BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq –
Editor's Note: Chaplain (Maj.) Shane Gaster, 437th Airlift Wing chaplain, is stationed at Charleston AFB and is serving his second combat tour in Iraq. Chaplain Gaster is currently assigned to the Air Force Theater Hospital at Balad Air Base, Iraq, ministering to coalition forces and civilian patients in need of his services. The Theater Hospital treats approximately 700 patients each month, including U.S. servicemembers and civilians, as well as Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and civilians. The hospital has achieved a 98 percent survival rate from battlefield traumatic injuries.
The pole position is the coveted slot in auto racing because it is the car that starts the race at the lead, inside position, but the truth is, "pole sitters" seldom win races.
In NASCAR, like anywhere else in life, it's not about how we start something, but how we finish.
Consider that Dale Earnhardt and Alan Kulwicki finished first and second in the Pepsi 400 July 7, 1990, at Daytona International Speedway. After less than one lap, no one in the stands, or on the track, had any idea how the race might finish, or even if it would.
A collision and pile-up had sent more than 20 race cars, more than half the field, behind pit row to their garages on the opening lap. Five of them were eliminated from the race and wouldn't return, including racing giants Richard Petty and A.J. Foyt. Two others would limp around for just one more lap and be done for the afternoon. Overall, only nine drivers of the 40 who started would finish all 160 laps.
After the pile-up, Richard Petty was interviewed in the garage, "What happened out there?" The King replied, "They brief all the drivers before the race, and they try to tell these boys 'you can't win the race on the first lap.' I guess some of them had to find that out the hard way today."
This is my sixth deployment, and I've seen more than a few people start out on fire, ready to shine, and then halfway through their deployment, they fizzle out. They mentally and emotionally "redeploy" back home. Trying to get them to do more than the bare minimum after that is like pulling teeth. There isn't anything wrong with them except they decided they had been deployed long enough and it was time to go.
What happened to their early zeal? They didn't pace themselves. They did all the neat things, got their hero pictures, and were ready to go home. They ran out of gas early, they quit early and inevitably, someone else in the unit ended up carrying the weight for them. Bottom line: they let their team down because the battle was still on.
Finishing early isn't necessarily productive ... ask NASCAR driver Mark Martin. Martin is my personal favorite, and he's won more Busch series races than any other driver, yet he has never raced an entire Busch series season. In 1994, leading a race with just one lap to go, out came the caution flag. Martin had only to coast across the finish line to victory, yet he mistakenly pulled into pit road one lap short of the finish, handing David Green the victory on a platter. Martin was once asked by a reporter if that was the dumbest thing he ever did and he said it wasn't, it was just the dumbest thing he ever did that was reported about him.
There is also another valuable story I would like to share as an inspiration to all Airmen to finish everything they start.
October 20, 1968, evening was falling fast, and only a fraction of the spectators remained in Olympic Stadium in Mexico City. It had been hours since the winner had entered the stadium and crossed the finish line. Most of the contestants had finished hours earlier in the afternoon. The last of the marathon runners were now crossing the finish line.
Finally, the spectators heard police car sirens. All eyes turned to the stadium entrance, and a lone runner limped into the stadium in barely more than a slow trot. His name was John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania. He was the last contestant to finish the 26-plus-mile contest. Less than halfway into the race, he had stumbled and fallen, severely injuring his knee. With his leg bloodied and bandaged, he chose to continue the race.
As he limped around the track for the final 400 meters, spectators stood and applauded him as if he were the gold medalist. After he crossed the finish line, a sportscaster approached him and asked him why he hadn't quit hours earlier, instead of subjecting himself to such incredible pain when he had no conceivable chance of winning a medal.
John Akhwari replied, "My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race ... they sent me 7,000 miles to finish it."
Our commanders at home station didn't send us all this way to start AEF 5/6. They sent us all this way to finish. Stay in the moment, stay in the race, keep your situational awareness and short of being injured, don't even think about walking or strolling across the finish line. There is still the better part of a month left for most AEF 5/6 members, and the slightest lapse can lead to difficulties that might hamper the mission. The nature of some people's work is a constant reminder to them, but for a few Airmen, the temptation is to slow down, mentally start outprocessing, and "leave some unfinished work" for the next rotation.
Let's strive toward a strong finish, and when AEF 7/8 shows up for duty, we'll look them in the eye and say without flinching that we gave it our all up to that moment ... nothing less than our best -- not here, not now, not ever.