As a 30-year career NASA Engineer and Scientist, it is easy for me to dream of and speak of the fanciful future that is almost upon us. I know that it is no longer vaporware, but our future is unfolding round about us with a mostly hidden – and yet with a relentless purpose even as I write these words. NASA is effectively now out of the crewed deep space exploration game, as is nearly every other nation except China, which is about to catch up and pass everyone else except for SpaceX. SpaceX WILL have humans on Mars permanently…
As stated in a previous Battlefield Report, I will occasionally review bits and pieces of Templar history. The Templars rarely chronicled any aspect of their events, so these accounts are scarce, having been recorded by others who witnessed the events. ———– Of all the Templar crusade battles, one stands out for its historic accuracy because of multiple eyewitness observers who recorded the event, among them councilors to Louis IX, Jean de Joinville and Matthew Paris. Through their combined efforts, we receive a detailed view of the event, of the courage and level-headedness of the Templars and their singular obedience, courage,…
Last weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Grand Convent and Investiture of the Autonomous Grand Priory of the United States of America, the Priory of the Holy Trinity, Temple Church’s former Commandery, was stood up as an independent priory, serving all of South Florida. The photo above features, left to right, Capt. Howard Giraldo, Prior; COL. Fred Kienle, Grand Prior XXIV; MGySgt. Gerson Cabrera, Chancellor; and newest member, Knight Claude Mode. Here now is a history of the Priory of the Holy Trinity as recorded by Prior I, Howard Giraldo. ___________________________________________________ In 2017, three newly inducted Knights of the…
Today our official Battlefield is 2,138 miles from the one in Orlando, Florida. And while Orlando can get toasty, Scottsdale makes the warmest Orlando summer day seem like “sweater weather” on the Scottish Highlands. Yeah, it’s a “dry heat”, kind of like the business end of a hair drier. But to be fair, our son who spent some time in Kuwait says that even Arizona heat is tame compared to the real, vast desert sands of the Middle East. Joining us here in Scottsdale are many members of our south Florida Knights and Dames of the Commandery of the Holy…
After the First Crusade, two seasoned knights of French Nobility, Hugh de Payens and Godfrey de Saint-Omer, with a group of like-minded companions, formed the Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici (the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon), or the Poor Knights of Christ, to protect pilgrims of all faiths seeking to worship in the Holy Land against highwaymen and other threats on their way to worship. Yet how these men evolved from seasoned Crusade warriors to holy, set-apart monks seems to be a significantly missing piece in the Templar legend. In the 21st-century mind, this disconnect…
I grew up in a magical place, nestled in the boughs of several trees. Only many decades later have I learned that such magical places are doors that are opened but for a very short season by God, and then they disappear from the universe, leaving only traces of their memory behind. But I have also discovered that even these ephemeral traces of adolescence carry enough residual power to last a lifetime. As a boy, I had begged my dad for months to help me build a tree house in the lush green deciduous woodlands of northeastern Oklahoma, just across…
In 1119, the French Knight Hugues de Payens, a veteran of the First Crusade, was in Jerusalem on a pilgrimage when he looked around him and saw the mounting carnage of Christian pilgrims routinely attacked, robbed, and killed on their way to worship at the holy sites. It was then that he approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic Catholic religious Order specifically for the protection of these Christian pilgrims. King Baldwin and Patriarch Warmund agreed to the request (most likely at the Council of Nablus in January 1120), and the…
It is all too easy to forget history and invent a false record in any field or interest. It is usually not done purposefully, and in the case of our Templar heroes, a large part of it is woven together by creating a belief system based on legends, Hollywood and Internet lore instead of what actually happened over our 193-year history. While many think the only task of the Templar Knights was to hang around Jerusalem, escort pilgrims, collect treasure, and exchange Templar Traveler Cheques, it was – as one would expect – far more complicated. The precursor knights from…
I found myself in a very unique niche in my early Naval years. At one point in 1975, I was awaiting orders to Officer Candidate School as an enlisted Quartermaster working for the Commander of Pearl Harbor Naval Station. He was doing everything he could to make a Mustang Officer out of me and, while I was waiting, he gave me very compelling assignment. Knowing that at that time I was intending to become a submariner, I was to select any submarine in Pearl Harbor, and he would call the CO and set me up with temporary duty onboard….
In three days, the Priory of the Temple Church will be convening our Business Meeting the link that has been provided in your email. 7:00 PM Sunday 27 April Business Meetings of any kind have received what perhaps may be a well-deserved bad reputation in any organization. But as I have discovered as the moderator for decades in both church and NASA business meetings – a lion’s share of the bad rep is due to the single-point failure of the moderator. It is their job to clearly understand the meeting’s landscape and professionally handle the inevitable case of crossed wires,…