By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
On June 29 I was grateful for the presence of family, friends, military colleagues from assignments in Naples, Iraq, and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, and parishioners and faithful at the ceremony marking my military retirement.
Admiral Stanley (Ret.) and his wife Jean, commanders including my current skipper Commander Newbrough and previous skipper Captain Viado. Captain chaplains, including my chaplain school classmate and Camp Lejeune colleague Chaplain Moger. Commanders who have transitioned as I did from active component to Reserve, including CDRs Doye and Pizanti and their families whom I came to know aboard the IKE and at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy.
The ceremony was held in the chapel of what was once called the Bethesda Naval Medical Center but now is renamed the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Much evidence of the naval heritage remains about the place. It was quite natural for me to celebrate this ceremony in a chapel considering the role I played in my Navy years as a chaplain celebrating Holy Mass in naval chapels aboard ships and at naval installations all over the world as well as in the field.
But why at Bethesda? It’s the only place I have ever been hospitalized, during which period my life took a dramatic new trajectory. I was injured while working a part-time job the summer of my transition after being discharged from the Army while planning to enter the seminary in the fall of 1988.
My eye injury (always wear eye protection when using a weed eater, by the way, even on overcast days) resulted in my stay as a patient for about six days so the doctors could observe the healing of my eye. Because I was being paid, I put my uniform back on and reported to the old MILPERCEN (U.S. Army Military Personnel Center) in Alexandria, Va. I collected my cash casual pay at the Old Walter Reed Army Hospital.
The side effect for a man of action confined to a bed is the unaccustomed opportunity to think. And think I did, but, unlike St. Ignatius of Loyola, I am ashamed to say I was not converted much more deeply to love of the Lord and His service, having already discerned a call to priesthood at the seminary. I converted merely from the Army to the Navy. I had time and opportunity to think back to my sailing days with my family on the Chesapeake and the waters of Canada, New York, Maine, and Florida, as well as other places aboard the vessel Seven C’s.
My love of the water was calling to me and I answered. It didn’t hurt as well that the local “priest recruiter,” in the person of Chaplain Peter Pilarski, was visiting me in my hospital room almost daily. I called the recruiter soon after that and the rest leads to the history we celebrate now.
It was the four-year Army ROTC scholarship I received which turned my life in the direction of the military. To find out how that happened you need to know a little about my high school days.
I acknowledge my sister Maureen who served briefly in the Navy Reserve after I enjoyed the privilege of witnessing her oath of office aboard the museum ship the USS Barry at the D.C. Navy Yard.
Going back to our time at St. Vincent Pallotti High School, Maureen was determined to look for opportunities for young people seeking assistance for college. I benefited from her stupendous research, which helped me fill out my own high school résumé. These included serving as a page at the state house in Annapolis, and going to the American Legion Boys’ State at the Naval Academy (I was probably the only boy who arrived by boat, dropped onto the academy pier as I was by my parents aboard the family vessel, the Seven C’s). With all that along with my Eagle Scout status and other high school activities, I was well placed to make my own way to college.
The decision to take the four-year Army ROTC scholarship I was awarded set my life on the path of a military career. That has led, through a somewhat tortuous and unorthodox path, to the blessed achievement of retirement. Commissioned a second lieutenant of armor in 1984, I returned to my civilian summer hire position at Chief, Army Reserve, at the Pentagon in my new uniform. Generals there turned in surprise to ask, “What’s a second lieutenant doing in the Pentagon?”
As I am sure those of you who didn’t already know can guess, generals at the Pentagon are present in inverse proportion to their numbers in the field. There was a gap in activity for ROTC commission recipients because the West Point guys got the first spots at Armor Basic Course at Fort Knox; thus my time spent after commissioning in May 1984 at the Pentagon.
Why, you may wonder, does it qualify as my first active duty assignment? A major and a captain tired of the paperwork shuffle and excited to work on a real life case decided to take on the mission of bringing me on to active duty and, by the time they got the paperwork done, I had two week orders to the Pentagon before it was off to Kentucky for armor training.
I am especially proud of the privilege of serving as a combat arms officer and recognition of my service with two Army Achievement Medals and two Army Commendation Medals. My brother Conor followed me into the Army and took the cavalry career path, rising to the rank of LTC before retiring. He is a combat veteran with two deployments to Iraq and a tour in Bosnia with NATO. I was privileged to be present and pray at his retirement.
I followed my calling as a priest and at the same time transitioned to status as a Navy chaplain candidate with summer seminarian assignments at bases such as the now-closed Alameda near San Francisco and at GLAKES Recruit training, Chicago. Chaplain candidate school and later chaplain school at beautiful Newport, R.I., led to assignments after Ordination supporting marines, sailors, and their families at Camp Lejeune, N.C., three years with two six-month deployments on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, two years at Naval Support Activity, Naples, Italy, and the chapel at Mayport, Fla.
As noted, officer friends and families were present at my retirement ceremony. There is one in particular I would like to recognize for his faithful service to God and country. Captain Bill Gilligan was a helo pilot assigned with his squadron for a deployment aboard IKE. For the period of six months he faithfully played the organ on the fo’c’sle for Sunday Mass. He also supported the Church by serving as the Catholic chaplain’s liberty buddy on numerous occasions.
Catholics like him and so many others who celebrated the faith at Mass and in so many other ways throughout my years in the Army and Navy, active and reserve service, form a mosaic of faith that uplifts us all.
@MCITLFrAphorism
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