Rev. Peter MacLean served in the US Naval Reserve during the Viet Nam War

INVOCATION:  Peter Hawks shared how the ' Four Way Test' came to be. Interesting.
 
 
PAST PRESENTATION PLAQUE ... Co-Presidents Springer Harris & Elisa Mayes, presented outgoing President Bill Harwood with his well earned Past President's Plaque.
 
 
PROGRAM:   Rev. Peter MacLean served in the US Naval Reserve during the Viet Nam War. 
SPEAKER INTRODUCED BY:   Past President Bill Harwood introduced us to Rev. Peter MacLean. 
 
NOTES FROM SPRINGER ...I am going to take a stab at summarizing Peter's story but I know I cannot do it justice. Let me just start by saying I have never felt our room of Rotarians so memorized by a speaker before. There wasn’t a single peep in the room. 
 
Peter sat only a few feet from each one of us and made you feel every word. It was amazing. He was such a fantastic orator that he could move the emotions of the room from laughter to tears in mere moments of each other. It was an amazing moment to be a part of.
 
 
 
Let’s begin with stating that we were the first group to ever publicly have the honor of hearing Peter’s story. He was a young man of the church and was searching for more purpose on his life so he enlisted with the US Naval Reserve. He soon found himself in the midst of the Viet Nam Battlefied as a marine chaplain. Peter was no ordinary Chaplain. He entertained us with his stories of both ignorant and intentional insubordination.  He share his story of his work at the Buddhist refugee camp where he creatively found ways to increase their rations of rice. As Chaplain one of his jobs was to keep the moral of the troops high which could be done by getting ice for the beer. Unfortunately, being a battlefield chaplain also comes with the terrible job of looking after wounded and deceased marines. It was at this point we were all ready to break down in tears with Peter. There was plenty more to his story but I just can’t do him justice by repeating the details. To date, one of Peter’s favorite accomplishments was the time he spent as a volunteer firefighter.