Happy Birthday Marine Corps! (ft. Evelyn Woodson)

Today is Thursday, November the 10th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah or anything you'd like to hear us talk about in future videos, you can send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

You can of course follow Dr. Shah on his website, AbbadonShah.com, and you can support us financially by visiting that same website, ClearviewTodayShow.com. You'll find a button there to give, and every donation goes to building a partnership with us as we reach the nations for the gospel of Jesus. That's right, and we want you guys to keep this conversation going. We want to make sure that the conversation of the gospel is never hindered, and so the best way that you guys can do that, one of the best ways you can do that, is to leave us a five-star review on iTunes, on Spotify, anywhere you can leave a review, do it, because that's how those algorithms work.

They see that the conversation is happening, they see it's popping, it's hip, it's wow, it's now. It's now. And so we want you guys to make sure, and thank you to everyone who already has done that. Absolutely. You want to read the verse of the day?

I would love to. Let's do it. The verse of the day today comes from Hebrews chapter 12, starting in verse 1, and it reads, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Amen, brother. Amen.

I love it. You know, today is just... I needed to hear that today. Today is special. It is a special day. It's a very special day. I'm grateful that you said that. We have a very special guest coming in on this very special day.

We do, yes. And I'm excited about it. This is the first episode of Clearview Today that we've done with a guest. That's right, it is our first. And so that's what makes it a special day. Well, it's a special today for, you know, other reasons too.

November the 10th, special guest on Clearview Today. And also... Today is a birthday. It is a birthday. It's the Marine Corps' birthday. And that's why the special guest is coming in so we can talk about the Marine Corps' birthday. Yes, all of that is true, but there is also another birthday today.

I don't think so. It's another birthday today of someone in this room. Our engineer David's birthday is today. Happy birthday, bud. Happy birthday, David. Thank you, thank you. I'm so glad that you remembered my birthday.

I remembered it. Of course, of course. Oh man, oh man. There's nothing better than celebrating a friend's birthday. There's nothing better than to celebrate a friend's birthday. You know, sometimes when you have a birthday, people forget.

It's a horrible feeling. Hang on one second because David's still talking. You're kind of stepping on David.

He doesn't get to talk a lot. Go ahead. Sorry about that. Some people just like, they forget your birthday. And it's a bad feeling. I've never been so introspective. Honestly, I hate when people try to talk over me on my birthday. Me too.

But I love that. Tell us about the day you were born. Oh man, that was, you know, crazy day. I just remember it was darkness and then a sudden burst of light shot through and then a doctor slapped me. On the butt?

No, in the face. Wait, that's a problem. I don't know why. Malpractice on your birthday.

I don't know what happened there. But anyways, it's just when I think of my birthday, I think of good times. I share a birthday with the Marine Corps.

Some of us. Yes. And that was the whole thing was that you're celebrating. It's two birthdays on the same day. If only there was another.

I know it could be like a trifecta. But the thing is, I really appreciate you coming into work on your birthday. Don't you share a birthday with someone in this room?

I don't think so. All right, well shoot, let's get on with the show. So today we are celebrating the Marine Corps' birthday, David's birthday, and... Hold on one second. Hang on, I got something down here. What are you doing? Trying to see if I can find it. What are you doing?

Still looking for it. There's not that much stuff down there. Happy birthday, Ryan! For he's a jolly good fellow. For he's a jolly good fellow. For he's a jolly good fellow. You brought me a cake, so thank you for that.

And a lighter that apparently does not work. What I'm more troubled with is that it seems that you've already consumed part of this cake. I was peckish. I wanted a treat. So you had, what is that, one, two... Gosh, who brought me this lighter?

Fire whoever brought this in here. Well thank you for the thought behind the cake. I'm going to leave it over here with me. It's still yours. It seems you've already eaten it, so that's perfectly fine. Hang on, I'm going to just have a little bit. Just a little taste.

You want a taste? That's okay. Okay. All right.

Cool. Like you said, today is a very exciting day, not just because it's my birthday. And it is actually David's birthday. We weren't just goofing that around. David and I do share a birthday ten years apart. We are a full decade apart.

But it is the Marine Corps birthday. We do a very special guest on the show today in honor of that. We're going to get started in just a few minutes. We're going to go grab Dr. Shah. But if you have any questions for today's episode or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah in general, you can send us a text at 252-582-5028. Or again, you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

We're going to go grab Dr. Shah and our special guest and we'll be right back. If you haven't already, be sure to check out Dr. Shah's book, Changing the Goalpost of New Testament Textual Criticism. Before the 1960s, the goal of New Testament textual criticism was singular, to retrieve the original text of the New Testament. Since then, the goalpost has incrementally shifted away from the original text to retrieving any text or many texts of the New Testament. Some scholars have even concluded that the original text is hopelessly lost and cannot be retrieved with any confidence or accuracy.

If that's the case, how can we claim that the Bible is inerrant? To answer these questions, make sure you order a copy of Dr. Shah's book. That title again is Changing the Goalpost of New Testament Textual Criticism. You can pick up your copy on Amazon right now and let us know how it's helped you by emailing us at info at ClearviewBC.org. You can also support our ministry here at Clearview by visiting us at ClearviewBC.org forward slash give.

Thanks for listening. Now back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com or send us a text at 252-582-5028. We've got Dr. Shah with us in the studio today. And if you're just joining us for the first time, you've never seen the show before, never heard of Dr. Shah's work. Dr. Abaddon Shah is a PhD in New Testament Textual Criticism. He's a professor at Carolina University, author, full time pastor, and host of Today's Show.

You got to add the snap. Oh, sorry. For the radio listeners, I got you right here. Host of Today's Show. You like that?

I like that. We actually have a very special guest with us today. Ms. Evelyn Woodson is with us on the podcast today. Welcome. We're glad you're here today. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. It's very honored to be here.

Oh, that's awesome. We're honored to have you here. Dr. Shah, I know you've known David and Evelyn for a while now. Absolutely.

Absolutely. They've been a blessing to our church, but also they've been a blessing to our family several years ago. I think it was in 2019 that David and Evelyn asked us if he wanted to go see the White House. They've been there. I said, yeah, of course he would love to. I said, what do we need to do?

He said, nothing. We just need to know if you were able to go. And we said, yes, we'll do whatever it takes. And we did. And they took us and took us around in Washington, D.C. And it was an unbelievable trip. Unbelievable. And in my life, you know, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was like the highlight of my life.

White House is a second. Oh, I can imagine. Right there. Right there. Right there. Side by side, I would say.

Because I mean, it's such an important place. It was really funny because I walked into the office and I saw Ms. Evelyn waiting. We were getting ready. We're getting all the gear set up. And I was like, you want anything? Water, coffee?

She says, no, I'm just I'm a little nervous. I was like, aren't you the lady that just like walked right up in the White House, just kicked your shoes off and said I'm home. On the Pentagon. We did the Pentagon that day. That's right. Capitol Hill.

That's right. Same time we spent. We did everything. We saw some bills being passed. Yes.

On the floor. Wow. To see a bunch of senators. It was an awesome trip. It was an awesome day. It was well worth it.

That's awesome. Very good day. Well, we have you here not to talk about my birthday as much as I would like to talk about my birthday today.

I thought we already settled that the intro. I know. I know.

But it is. It is another very important birthday today. It is the birthday of the Marine Corps. Oh, nice.

Nice. Put a little party sound right here. So, Ms. Evelyn, we wanted to bring you on today. Just talk about your time in the Marine Corps.

I know there's a big part of your life. So if you just share with us kind of what that experience was like for you, what led you to the Marine Corps, just kind of walk us through some stories from your your time serving. Well, I joined in 1980 right out of high school. And I joined because I have a big family of 10 brothers and sisters.

And I knew that there wasn't going to be any education for me at all. So when the recruiter came to my high school and asked me if I wanted to join, I loved the uniform. I said yes, where do I sign? Wow. And, you know, I went in and 22 years later, actually 23 years, I served. You were, you served for 23 years? Yes, sir. Wow. What was it like?

It was amazing. However, back then, and of course, I'm going to tell my age here. We can edit that part out. In 1980, of course, the field was, the girls were feminine and the guys were masculine. So the girls at that time, we didn't attend infantry. There was no infantry MOS for us, military occupational specialty. We could not go into the infantry or any kind of combat field.

Wow. So in our boot camp, I didn't have, you know, rifle training or combat training or anything like that. What was it? Was it like specialized stuff or was it, was it just gear? Was it the same thing that they were doing, but just no combat?

Oh my gosh, I don't even want to tell you. Cause if he was like, no, that can't be the Marine Corps. No. When, when I went in, of course, you know, girls were very feminine. So we had makeup and etiquette classes. Really? I would have never guessed it. Yeah.

If you had given me a million years, I would not have come up with that. Makeup, etiquette. And we also had, um, like how do you chew your food and stuff like that and how you sit like a lady.

And then we had marching and we had history and that's all we had. Wow. That is really surprising. Things have changed a lot since then. Drastically. I think there's no more makeup. I think they might even start shaving their head now like the guys. Wow. The uniform completely changed. Now it's all a male kind of branch because now the females have male uniforms and male hats and everything is galed is, um, it's changing to more of a male and taking out the feminine out of it. And of course, women are into combat and of course you learn how to shoot the M16 and all that.

Wow. Being in the field for 30 days and whatnot. So it's kind of, did you, did you know that going in or were you expecting like combat training? Were you expecting like the full, what we would consider the full Marine experience?

No. In fact, our drill instructor, she says, well, I'm going to bring in an MP and he's going to bring in the M16 so you can see what the M16 looks like. So I'm like, oh, so they brought it in.

So, uh, we're, we're in awe. She goes out 10 years from now, you might be shooting this. So that's what she said. Just shooting it. She'd never even said, we're going to go into combat.

We're going to go any of that stuff. She just laid it out there. Yeah. I don't think she even knew that how drastic the Marine Corps was going to change. Wow.

That's insane. So sure enough, when I got into the fleet, um, years later, uh, sure enough, around 10 years later, that's when they said, okay, you're not combat ready because you don't know how to shoot an M16. So you did go through combat training just years later, right? Well, not combat training.

Okay. Only to shoot, uh, qualify. You had to be qualified for the, with the M16. So in case you were set, you know, sent to combat, um, we're still in the back. We weren't in the front line. We, you still knew how to defend yourself. Had you had to defend yourself. It's very different.

I mean, it's completely different shoulder to shoulder. Wow. Absolutely. How did that shape, I guess, I guess how did that shape your, I mean, I guess, so you're saying that you kind of knew going into the Marines that I'm not going to be doing a lot of the stuff that the guys are going to be doing, but how did, I guess, how did that shape your, cause you and David are very patriotic. You're very, uh, patriotic people and you guys do a lot with the salt and light ministry here at Clearview. And I know you'd have a lot to do with that too.

Dr. Shah. Um, I guess how did that shape your, cause I'm doing these things like etiquette classes and makeup and stuff, but how did that sense shape your sense of patriotism, I guess? Well, the longer that, um, you're in the military, the more you blossom.

It's just like any job, the longer you're there, you're, you're more knowledgeable of the background and how things work. And, um, once I got out to the fleet and got to know really what it is to, to defend your nation and your country, um, I took a liking to that and it, it really made me a strong person having that military background with the, like I said, my 10 brothers and sisters and, um, just serving and they didn't serve. Um, it just gave me the more wider view in life compared to just being in the box.

You know, you, um, get married and you don't get outside of the box. I was, I finally got outside of the box, so I was able to, um, get familiar with all their cultures with going overseas and serving it as a storm desert shield. So you were, you were in, in the Persian Gulf. Yes.

I went to Qatar and Bahrain. What an experience. Well, again, my field, since I was administration, I always, you know, you stayed with administration.

Okay. So that's what I did the whole entire. Um, so of course now I'm become, uh, the chief of the administration branch instead of the clerk. Now I'm the chief and I'm, I'm telling the clerk on how to do their job.

Insanely. Administrating the administrators. Pretty much. What did you, what did you mean when you said the fleet earlier? You, so you get out of the, the Marine Corps, I guess, training or whatever.

What did you do? So you're, you're in those 22 years that you were in the Marines. Was the fleet part of that?

What does that mean? The fleet means when you're out of bootcamp and then you go into the real Marine Corps. This is your career now? Yes. This is your career.

So whatever station you're at, you know, either in Camp Pendleton and the West coast or, you know, Okinawa, which is, you know, overseas, that's all considered the fleet. Okay. Okay.

Okay. You know, something I thought was interesting that we, we were talking about even on Monday, Dr. Shah, um, you know, uh, no, it wasn't Monday. When was the, what was the citizenship episode? That was Tuesday or Monday? I think it was Monday. We were talking about your citizenship and gaining citizenship Monday.

It was Monday. Yeah. And you said something that kind of stuck with me that even I, as a native born American had never thought about. You said, you know, I, I came to this realization that if the time ever came for me to serve my country, would I be able to?

Right. And I think that's something that just really embodies this American spirit that we've been talking about so much, especially this week with the elections. But you know, there's, there's just something to that, that I have a need to give back.

I have a need to serve and I want that in my life. And I think that's something that's kind of missing from today's conversation. I agree. I mean, it's in our culture today, people just, um, you know, kind of, let's say, uh, entitlement world.

So you do this for me and I will do whatever I want to do and live my life and not work or whatever. Uh, and, and I just take for granted, people just take for granted the protections or people leaving the families going across the globe and serving there. Right. And with the possibility that you may not come home. Right.

I mean, that's always that possibility there. So I really admire and respect people like Ms. Evelyn and so many others, uh, who, who took that as their, their life, you know, their life decision to go in and serve our nation. And in our own family, we have now a Marine. By the way, did you, by the way, did you notice how I said that we have a Marine? Uh huh. Yeah. Not an ex Marine.

You do not. Did you just say that? You can go ahead and pinch him if you want.

Please don't because I know that's going to hurt. I was doing a wedding, uh, of a Marine and, um, it was funny. I made that statement. I was like, so the X Marine and all of a sudden the former Marine, this was a third generation family. Former Marine, former Marine.

I didn't even think they liked that. I thought it was just, I'm a Marine. No former Marine. You retire your former.

Okay. You could say that. You can say former Marine. Just not X Marine. Got it.

Once a Marine, always a Marine. I hear you. So they didn't correct me right then. But once, once, um, they had a chance, they said, Oh, just to let you know, Dr. Shaw, it's never X.

We will never be X. I'm like, Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. I didn't know, but it was all in good fun.

I've done that before too. But going back to Ms. Evelyn, I know you also served, uh, some high positions. Yes, I did. Um, my last tour, uh, in 1999, I got stationed at the Pentagon and then I served from there to 2018. Wow. When I retired. Okay. So I, so that I didn't know. I didn't know that you were, cause I knew you worked at the Pentagon, but I didn't know that that was still part of your military service or your, um, Marine service.

Yes. Well I did, uh, I served from 1999 to 2002 and then I switched over to the federal government and I stayed there at the Pentagon and serve as a federal government. Okay. So what did you do in the Pentagon? Like what was your, what was your like day to day life? Um, well, when I was stationed at the Pentagon, I served for a secretary, uh, Cohen under, um, I think Clinton and then, uh, um, Bush Jr came in and then I served under his administration. Okay.

Wow. Once he retired, um, I retired and I went over to work for the department of the army and I worked for them, um, in their top secret location. So I was going to ask, what were some of your tasks, but I guess maybe the someone you can't really talk about. No, I've served with the army operation center. Um, I worked for the G four, uh, for a four star, um, uh, first army, uh, female general, um, at the Pentagon. And, uh, then I went to work for the G eight. So as promotion came, I kind of just jump around organization within the Pentagon. Wow. What do you feel like were some of the things from your, from your time in the Marines that have had the most impact on you?

I think, um, serving in the war, um, had a lot of impact on me. Got to, um, understand their culture. In fact, um, they sent me ahead of time, um, with a handful of the Marines cause they wanted a female to go out there and see what the females could wear and not wear even when they're on base or off base because the base that we were on was only guarded with a chain link fence. So, you know, the, they can see in and we can see out. So the girls couldn't, um, do their PT, physical fitness in the mornings that you decide to go run your three miles or whatever. You couldn't run that in shorts.

You gotta be covered up because you're in a Muslim country. So I had to, you know, uh, make a report and then come back and then give them that report give them that report before the whole deployment went out so they can inform their female Marines what they can and can't do on base or even off base. Wow. That was some during your like administrative years. Okay.

Wow. So you were working, I know this is, this is something that we've had kind of on our last show, Carpet Manana. We never talked about on this show, uh, but you were actually in the Pentagon during nine 11 during the September, the September 11th attacks. You were there on site when it happened. What was that like? Actually that morning I had a medical appointment during the medical appointment.

That's when the attack happened. I had called my husband David and then told him, Hey, there's something happening because at the waiting room I saw the planes crashing into the towers in New York. And I said, get to a TV set because something's happening.

And then they called me. I said, I got to go because my appointment went up and uh, I didn't not know when I was in my appointment that the plane hit the Pentagon until there was a lot of screaming. And so you couldn't, you didn't feel it.

You couldn't feel it at all because the Pentagon is so huge. Right. I was in the joint chief of staff section cause that's where the, the, um, the clinic is located and it hit on the other side where the army is located.

The army in the Navy is located. Wow. Wow. But the, you could hear the, the screams and yelling that vibrated through the hallways and, and whatnot.

Wow. That had to be very traumatic because I mean, you know, we, we only focus on the twin towers. We don't realize that something was happening in DC, which, and you cannot compare and say, which one was worse. But I mean, they were trying to attack the heart of our nation, right?

Not just New York city, the business capital, but also they were attacking the Pentagon. Yeah. And I mean, it's, it had to be, uh, so powerful.

Yeah. It's also very different because I know growing up in a small town in North Carolina before I met you, I never, I never knew anybody who is directly related to, had any experience with it. So there's always sort of like there's sympathy, but there's also detachment because you know, it's, it, there's a detachment if you will, because it's their images on a screen of real people, but people that I don't know.

But then talking to you and David and talking to others who have actually gone through it and hearing, Hey, I was there, I saw it happen and it really impacted me in this way. Now that it's someone you know and you care about and you love it, there's, there's something new to it. You know what I mean?

There's something that that's very human about that. Yes. I appreciate that.

Yeah. It was really hard. Even then the next day, um, go back to, to work. You had all the, the diesel fumes coming, still coming through the hallways and uh, whatnot. And then they, um, had taken the bodies and at the courtyard, the Pentagon, of course there was a center courtyard. They had laid them all on there with their white, you know, covering and stuff.

So it was really, it really, it was very, very hard. What was the response of them? Cause we're talking about the Marine Corps.

Did each of the, I guess there's just so much chaos and there's so much communication between the branches going back and forth. Were there any, did anything the Marines do specifically that was like a direct response to that or just like in, um, you know, you know what I'm trying to say? Yes.

Yeah. Well, you know what, at that point, um, your training just kicks in. You know, you, all of a sudden you're, you're going to go to help your fellow servicemen no matter what, you know, so it was just a team effort of everyone coming in to help, um, those that, uh, were injured in any way they, they can and even in the cleanup and whatnot. So we would love to bring you back when you talk about 9-11.

Maybe, maybe your husband as well, because you know, that's such a powerful testimony of, um, you know, what our nation went through, but also how God's hand was upon you guys and our nation, of course. Very true. Uh, so I would love for, for them to come back. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And an event like that, it just makes you stronger.

Right. And, and that's why I'm, I'm very, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? I'm very passionate about being, um, very patriotic for my country because I seen the devastation that we have gone through and I don't take life for granted when it could be taken from you just that quickly at a doctor's appointment, you know, if it would have hit on my side, it would have been in a doctor's appointment. Well, I think that's one of the beautiful things we saw in the aftermath was this attack that was meant to demoralize and meant to divide, um, and conquer ended up strengthening so much resolve so much American resolve. Um, I mean, I think you and your husband, David, both embody that.

No, we embody that as well. You know, Dr. Sean, no, you were saying that your dad was here when that happened. He was here. He was here.

And, um, you know, sometimes I think Americans, um, we don't, um, study history nor do we study current events like we should. And I remember when we were sitting in our living room and the first plane had already hit the one of the twin towers. And then when the second one hit, I remember my dad saying, oh, that's the work of bin Laden. Maybe hadn't even heard that name before.

I didn't know who was, I was like, who is that? He said, that is the work of this and this person. And by that evening, everybody was talking about this bin Laden character.

Wow. So we as Americans not only need to be patriotic, but learn our history, you know, know what current events are going on and what's happening and don't just get everything straight out of the news or news app because sometimes it's just, it's not true. And talking to someone like Evelyn, you hear the rest of the story. This is the story. This is what was happening that day.

That's right. Just appreciate your freedom that you have because we're living in perilous time now where they want to take out our freedom away from us. You know, they, they want to tell us, you know, what we could eat and how much we could eat. And I mean, it's just, where does it end? So, you know, you just got to step back and really understand that America just stands for freedom. That's why everybody wants to come here because they want that freedom. Exactly. I think we just talked about that all Monday.

We talked about that. That's a good litmus test for a country. Like you shared that Dr. Shah, if people are trying to get in the country versus getting out of the country, that's probably a good place to be. That's right.

There are a lot of parts of the world where people are trying to get out and they build walls to keep people in. That's right. Here is just the opposite. So that's right. Well, Evelyn, thank you so much for being on the show today and thank you for your service. So we appreciate that very much. If you guys have questions about what we talked about on today's episode, send us a text at two five two five eight two five zero two eight. Or you can always email us at contact at cleerviewtodayshow.com. Also on that website cleerviewtodayshow.com, you'll find a button there where you can partner with us and support us as we seek to reach the nations with the message of hope, the message of truth, the message of the gospel. Amen. We count you as a partner in that an extension of what we're doing and we're thankful for your partnership. Amen. As we close, Ms. Evelyn, do you have any last minute advice for us today? Um, I would say download the pay and go app.

Those are really awesome. Because you got your whole wallet right in your phone. You just swipe that phone right on the gas station. It's paid. Swipe it on the grocery store. Hit pay. You don't have to go to a checkout at all. And you just look like a baller too. If you want to look cool, you heard it here first.

The pay and go app. That's awesome. Amen. Well, we love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview today.