Into the Fire: A Season of Navy Football, Fortitude, and Faith

By John B. Owen

For most college football players, practice is the most difficult part of their day, and for many of them, playing for the NFL is the goal. At the United States Naval Academy, the twenty-one hours a day the players spend off the field are at least as demanding as the three that they spend on the field, and their post-college futures are determined: serving their country as officers leading Sailors and Marines.

For over 130 years, Navy football has maintained a proud tradition of courage, resilience, and never flinching in the face of long odds and a good fight. The 2007 season was a thrilling and timeless example of the inseparable goals of Navy football: winning on the field and developing future officers of character and integrity.

Through the words that the team chaplain shared with the team prior to every game, youll see why, at Navy, football is about a lot more than just football.

more than a story about athletics It is a stimulating read!
Roger Staubach,
USNA 65, 1963 Heisman Trophy & Super Bowl VI MVP.

It is inspiring to learn the truths that Chaplain Owen shared with the team prior to each game. The lessons are universal what a great read!
The Honorable John H. Dalton, former Secretary of the Navy

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspiring Voices
• Release date: Feb 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781462405305

John B. Owen

John Owen is an ordained Presbyterian minister. He has served as a helicopter pilot in the US Coast Guard, and as a US Navy chaplain with the Marines, three Navy ships, a Navy hospital, and the United States Naval Academy. He and his wife have two daughters, neither of whom likes college football.

Book preview

Into the

FIRE

A Season of Navy Football,

Fortitude, and Faith

JOHN B. OWEN

inspiringvoicesblack.ai

Copyright © 2013 John E. Bishop.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Firefighter photo: John Labriola

All other photos: Phil Hoffmann

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ISBN: 978-1-4624-0529-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0530-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013902138

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 2/22/2013

Contents

Introduction

Preseason: Where’s the Rule Book?

Week 1:   Navy @ Temple

Into the fire [Daniel 3]

Week 2:   Navy @ Rutgers

We stand or we fall…together [1 Corinthians 12:12-27]

Week 3:   Navy vs. Ball State

The man in the arena [Genesis 32]

Week 4:   Navy vs. Duke

I choose to believe! [Joshua 24]

Week 5:   Navy vs. Air Force

All in [Deuteronomy 6:1-6, Matthew 5:15-16]

Week 6:   Navy @ University of Pittsburgh

Suffering, endurance, character, and hope [Romans 5:2-5]

Week 7:   Navy vs. Wake Forest

Life without risk: the Big Lie [Matthew 25:14-30]

Week 8:   Navy vs. University of Delaware

You are writing your own story [2 Samuel 11-12]

Week 9:   Navy @ Notre Dame

A personal prayer

Week 10:   Navy @ University of North Texas

Remembering Goliath [1 Samuel 17]

Week 11:   Navy vs. Northern Illinois University

Learn, adapt, and overcome [Jonah 2]

Week 12:   Navy vs. Army

Be strong and courageous [Joshua 1-2]

Postseason: Poinsettia Bowl, San Diego Navy vs University of Utah

Epilogue: Spring Training

Three Years Later: Forward Deployed in the Gulf of Aden

The opinions and viewpoints expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not in any way represent the policies or opinions of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, United States Navy Chaplain Corps, or the United States Naval Academy.

To the 2007 Navy football team, and your teammates over the past 128 years.

You inspire us all.

BEAT ARMY!

Introduction

This is not a story about me.

When I sat down in early 2008 and began to recall the words I had shared with the Navy football team the previous fall, it was not with the intent of writing a book. As a preacher, I am always looking for ways to incorporate biblical truths into everyday life, and telling stories, I have found, is perhaps the most effective way to do this. A couple of the players had asked if they could have copies of my words to them, and since I had not written them down, I figured I’d make a personal writing project out of it.

Coincidentally (if there really is any such thing as coincidence), an article appeared in the August, 2008 issue of Proceedings magazine, the unofficial journal of the sea services. Written by Admiral Jim Stavridis, who is a well-respected Navy leader and also a published author, the article enthusiastically encouraged men and women on active duty to write about and publish their experiences in the service of their country. There are so many great stories to be told and people, Admiral Stavridis argued, are eager to hear them. In fact, he insisted, we active duty folks have an obligation to share the stories about the amazing things our men and women in uniform are doing. I found the article to be exciting and inspiring, and it provided the final bit of motivation I needed. I had the perfect opportunity to tell a terrific story that reflected well on the Naval Academy, on Navy football, and on the Navy—a story that would inspire readers, and make them justifiably proud of these remarkable young future Navy and Marine Corps officers. It was, as far as I could tell, a win-win situation for everybody involved. And so, inspired by the players and Admiral Stavridis’s article, I decided to try my hand at writing for publication.

Unfortunately, the Navy lawyers don’t see eye to eye with Admiral Stavridis on this issue, and shortly after my book was published, I received an order from the Superintendent of the Naval Academy to cease and desist in its publication. In a biting bit of irony, the Navy insisted that my book had been published in violation of Federal Ethics regulations. Convinced that there was some kind of misunderstanding, I pled my case as long and hard as I could, but when the order finally came, I was obligated to comply, and within a few months of launching it, I reluctantly pulled the plug on my first publishing venture.

The reason I tell this story is because of what happened next. Over the next year or so, while I licked my wounds and alternated between feeling resentful and feeling sorry for myself, I unexpectedly received a number of letters and emails from people who had read my book. It wasn’t a torrent or anything, but they came often enough that I realized that people I didn’t know, and who didn’t know me, were actually reading my book and finding it meaningful. This may sound funny coming from a pastor, but it always surprises and humbles me when something I say impacts somebody in a positive way, particularly somebody I don’t know. I suppose real authors get used to that, but I haven’t.

Two letters in particular stand out. One was from a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army (that is not a misprint…the Army!) who wrote to me from Iraq to tell me that she had passed around a copy of my book to a few people, some of whom asked her how they could get a copy. She subsequently had me send her fifty copies to give to the soldiers and others she worked with. She sent me a list of the names of the people she wanted to give them to, and it was gratifying beyond words for me to sign each one for those men and women serving in harm’s way in Iraq.

The second letter came a few months later, from a woman who told me that she had been diagnosed with cancer. She had read my book, and had drawn inspiration and hope from the courage and determination of the Navy football players. Reading that letter convinced me that whatever hassles I had faced with the book had been worth it. And it also convinced me that maybe it was time to give the book another shot.

I wasn’t sure, however, that I wanted to face off with the Navy again over the issue. What ensued (in my head) was a monumental battle between two voices. One, the voice of caution, warned that I had escaped from my first encounter with the Navy legal system with a bruised ego, but little other apparent damage. Did I really want to open myself up to the pain and frustration of going up against the Navy JAG juggernaut all over again?

The other voice was more subtle and, to be honest, I had a hard time discerning whether it was the Holy Spirit, or my own ego that was its source. But I could not disregard the feedback from the people who had found the story of the Navy football players to be inspiring and engaging. I thought back to how much I admired and respected the players, how much I loved being around them, and I became increasingly convinced that their story deserved to be told. If there was a way to do it in compliance with the regulations, I owed it to them to at least give it a shot. Besides, what’s the worst the Navy could do to me for asking the question…sentence me to spend the summer in the Persian Gulf? I was already there, and if the Sailors with me aboard USS Enterprise could endure the one-hundred-forty degree temperatures in the propulsion plants or on the flight deck, then I could put up with a little heat from the Navy.

After a series of very frank discussions with the Navy JAG aboard the ship, we worked out a solution that was in compliance with the regulations, and allowed the book to be published. When Guideposts offered me the opportunity to publish with Inspiring Voices, it seemed to me that perhaps it was a sign that it was time to try again.

So here it is, again. The story of the 2007 Navy football team. I worry that a book about a football season is not very exciting five years later. But this isn’t really a book about football, after all. It’s not even a book about football players, as much as it is about young men (and, by extension, young women), who have stepped up to take their places in a long line of generations of men and women who have volunteered to serve their country as officers of Sailors and Marines. The football players I wrote about are now piloting airplanes and helicopters, driving ships and submarines, leading Marines in battle, and doing a hundred things they will rarely, if ever, be recognized for. Every once in a while I run into one of them in the fleet, and it is the greatest feeling in the world to encounter them as colleagues and shipmates. I am as proud of them for what they are doing now as I was for what they did on the football field, and I hope you are, too. The 2007 Navy football team is a group of guys I will always admire. And for one magnificent and memorable season, I was one of them.

Preseason:

Where’s the Rule Book?

1Owen.jpg

Head Coach Paul Johnson and an official discuss the finer points of a ruling.

In the military, there is a manual for everything.

Except, apparently, for what it means to be the Naval Academy football team chaplain.

Consequently, while I was thrilled to be assigned as the football team chaplain for the 2007 season, I quickly realized that I had absolutely no idea what that meant! The only thing I knew for certain was that at each pre-game meal I’d be asked to give a brief devotion. Whatever that was.

As the Navy’s 2007 season unfolded, I began to develop a sense of how I, as their chaplain, could contribute to the team’s efforts. Even more importantly, however, I came to more fully understand and appreciate what an amazing group of young men Navy football players are…and always have been. So while the 2007 season was an historic one in many ways for the Navy Midshipmen, it’s the players and their commitment, determination and passion that left the deepest impression on me, and which I hope to share in these pages.

What is the role of a team chaplain? It’s a question that occupied my thoughts throughout the season, and which I still ponder with fascination. Despite my non-existent job description, I’d like to think that I got better at my job with every week. The team certainly did. Unlike the team, however, I didn’t have a final score or game tapes to review to determine whether that was, in fact, the