‘Church-Goingest’ Yanks at Kirknewton Come to Base from Town on Sunday

[The Patriot]

‘Church-Goingest’ Yanks at Kirknewton Come to Base from Town on Sunday

08-30-2010 03:54 AM

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Mon, 2010-08-30 11:53


‘Church-Goingest’ Yanks at Kirknewton Come to Base from Town on Sunday


‘Church-Goingest’ Yanks at Kirknewton Come to Base from Town on Sunday

Kirknewton, Scotland
September 23, 1954

Sunday is a day when most servicemen “take off for town,” but the traditional migration operates in reverse here.
Family men at this Air Force base live in Edinburgh, 11 miles away, and most of them, come Sunday, take off from town for the camp.
The man to blame for this is Chaplain (1st Lt.) Chester L. Smith, but instead he gets nothing but praise from those stationed here.
Anyone who has spent a Sabbath in the Scot capital can guess the reason. There isn’t anything to do for blue laws turn Edinburgh into a ghost town every seventh-day.
To fill this gap, Chaplain Smith, in his two years here, has turned Sunday into family day at the base with the help of cooks, who turn out a first class dinner.
Highest Attendance
The program has paid off in probably, the highest church attendance at any base in the UK – 85 percent of available personnel one Sunday. It is usually well over 60 percent in what the Missouri Baptist chaplain describes as “the best church-going outfit I’ve ever seen.”
He has recently reorganized the Sunday school after a successful vacation Bible school which enrolled 41 dependent children from 2 to 12 years old. It lasted five days and there was but a single absence reported by the 12 volunteer teachers.
A Bible class for young married couples which features topical discussions, study of the Scriptures and a social program, has more than 30 members and meets each Wednesday night.
And still another of Chaplain Smith’s promotions are music parties which range from classical to hillbilly and usually attract upwards of 40 persons.
Recreation Questionnaire
Another of his innovations is a recreational preference questionnaire which each man assigned to Kirknewton is asked to fill out. The answers are transferred to an IBM card which automatically cross-files the man and his interest with others on the base.
At a glance the chaplain or special services officer, to whom he has turned over the file, can find out how many men play football, baseball, tennis or golf, can paint, take photographs, write a radio script, sing, act, direct, call square dances or play a bazooka.
He can also tell how many college fraternity men, Elks, Masons, Knights of Columbus, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Rotarians are at Kirknewton.
In all, the questionnaire lists 19 sports, nine categories of entertainment and music, nine under arts and crafts, six kinds of outdoor interests, five phases of newspaper and radio work, six types of social activity, seven religious activities and eight kinds of volunteer work which can be marked as a preference by incoming airmen.
If a man is interested in butterfly catching there’s even a place to indicate it on the form and if he wants a civilian contact for his hobby, chances are Chaplain Smith has one listed in another file he keeps.
Best Fishing Spots
Still another file lists the best fishing locations in Scotland and it gets almost constant use from more than 200 enthusiastic fishermen here.
The recreational preference cards indicated a sizeable interest in the sport and enabled the chaplain to back up his request for more lines, poles and reels.
In order to see that they were put to the best use possible he spent some of his leave scouting the lochs and rivers of the Highlands for the best spots to hook trout, perch pike, salmon or what have you and his fish-locators file was the result.
The chaplain also puts out an introductory booklet to the base.








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