encouragement and advice at the 14th Flying Training Wing Annual Prayer Breakfast April 12 at the Columbus Club.

"Thank you for who you are and what you do for America, it is so essential and it is awesome," said Chaplain (Col.) Bobby Page.

The chaplain began his time by telling a story from his life to the assembled attendees. Colonel Page said he once met a young man on a flight, and soon learned not only was he also in the Air Force, but he was currently on his way to his first deployment. The young Airman said he was excited to go, but upset because he was leaving his pregnant wife at home.

Colonel Page coined the young man but said "I wanted to give him something more than a coin as he went off to war." So, the chaplain handed the young man his bible and asked if he would read a passage from the book of Psalms with him. The passage was about God watching over him and protecting him.

The colonel then told the story of how he as a young man was inducted into the Boy Scout's Order of the Arrow, whose induction ceremony is based on a Cherokee rite of passage.

In the right of passage, young Cherokee would be taken into the woods and left alone through the night. Colonel Page said the young man would be left with the sounds of the wild and be afraid, but come sunrise, they would see their fathers had been by their sides all day.

Colonel Page then said he sometimes wondered what it would be like had those young men had night vision goggles and been able to see their fathers. He said they would probably not have been afraid.

"Faith is like night vision goggles," Colonel Page said. "Everybody needs help at sometime, whether you're a base commander or a one-striper, everyone needs help."