Air Force chief of chaplains visits Offutt and reflects on the past

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Carrie M. Peasinger
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  More than 250 Team Offutt members attended the 55th Wing's 2012 National Prayer Luncheon March 15th at the Patriot Club to remember the importance of prayer and faith.

Drawing from scripture and his own experiences throughout his life and career in the Air Force, Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Cecil R. Richardson, Air Force chief of chaplains, emphasized how God can make good come from every bad situation.

"Sometimes the worst things that happen to us can be the very things that lead us to God," Richardson said.

"We live in a fallen world where sometimes the very worst thing imaginable happens to totally innocent people," Richardson said. "No matter what you reap in life, whether it is good or bad, you can find God in the harvest - if you're only willing to look."

One experience that Richardson reflected on while at Offutt was his 1981 tour at Shemya Air Force Base, Alaska, where he served as senior Protestant chaplain, 5073rd Air Base Group. The event that ties Richardson to the Fightin' Fifty-Fifth, is when six crew members of Cobra Ball 61-2664 lost their lives as their aircraft crashed upon landing during severe weather.

As Richardson reflected on the Cobra Ball crash he remembered his role providing spiritual care.

"Spiritual care means being there," Richardson said.

Richardson recounted his role by the many different tasks he performed that day. From providing physical comfort to the accident victims to providing for their spiritual needs through praying for and with them to just being there with them and giving them a sense of hope.

"It was a difficult, difficult ministry and I was deeply honored to be there," Richardson said. "As a chaplain I felt deeply, and I still feel deeply for their families that I still wake up sometimes remembering what happened that day."

Richardson admitted that the accident a Shemya changed him forever.

"I've never been the same since the event," he said. "I have been on scene at several tragedies and I feel it makes me a more prayerful person."

Richardson sums up his experience dealing with tragedies with a quote from Abraham Lincoln.

"I have often been driven to my knees by the realization that there was no other place to go," Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States.

Richardson was presented with an original Shemya patch at the luncheon by Brig. Gen. Donald J. Bacon, 55th Wing commander.

"I want to thank our chaplains for what you do every day," Bacon said. "As a wing commander, I know that no matter what time of day or night when tragedy may strike, there is always a chaplain available to counsel our service members and their families."

While visiting Offutt, Richardson also held a resiliency briefing with the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, where a memorial for the Cobra Ball accident is located.

Chaplain Richardson plans to retire in two months after 41 years in the Air Force.

The 55th Wing chapel staff organized the local event. The National Prayer Breakfast / Luncheon was established in 1953 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to recognize the moral and the religious values upon which the nation is founded.