A UMNS Feature By Kathy L. Gilbert*
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Blair
and Jessica share a kiss after reciting their wedding vows before
United Methodist Air Force Chaplain Jack Stanley on a golf course at
Travis Air Force Base, near Fairfield, Calif. The couple had planned a
June wedding but tracked down the chaplain on his afternoon off for a
quick ceremony after Blair received deployment orders. (The couple s
last names are withheld because of an Air Force protection measure.) A
UMNS photo courtesy of Chaplain Jack Stanley. Photo number 03-176,
Accompanies UMNS #276, 5/13/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Blair
and Jessica recite their wedding vows before United Methodist Air Force
Chaplain Jack Stanley on a golf course at Travis Air Force Base, near
Fairfield, Calif. The couple had planned a June wedding but tracked down
the chaplain on his afternoon off for a quick ceremony after Blair
received deployment orders. (The couple s last names are withheld
because of an Air Force protection measure.) A UMNS photo courtesy of
Chaplain Jack Stanley. Photo number 03-175, Accompanies UMNS #276,
5/13/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Blair and Jessica had planned a big wedding. She was going to be a June bride.
United
Methodist Air Force Chaplain Jack Stanley had planned a nice afternoon
of golf to celebrate the retirement of an old friend.
Their lives
intersected on a sunny day in March because Blair (last name withheld
because of an Air Force protection measure) had just received his
deployment orders.
Instead of a long white gown, Jessica got
married in jeans and a sleeveless top. Instead of a tuxedo or suit,
Blair wore his desert camouflage uniform. Instead of his clerical robe,
Stanley wore a golf shirt and slacks.
A golf course at Travis Air
Force Base in Solano County, Calif., became a wedding chapel, and a lot
of strangers became the couple's family, friends and witnesses.
Stanley has a simple explanation: "They were supposed to be married in the eyes of God."
The couple had tried going to a justice of the peace, but the lines were too long.
"They weren't supposed to just get married by themselves; they needed a lot of people to witness the marriage," Stanley says.
For
many young couples, weddings became a casualty of war when deployment
orders started arriving earlier this year. Soldiers, sailors, Air Force
personnel and Marines at military bases all over the United States
rushed to the altar before marching off to the war in Iraq.
"I
usually refer people to others because I am strict about marrying
people," Stanley says. "I see 19-year-old people in my office every day
who went to Reno and got married and now are realizing it wasn't such a
good idea."
Stanley, who has been an Air Force chaplain for three
years, insists that couples meet several criteria before he will
perform a wedding ceremony: · They cannot have a rush ceremony. · They must be older than 19 (Blair is 20, Jessica is 19). · The couple must have gone through marriage counseling. · They must agree on religion. · The couple must be planning for children.
Jessica
and Blair had been dating for four years, had plans for a big wedding,
had gone through counseling, are both Baptist and plan to have children.
They had all the right answers, and Stanley says he was running out of excuses not to perform their wedding.
"The only other excuse I had was I was about to begin a golf tournament!" he says, laughing.
Blair,
set to deploy in two hours, was already locked into the "pax terminal,"
a holding terminal on the base. Once a soldier is locked into the
process, there is no coming or going until the airmen get on the plane,
Stanley says.
"I said, 'If you can get here, I will marry you. I
don't know what hole I will be on, but you can jump on a cart and come
find me and I will just stop playing,'" he remembers.
When
Stanley told the staff at the golf course what was happening, excitement
began to build. The wedding plans were announced on a loudspeaker. All
the players gathered around the putting green. Someone in the crowd with
a disposable camera became the wedding photographer.
Stanley
suddenly remembered the original reason he was there. He was helping
celebrate the career of Col. Jim Hannan, vice commander of the military
hospital who was retiring. He asked Hannan to start the ceremony.
"Well
folks, I've never started a wedding before," Hannan said. "I don't
really know what to say, but we've got a couple here whose wedding has
just been taken from them because of a short-notice deployment. It is
only right that we give them something to remember."
Stanley arranged the couple and started the wedding ceremony. "I
saw tears well up in their eyes, and it was at that moment that I felt
at peace," he recalls. Not knowing when they would be reunited, Jessica
and Blair needed the bond of marriage.
"In spite of the rush and
hubbub, I could see they were absolutely sincere in their hearts,"
Stanley says. "I was thinking, 'Who am I to judge whether they are old
enough or mature enough?' My mom was 19 when she got married, and she
lived a long healthy life with children."
It was weird for everybody, but the day was a true blessing, Stanley says.
"That is why I am an Air Force chaplain."
# # #
Capt.
Jack Stanley is chaplain of the 60 Air Mobility Wing and 615 Air
Mobility Operations Group for Travis Air Force Base in Solano County,
Calif. He first told this story in one of the "Letters From Home,"
featured on www.umc.org, and later was interviewed by United Methodist
News Service. See his story and other letters from home by military
chaplains at
http://umc.org/headlines/military_outreach/letters_home.htm.