What does service look like here at ALERT? The examples that come to my mind are not what you’d necessarily expect from an Academy like us.  While we like to show off the cool disaster relief deployments we go on, or the technically challenging search and recoveries that we do, that is not what service typically looks like here at ALERT.

When I think of service, I think of times the cadre and I would be up folding sheets at 3 am for Basic Training. I think of a time where my class moved boxes for a widow and listened to her tell us her story. Like Christ says in Luke 16:10: “Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much” (CSB). That is why we do those small, seemingly menial or insignificant acts of service. Those acts are vital to building integrity and competence in a man, so that when we do send him out into the world, he is “Strong to Serve” and ready to influence the world for Christ, his king.

Sincerely,

Lieutenant Charles O’Neal

ALERT Basic Training Executive Officer