Michael Meakin:  

In 1989, I enlisted in the United States Army Chaplain Corps as a Chaplain Assistant, did my Basic Training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and attended the Unites States Army Chaplain Center and School which was then at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. In 1990, I graduated with Distinguished Honors and was assigned as the Chaplain Assistant to the 317th Combat Mechanized Engineer Battalion, 130th Engineer Brigade, V Corps, in Eschborn (just outside of Frankfurt), Germany. From there, I went with my Battalion to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait for Operations Desert Shield and Storm in the Gulf War. After the war, I served 3 years on active duty in Germany at the V Corps Headquarters Chaplain Office and then at the 418th Base Support Battalion, 120th Military Community closing base chapels during the drawn-down of U. S. Forces in Europe. During my time in the Reserves after active duty, I spent much time with my Dad, Wendell Meakin, a Brown City Teacher for 30 years, as he suffered from Alzheimer's and Cancer; he died in 1996. My mother Jacquelynn, also a B. C. Teacher for 25 years, then also suffered from cancer and I was fortunate to nurse her through surgeries and treatments, and to see her win her own battle with the disease that took my father. I attended St. John Vianney Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, and the Vatican University of St. Thomas Aquinas in the City, (the Angelicum) in Rome, Italy, through the University of St. Thomas at their Bernardi Campus in Rome. During my studies in Rome, the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the American Catholic Church saw ...Expand for more