{"id":29599,"date":"2014-07-21T00:30:22","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T03:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=29599"},"modified":"2016-11-25T01:21:42","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T04:21:42","slug":"fighter-pilot-retires-to-become-full-time-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/21\/fighter-pilot-retires-to-become-full-time-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighter Pilot Retires to Become Full-Time Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LtCol Eric Samuelson recently made the local Portland, Maine, news when he <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/2014\/07\/11\/fighter-jets-flying-over-portland-today-are-part-of-guard-retirement\/\">flew low level over his community<\/a> on his retirement flight:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Flanked by two other F-15 fighter jets, Samuelson led the formation from Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield, Massachusetts, to northern Maine for low-altitude training. After buzzing Portland, they headed for the jetport, where more than 100 members of his church were waiting in a parking lot by the runway&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Samuelson has been a pastor at The Rock Church for some time, and the article noted he found no conflict between his roles as Christian faith leader and military <!--more-->fighter pilot:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Although the time commitments needed for his two jobs conflict, he said, their purposes aren\u2019t at odds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy primary mission is to protect and defend,\u201d Samuelson said of his role as a fighter pilot. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the Christian culture and Scriptures that wouldn\u2019t protect the innocent and preserve peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even, he said, if that required him to kill.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Samuelson does note that he&#8217;s not exactly like every other fighter pilot:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There are things, however, that separate him from most of his fellow fighter pilots. For one, he doesn\u2019t drink, though he\u2019s stood at the bar with his friends for hours, he said. But he sees how their demeanor changes when he walks in a room.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a different air, a different attitude,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Christians can and should integrate their faith and their profession, even when (perhaps even more so when) their profession is military service.\u00a0 Godspeed to Eric Samuelson, LtCol, USAF (Ret).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Also at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stripes.com\/news\/us\/maine-fighter-pilot-forgoes-wings-for-more-prayer-1.294284\">Stars and Stripes<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-share=\"true\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-size=\"small\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LtCol Eric Samuelson recently made the local Portland, Maine, news when he flew low level over his community on his retirement flight: Flanked by two other F-15 fighter jets, Samuelson led the formation from Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield, Massachusetts, to northern Maine for low-altitude training. After buzzing Portland, they headed for the jetport, where more than 100 [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[134,96,4845,222,5285,2,4846,17,10,171,4847],"class_list":["post-29599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-air-force","tag-christian","tag-eric-samuelson","tag-f-15","tag-fighter-pilot","tag-military","tag-portland","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-rock-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}