You’ve Got to Be Somewhere
An American Odyssey
by
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1. The world was a better place when the phones had cables and the TV’s didn’t.
2. I would muster up all of the childhood determination that I could contain and attempt to gulp down this pink clad, sugar free saccharin filled demon. And as was always the case, I fought the TAB and the TAB won.
3. Now this was not one of those modern, ‘just for fun’ recreational and instructional leagues of today where they don’t keep score and everybody gets a trophy for not getting their feelings hurt –nope-these were blood lust death matches, well, at least for the parents anyways. It was here that I learned that life was not fair. Because it is not supposed to be. We came in third place. I didn’t get a trophy because I didn’t earn one.
3. We no serve dog here, I am not saying whether they did or not. But sometimes you would get a rather long chicken leg… I am just saying…maybe Asian chickens are longer in the limbs than Kentucky Chickens.
4. A call came down from Marine Corps ‘higher’ wanting to know how many Marines were outside the wire, and Echo First Sergeant Philip LaFountain replied, ‘All of them.’
5. Fifty colorful states flags hung in silence as a backdrop with the crossed colors of the United States and Marine Corps standing at attention in the center. After tearful speeches and song, a lone Scottish bagpipes bellowed Amazing Grace as fellow Marines and family members passed by pale portraits. As I stood by the passing mourners, my heart sank in despair. Young widowed wives wept way away future lives together that would never be while mournful mothers and fathers would wilt in their hearts for the fallen family flowers which would never bloom again.
taken lightly. For me as a Baptist, the baptism does not “save” you, but is only a symbol of becoming a Christian. It is the GRACE of GOD and our faith that saves us. But the main thing is that you belong to JESUS CHRIST – everything else is foam and bubbles.
6. One day one of the young Marines asked me if he could be baptized. In my mind, I immediately ask myself the same question, “I don’t know , can you?” As a Baptist minister or a s Navy Chaplain, I have always taken the idea of someone becoming a Christian as a very important and serious step not to be
7. You have Cancer.
8. As a Marine, you always imagined going into combat by crashing some foreign beach in some sort of Higgins Boat. The bullets are flying and the ramp crashes into the salt surf and your platoon floods out of the gray steel beast onto the beach. As it turns out, we didn’t parachute in either… We drove out into the middle of the Arabian desert in a white city bus.
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About the Book
Have you ever had a Christmas gathering or family vacation that was way too interesting? Have you had a family member in the military or deployed to a combat zone? Have you struggled with your Christian faith? Have you or a family member faced cancer or another serious illness? If so, you are not alone, although you may sometimes feel like it.
Author Terry A. Roberts has felt that way. He shares his experiences in his memoir, You’ve Got to Be Somewhere. This slice of Americana, sometimes hilarious and sometimes starkly intense, recalls Roberts’s idyllic childhood, filled with baseball, Boy Scouts, and outdoor boondoggles. Life later finds him as a single Baptist minister in the South and Midwest while also serving as a marine. He saw combat in the first Gulf War, later as a US Navy/Marine Corps chaplain, and once again during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. He was later diagnosed with cancer, a fact that changed his life forever.
Through it all, his faith in God has helped him through the difficult times while making him more appreciative of the good in his life. Now he tells the story of his truly American life—an odyssey of humor, tough issues, and faith.
About the Author