Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, USAF, Commander, U.S. Strategic Command. U.S. Air Force / Wikimedia Commons
CV NEWS FEED // Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, an astronaut who took the Eucharist into outer space on each of his three space flights, told dozens of people in a National Eucharistic Congress breakout session on July 18 about the role faith and beauty have had in his life and how his choices led him to where he is today.
Chilton, who grew up near the Los Angeles International Airport, said he attended the U.S. Air Force Academy with the original intent of becoming a pilot for United Airlines. In his freshman year, he intended to study geography and focus on Central America, but, with his geography professor’s encouragement, he delayed declaring his major. In his sophomore year, he learned that engineering fascinated him.
When he was 20, he accepted his academic advisor’s invitation to complete research at Edwards Air Force Base in California for most of his summer. He didn’t know what he would be doing, but he was excited about the prospect of spending time with friends he had made in high school. Chilton met test pilots and learned that he would need an engineering degree to become one himself. He decided to become a test pilot before he would pursue becoming a United Airlines pilot.
“If I had been a geography major at the Air Force Academy, I never would have had the opportunity to go to Edwards, learn what a test pilot was and then set a new goal,” he said.
In test pilot school, he also met his wife.
“All these little things happened along the way that I didn’t initiate,” he said. “They were presented to me. I had the choice to say yes or no, and I can’t help but believe, in looking back, that they were meant to be and they were opportunities to do God’s will.”
Chilton responded to many questions from the audience after his speech.
The following section has been edited to enhance clarity and conciseness.
Q: You took Jesus up to space. That’s like the ultimate retreat high. You had such a beautiful, profound moment with our Lord. Many of us have had our own like individual, personal moments with the Lord. How do you remind yourself of that and keep it always front and center so you don’t fall into the downfall after a retreat high is over?
A: What I find myself doing at Sunday Mass is staring at the crucifix through Mass and reminding myself how much Jesus loved me, what he was willing to do for me. By the time it’s communion time, I have a hard time, quite often, saying “Amen” when Father says “the Body of Christ” because I’m choked up emotionally with appreciation for what He did for us in dying on the cross and appreciation for this fantastic gift He left for us that allows us to be one with Him in this life. It’s meditation on the crucifix on the cross and the sacrifice during the sacrifice of the Mass, which is about Cavalry. That’s how I keep my strength.
I remember, years ago, closing my eyes after receiving communion and listening to Father say, over and over and over again, “the body of Christ,” the most beautiful mantra. It was powerful for me.
Q: I want to tie your story in with the original theme of this talk, which was “How do you address your faith in the workplace?” You also mentioned that all of your fellow astronauts were very supportive. They attended Mass with you and they let you take Eucharist and gave you privacy. Have you ever had a situation where perhaps your fellow astronauts or buddies in the Air Force were not as supportive or, if that had been the case, how would you have gone about showing your faith in the workplace?
A: I never had anyone be rude with regard to challenging my faith, nor have I ever done that to anyone else. In fact, when I was a commander of the US Strategic Command, my last command, my command chaplain who worked for me as a colonel in the United States Air Force was an orthodox rabbi. We had him over to our house for dinner. We had to buy all new pots and pans because we honored his faith. He took me to Jerusalem and we went to the Wailing Wall together and he invited Cathy and I to Passover supper. One time, we were the only two non-Jews at the table.
I think in the military, we’re taught to respect one another, regardless of race, color, creed, sex, religion. As a commander, I demanded that of my people and I have never experienced anything that would be critical of my faith. We weren’t allowed to proselytize in the military, and there’s a good reason for that, given our hierarchical structures, but there were things I did.
We would walk to Mass from my commander’s house down the parade field to the church again as a family. We could have driven, but I wanted people to see our family going to church. And at every military ceremony, there’s always, besides the national anthem, the chaplain is called up to offer an invocation, and I was typically onstage for that when I was a commander, multiple times. When that invocation ended, I made the Sign of the Cross. That was my silent way of saying because nobody else does that but us Catholics, right? That’s just who I am.
Q: Because the military is very different from regular workplaces, after you left the military, I’m sure you’ve done other things; Were there any challenges you faced in just being a witness to your faith?
A: I’m not a very good witness. In the military, I try to lead by example. People ask me to speak on leadership and I don’t, typically, because I think it’s quite easy. It’s what Jesus told us: Treat others as you would want to be treated. Live by the Golden Rule. Just because you’re treating someone like you want to be treated doesn’t mean you mollycoddle them all the time. Sometimes we all need a swift kick in the rear. We all know that sometimes you have to do that, but you live by the Golden Rule. People pay attention to that and then, if they find out you’re Catholic, maybe they connect the dots.
Q: How do you respond to arguments that people should be focused on people on Earth instead of focusing on space?
A: From a biblical sense, I would quote Our Lord, who said, “You will always have the poor. Always,” which suggests that it’s an unsolvable problem for humanity.” I don’t think we should give up working on that, don’t take that wrong, but that’s one side of the coin.
The other side is, I believe that God gave us an intellect and free will: the two greatest gifts he gave us as human beings besides his own body. He didn’t give us that intellect to put a bushel basket over it. He wants us to learn. He wants us to discover what the Big Bang was. He wants us to learn about his creation, and we have to venture off this planet to do that. There’s so much that he created that he would like to show to us, allow us to see and he’s given us the wisdom and the mind, the intellect to achieve that. It would be wrong not to do that. There’s a balance to be struck there, for sure, but it’s not a one or a zero.
Q: Oftentimes, in science, I find myself feeling a little bit jaded about our faith or a little bit more fulfilled by science and logical explanation. How did you keep your faith while learning about space and science and engineering in the STEM field when oftentimes people just want to use the answers that we make ourselves?
A: Every time I learn something new that had been figured out by another human being, I just go, “Wow, God, put this here for us to learn and he gave us an intellect so we could learn it. How boring would it be if we all knew all the answers to everything right away?” This has been unfolding throughout the creation of man, and I truly believe that God takes great pleasure in us exercising our intellect and discovering the wonders of His creation. And those that we can explain, he loves that we figured it out, and those that we can’t, he knows we won’t quit trying to figure it out. I don’t see a conflict between science and faith and I approach it with the eyes of wonder when I learn something. “Isn’t it cool that somebody figured out what God meant for us to enjoy and learn about?”