Author Archives: frdavid11

It’s always irked me a bit that we eclipsed the celebration of both Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays with the more generic “Presidents Day,” as if all of the U.S. Presidents were as worth remembering the same way. And so for generalizing we lose specific remembrance of the great ones. So, I didn’t want the birthdayContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 22 February”

When I served as an enlisted sailor on submarines, once we got underway we set our clocks to Greenwich Mean Time and left them there until we pulled into port somewhere. I found that on a surface ship you couldn’t do that, because the sun remains a factor for their operation. So we often hadContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 21 February”

This is another story more dependent on the date than anything specific to what the ship or the crew were doing, but it’s a good story that not many people know about. Streets and buildings on military bases are named for people and things that are part of our history. The ships I served wereContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 20 February”

This prayer was read on Lincoln’s birthday, which was a regularly commemorated holiday when I was a child, though no one got the day off. No one had the day off on the ship, either, but I didn’t want the occasion to pass unnoticed. In the process I discovered the included gem written by LtColContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 18 February”

I’ve told this story before in other places, but it is one of my favorites so I’m sharing it again here as I did with my crew. We were at that time on our way across the Atlantic and toward our deployment station and nerves were on edge. To encourage their people officers in theContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 17 February”

This one is a little later than the date it was originally given, but close enough to still work. I updated a few things. It was a bit of a stretch for me because I don’t know much about tennis. In fact, growing up I can only remember being aware three tennis players, John McEnroeContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 16 February”

Superbowl week meant mining more football stories, which is fun for me since it usually ends up being an exploration into history. I feel it’s part of my duty on the ship as the oldest crewmember to inform the youngsters that things happened before they were born. Like this guy: Richard was born in Chicago,Continue reading “Daily Prayer, 15 February”

Helping young Sailors manage their separation from loved ones is a big part of any chaplain’s job, and one of the holidays that makes separation more acute is Valentine’s Day. To a new generation that has been taught to look upon history as a series of unfortunate events managed and experienced by fools, the ideaContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 14 February”

Some of the most fun I had writing these prayers was when I got to explore history. Finding something that happened on that particular date, and fleshing out a story. I tried to make them all stories with a moral lesson, but this one is just straight history, mainly because it’s U.S. Navy history whichContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 4 February”