CAPT. WALTER F. HENRY
Commanding Officer
COR. WESLEY E. SKILL
Executive Officer
Published each Monday for all personnel
on Adak by Special Services. Provisions
for NavExOS P-35 (Rev. July 58) complied;
with. Mimeographed at NavSta Adak. Funds
furnished from non-appropriated sources
at no cost to the government. Articles
contained herein are not to be construed
as representing the official opinion of
the Commanding Officer or the Navy Dep
artment, inasmuch as the Adak Sun is not
an official publication.
EDITOR: H. T. DAVIS, YN1 055J or 365
A DA .1C
SUM
ICOKMK
It is very likelythat as he climbed
that gangway in 1775 he swallowed hard
and said to himself, "Maybe this is a
mistake, maybe I should have stayed in
that comfortable shoreside church with
its fine parsonage and friendly people*"
As he looked up at the tall masts
with their intricate webbing of lines
and saw the great sails furled, and as
he looked upon the scrubbed and holy
stoned decks with a cannon placedevery
few feet, he must have wondered, "Is
this the place for a preacher?"
He might have wondered many times
before that, "How does one carry on the
work of a man of God among seafaring
men?" He would have time to wonder
more later. When the time came that
he tiould feel the ship creaking beneath
him as it rolled from side to side,
when he saw the men of the crew scram
bling about securing for heavy seas,
he must have wondered again, "What is
this task I have undertaken, and why
undertake it aboard a ship?"
Had he been able to look down the
corridors of the future, he would have
saen some twenty years later, his son.
climbing the ladder of another ship.
Through the sons mind would probably
be running the same thoughts as his
own. He would have seen in the next
continued next column
i 185 yeafrs nearly 4,000 menof God, pro
bably having faced the same questions
that faced his own mind, or questions
very nearly like them.
Had this man been given such a pro
| phetic insight, he would have seen
himself as the first in a long line of
jclergymen in the service of their cou
! ntry, serving in the Navy, He would
have had a prayer, not only for the
men to whom he would minister, but
also for those who would follow in
this work.
He would have seen changing times,
changing customs, and changing regul
ations, because our Navy has reflected
the will of the people of the land as
expressed through the voting of their
representatives in the Congress, He
would have seen times when the navy
was growing larger and stronger, with
many strong fighting ships and an in
creasing number of shore stations, but
the number of chaplains on active duty
limited to twenty-four, when there
should have been two, three, or four
times that many. He would have sean a
change from their being regarded as
primarily schoolmasters with a side
duty of conducting divine worship, to
their being primarily spiritual leaders
with side duties that reflected their
primary purpose—that of being repre
sentatives of their Church, He would
have seen a change from it being the
requirement of a chaplain to wear no
thing other than an outlandish black
suit, to his being given full uniform
privileges. He would have seen a cha
nge from great discrimination in pay,
to receiving equivalent rank and pay
of officers on the line. He would have
seen them ride to an honored position
in the Navy, because of devotion to
duty and willingness to sacrifice per
sonal comfort and privilege in order
to serve their God and their Country
as chaplains.
This man, who had the privilege of
being the first Navy Chaplain, was
Benjamin Balch, a Congregational Min
ister, He was hired as a schoolmaster
and served as schoolmasterand minister
in the Continental Navybefore Congress
(continued next page 1st column)