Godspeed: Travis chaplain finds way in life, service

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Charles Rivezzo
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  
As a young boy, all Chaplain Dallas Little ever wanted to be was a Soldier or detective. Becoming a pastor was the last thing on his mind.

"I remember as a little kid, sitting in a pew, enjoying the church, the stained glass windows and the hymns sung by the choir. But when the big guy stood up and started preaching, I would say to myself, 'I love this place but that has got to be the worst job in the world,'" Little laughed.

Growing up, Little revered the military and law enforcement as he lived under the roof of an Air Force Korean War veteran, Naval reservist and law enforcement officer. After graduating high school, he accepted an Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps scholarship and became the first member of his family to attend college.

"I was a forensic science major," he said. "This was well before 'CSI' made it look so cool. My dream was to be an Army Criminal Investigation Division agent and then possibly work for the FBI."

But after his freshman year of college, Little found himself at a crossroads, pulled toward a calling to go into ministry, altering the future he had envisioned for himself since childhood. He ended up dropping the Army ROTC scholarship and changed majors to prepare himself for seminary.

"This was a watershed kind of event in my life," he said. "Even though I was moving away from the military at that time, in a roundabout way, it pulled me even closer. I just didn't know it yet."

Upon completion of seminary, Little received his first pastoral assignment in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., a hotbed for military personnel, sandwiched between several Air Force bases.

It was in those first years of ministry that Little was taken under the wing of several military members of his church and introduced to the tale of the Four Chaplains - a story that would fundamentally shape his decision to leave church ministry and enter military chaplaincy.

"I was fortunate that one of my mentors was helping organize a Four Chaplains Memorial Service, and she invited me to read the part and light the candle for Chaplain George Fox as he and I were of the same denomination," Little said. "The story of the Four Chaplains, as well as this setting for experiencing it for the first time, framed an important aspect of military service that pressed itself into my spirit that day.

"The lives of these chaplains and their gallant deaths, brought vividly to life by mostly retired military personnel, illustrated the high calling sacrifice must play for the military member. The price that might be paid and the spirit of commitment so necessary to the ideal of laying down one's life for one's friends."

Eventually, Little's own dreams would come full circle. The vision he set out for himself as a child would come face-to-face with the man he had now become. Six months before 9/11, he commissioned into the Air Force Chaplain Corps.

Stationed at Keesler AFB, Miss., the young first lieutenant learned first-hand of the sacrifice a service member must provide should their country call upon them.

"I'll never forget the night of 9/11 at our tech school," he said. "The images on the big screen just emblazoned in all our eyes of the planes hitting the towers as they showed replays of the attack over and over again on TV. After 9/11 you could see the shift of students walking around with big ol' eyes really grasping for the first time what the sacrifice may be. They may be called to war."

Little's call would come less than two years later, as one of the first Air Force chaplains to deploy from the United States to Iraq in 2003.

"The expeditionary mindset of deploying to austere locations was a big deal to everyone; it was something few were familiar with. I was issued a Vietnam Era flak jacket because that's the only thing they had in my size at Keesler," he said with a smile.

Deployed to what became Ali Air Base, Iraq, Little would catch rides to different forward-operating bases throughout southern Iraq - all while unarmed - to offer ministry to service members and increase their spiritual resiliency.

"My deployment to Iraq was very humbling. It was a taste of the real world," he said. "The reward of providing members of our military the opportunity to worship for the first time in months was truly remarkable."

After Iraq, Little would embark to Kuwait on his second deployment to lead a team of two chaplains and two chaplain assistants at an Army Life Support Area. Each day, 3,000 to 5,000 people would pass through this stretch of tents.

"It was their big in-processing and out-processing center," he said. "All the troops coming in or out of Iraq or Afghanistan passed through here. Each day, we dealt with waves of humanity being thrown at us; with some of the worst combat stress and PTSD I have ever seen. But it was such a privilege to be a support for these brave men and women to lean on."

Throughout his 12 years of military service, he has accomplished a myriad of achievements. However, the overarching goal for Little has always been his work toward the interfaith aspect of his profession.

"The idea of working alongside fellow clergy of different faiths and ministering to constituents of all faiths and even no faith was what led me down this path," he said. "To me, it is a fascinating idea to take people where they are and help them along their spiritual journey, whatever path that is.

"I deeply love working with different people and their diversities. I'm all for Baskin-Robbins' many flavors," he laughed.

No story rings out more prominently for Little than the legend of the Four Chaplains.
What they lived for and what they represented is a code he strives to live by - a code he has lived by.

"I consider the combat zones I've traversed and a few close calls outside the wire and the solemn duty of performing death notifications to next-of-kin for brothers and sisters in arms that didn't make it back," Little said. "Through all of this, I see the sacrifice required of the service member, so clearly illustrated to me at the outset by the story of the Four Chaplains. I see their brave service, their strength of spirit and I feel the faith of their commitments to both God and country as I consider the challenges that confront me and all other current service members.

"And I'm thankful to God for using those Four Chaplains in my calling to this ministry as we endeavor to live their ideals into the future."