The Rev. John Painter's desire to serve abroad pulled gently at his conscience, then grew strong and clear when the Air Force Chaplain Service called in June.

Painter, who is a chaplain at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, voluntarily deployed Sept. 5 to Ali Air Base in southern Iraq. He will forego Thanksgiving and Christmas, and his two children will turn a year older before he returns home in January 2009....

Today, Painter plans to lead a Thanksgiving observance service for Air Force and Army personnel and people from coalition forces, including Romanian and Ugandan, who share the base.

"It's an American holiday. The other contingents do not register the holiday, but the concept did," he said. People will sit around tables and get to know one another and share what they're thankful for.

Personally, Painter said, "I'm thankful for freedom, family, good friends. It's the little things like a hot shower."

Read it all from the front page of the local paper.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Military / Armed Forces • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Iraq War

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