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"He takes his life into his hands every time he checks a car, every time he goes up to that gate," said Men's Basketball Coach David Macedo of his former guard. Wintermantel explained that he usually begins his day by waking up around 7 in the morning. Wintermantel and his fellow soldiers are met by a troop transport that will take them to draw weapons from the provost marshal after 12:30.
They are then given a daily briefing about shift duties and daily mission requirements. Their shift actually begins around 2 p.m. and ends after 10 in the evening. "He was more prepared to go than we were prepared for him to go," said Debbie Wintermantel on her son's attitude about activation. She commented on Christmas without her son, saying it will be her first Christmas in 32 years, coming from a military tradition-rich family, spent without a member of the household because of an activation or deployment. She described a well-decorated home, filled with extended relatives, close friends, holiday cheer and the smell of fresh baking that simply won't be the same without Brian.
"It's just time for him to come home, ‘cause it feels like it's been forever," said teammate and long time-friend, Justin Blazer. "I'm glad he'll be back soon. We all miss him on the court and just hanging around." Wintermantel is scheduled to return sometime shortly after Christmas. Wintermantel is excited about the prospects of a return to Wesleyan, saying, "I'm more than ready to come home. I think I've had some good experiences up here. I miss my family, though. I miss my friends. I miss the court and my team. I'll be home soon, though, so I'm feeling real good about that."
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| Photos courtesy of JOE CALANDRA After a two-week shadow rope period, Senior White Rope Airman First Class Jenny Pugh awards Calandra with initial wear of the chapel rope. |
For most Wesleyan students, summer is a time for seeking employment to fund the next semester's expenses and having some much-needed relaxation. My relaxation, however, stopped when the bus full of new air force recruits rolled through the main gate of Lackland Air Force Base on June 16.
From the moment I saw my first blue "Smokey the Bear" hat (training instructor), I got my first taste of push-ups on demand and mass punishment for the mistakes of others. During the first few days of basic my initial assumptions about training proved correct. I felt all alone as I was being yelled at for things I hadn't even done, doing push-ups for any reason the training instructors, or TI's, could find, and enduring countless tests of mental stamina.
Long after that week I realized the underlying reasoning behind the intensity of the Ti's I saw many recruits in my flight bonding as a team. We had not suffered alone, but shared many trials as one flight by journey's end. No one man was ever really by himself. We had all become part of the 322nd Training Squadron's Flight 577, a band of brothers, forged tightly by enduring confusion, physical exertion and mental anguish.
Somehow, even if I did everything right, it would be wrong. If I did something wrong, then it was really wrong. My new brothers and I relied on each other to achieve the perfection the instructors wanted in everything. Physical challenges came too, in the form of overcoming obstacles in combat simulations, field training exercises, exposure to Nuclear/Chemical/Biological readiness and response training, and daily physical conditioning. I found rest when I began my service as a chapel guide with my friend Josh Strauss in our second week of training. Each Sunday we seated and welcomed fellow trainees to chapel services and saw to it that those in our flight had their religious needs met.
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| Katie Nyenhuis, Joe Calandra and Joann Miller pose for a quick photo on the last day before Calandra’s departure. |
After graduation from basic, I rode across the base to the tech school on August 11. At last, no more blue hats shouting about nothing. It had finally become time to be built up again. I had earned the right to be called Airman First Class. I could eat lunch in peace for over an hour each day. I was able to have a room with one roommate, a fridge, a ceiling fan and a suite shower. I was on my own time for the most part, had weekends off. I felt like a human being again.
Once settled in at tech school, I continued with the real reason that I joined the military: service to God and country. I began serving the chapel in a leadership position called a white rope. I got to help supervise chapel guides, take offering and give communion. I also met two women who would become my two best friends from tech school, Airman Basics Katie Nyenhuis and Joann Miller of the security forces. When trainees missed their homes we were there to talk to them. When they frowned, we were there to draw a smile.
I believe that both my positive and negative experiences at basic prepared me for the reward of being a white rope at tech school. I felt that I actually made a difference in the lives of trainees I helped. They told me they made it one more week because of the words the chaplain spoke at service and the encouragement they felt from us. I truly learned the power of hope, rest and real fellowship amongst members of the military family serving at the chapel. I experienced first hand what it meant to hit rock bottom at points in basic. I also remember how it felt when someone was there to make it all go away. It was in the chapel where I learned that the military exists, in addition to national defense, to exemplify on a whole what the white ropes symbolized each Sunday: giving hope to those who have little, making lives better for those who can't do so for themselves. Most of all, to me, it means standing with resolve, on behalf of those who reach out for strength in their weakness.
I can only hope that the experiences I have taken with me from being a white rope and friendships like those I built with Nyenhuis and Miller follow me through the career that I now embark upon as a member of the Air Force Reserve. As I finish college at Virginia Wesleyan, I am assigned to the 46th Aerial Port Squadron with Dover AFB's 512th Airlift Wing. There I have volunteered my services as a journalist wherever they might be needed in whatever capacity my superiors deem necessary for the mission. I hope that the skills and life lessons I picked up from my training this summer serve as an asset to my God, my country, my wing and my squadron.
The Komen Foundation also sponsors other programs to raise money to aid in the fight against breast cancer. On the day of the event, there is a "Shop for the Cure" booth with a variety of merchandise for sale. Also, pink Cyclamen plants will be on sale to serve as a tribute to a friend or family member that has been diagnosed with breast cancer. In support of the cause, the Bayside Harley-Davidson will also be hosting a benefit ride from the start location of the 17th Street Park.
Professor Jan Kreidler, co-chair of the "Tidewater Race for the Cure," along with team captain Elaine Aird, has established a Virginia Wesleyan team to participate in the event. As a survivor of breast cancer for the past sixteen years, Kreidler has been an associated with the race for three years and is this years CO-chair Keeping her six nieces in mind, Kreidler is proud of the accomplishments she and the foundation has made to promote awareness and find a cure.
"A lot of people helped me out so now it's my turn to return that," said Kreidler. Also participating on the Virginia Wesleyan team is John Aird, Althia Woodson-Robinson, Linda Sykes, and other members working in the Writing Center. The dance team will be at the event cheering on the team. Kreidler is proud of how successful the foundation has become.
"One person can make this big of a difference." For more information, visit the Komen Foundation's website at www.hamptonroads.com/raceforthecure or call (757) 490-7794.
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| Photo by REBECCA DESJARDINS Richard Heitzenrater addressed students during a speech entitled “Who is John Wesley?” |
This Fall's Convocation celebrated John Wesley's 300th birthday. Dr. Stephen Mansfield, Dean of the College, introduced the speaker and told of the creation of the Wesley statue that sits in front of the Boyd Dining Center. Mary Quinn was commissioned to design the piece and finished it in 1995.
Next, Mansfield introduced the morning's speaker, Richard Heitzenrater, William Kellon Quick Professor of Church History and Wesley Studies at Duke Divinity School. Heitzenrater's speech was entitled, "Who is John Wesley?" "It is a pleasure to speak at institutions that are named for the man that I have been studying for years," Heitzenrater said.
His talk opened with remarks on the elusiveness of accurate historical information on who John Wesley really was . . . or is (as Heitzenrater phrased it). He offered the audience various artistic representations of Wesley that differed greatly. Due to conflicting eye-witness statements and artistic liberties, we are unsure if his hair was auburn, brown, or black. "Somewhere in that range is the real John Wesley," Heitzenrater said. We all agree on one thing however . . . it eventually turned white.
It is said that during his childhood, his mother told him that he was a "brand plucked from the burning." From that moment on, he believed that he was destined for great things. Heitzenrater pointed out some of the oddities of the timing of Wesley's early ministry. The summary of the speech was simple: Wesley was a preacher, scholar, and teacher of the faith. All in all, students learned not only the importance of history as a college but the importance of it in general.
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