 I want to thank you for your patience. Go ahead and take a seat for a few more minutes. Good morning. I am Master Sergeant Elizabeth Page from the Community College of the Air Force, and will be your narrator for this service. Today, we've gathered to celebrate the life of Master Sergeant Christopher Messer. We lost an exceptional human being. He was a beloved member of our team. The day of our lives had been blessed by the warmth of his smile, the guidance he provided, and the kindness in his heart. We offer our deepest condolences to Chris's family. We thank members of the audience, specifically the Air University family, Lieutenant General Hyper, Barnes Center team, Colonel Brown, our CCF family, and those joining us virtually for their support today and throughout the past two challenging weeks. Today, the Community College of the Air Force, the Barnes Center, and all those who knew Chris as a husband, father, son, brother, colleague, and mentor, friend, most of all. So a very disliked and lasting legacy. Jacqueline Shelton will come forward to give a reading. Good morning. Hear these eternally accompanying words from the Book of Revelation chapter 21, verse 1 through 5. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first birth that passed away. And the seed was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with humanity. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. Today we join together to honor the life and service of Messer Chris Messer. Lieutenant Colonel Melanie Presidio, the Covenant College of the Air Force, will now offer her remarks. Good morning, family. Chris's family, my amazing CCAF family, the Maxwell Gunther family, our Air Force family. I'm going to stand before you for a few moments to honor our teammate, friend, and brother-in-arms, Master Sergeant Christopher Messer. Special thanks to Master Sergeant Elizabeth Page for narrating today and her Sergeant Daniel Christie and Sergeant Tim Tran for leading and planning of today's memorial. And for the entire Maxwell Gunther team for your united efforts in realizing that plan. I want to thank you all for taking time today, either in person or virtually, to be here and collectively reflect on the blessings that Chris gave to this world and to our family. My Angelo once wrote, I've learned that people will forget what you've said. People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Chris made people feel like family. When asked why he joined the Air Force, his father said, it was because he recognized how well the service took care of its airmen and because he wanted to help our nation heal following September 11th. He definitely wanted to help others. And in the 18 months that I've served with Chris, I've been continually impressed at the care that he showed for this fellow airman at all levels. But when you look at his whole record, we find that this care for others is a theme throughout his entire 16 years of service. Here are just a few examples. While his aerial port load director in Turkey, he ensured 2,000 tons of vehicle equipment made it to nine deploy locations so that he could secure the safety of the war fighter downrange and keep the Turkish air shut. In Qatar as load team chief, Chris guided the loading of 85 airdrop missions of life sustaining supplies to isolated soldiers. Again, making sure his teammates have the supplies and the support they needed to execute their mission. During his time at Travis Air Force Base, he directed 208 tons of relief supplies enabling life saving humanitarian aid to three million Haitian citizens. In Iraq, he facilitated critical humanitarian cargo movements. His expertise provided along the rapid movement of 1924 evacuees from war dorm Lebanon. And he provided a dignified transfer of 10 fallen warriors. Service for self was his homework for sure. And then we were lucky enough in 2018 to have him join our family. While Chris was at CCAF, he worked hard to advance our value within his enlisted brethren. He excelled at supporting the accreditation needs of over 110 external schools that span 300 locations in 6,500 faculty. Big job. Because of the confidence we had in his ability, we made Chris both the interim associate dean and the superintendent of campus relations. Here he helped move the college to new heights by establishing relationships with Air Force recruiting and Second Air Force and codifying policy to ensure academic pathways were founded in integrity. Yet despite those great positive impacts to our mission, I believe that what we will remember most about Chris was his care and feeding for his own team at the college. He knew based on experience that if he took care of his people, the mission would thrive. And so he spent considerable effort ensuring his family was taking care of supporting their successes as they achieve multiple promotions, awards, and academic achievements. And his care for others also extended beyond the walls of our college. Chris took on the role of base housing representative where he advocated for the safe sheltering of our entire Maxwell Venture family. Chris was smart and he knew that the most effective way to improve the quality of life of his troops was through their stomachs. He was a great cook. And it was this passion of his, as CCAF's iron chef, he set the example as he cooked for the entire college at Mural Events. And he was always the first to hop on the meal train for those in need during their time of healing. So ironically, Chris came into the Air Force because of how the Air Force cared for Ironman. But I think his legacy is how he cared for his fellow Ironman. Unfortunately though, we are here today because he did not ask for the help that he sowed from the gate. Today, we honor Chris's certain leadership. But I would be dishonest if I didn't say we regret his decision. Our family is reeling from the sudden and unexpected passing. And so I feel compelled today in Chris's honor to remind everyone that if you are struggling, choose asking for help rather than struggling in silence. We, the Air Force family, are here without judgment with a care in heart to both nourish and safely shelter no matter what hails you. In the wise words of the beloved Mr. Rogers, all of us at some time or another needs help. Wherever we are giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. I'm certain that in this family here today and listening online, there are many who stand with the ready to extend it helping him so that as a family, we can continue helping others find strength to move forward to their future. Thank you. We didn't kind of assume. At this time, Chris's father commanded message to the video office and retired department messenger. Sir, will you come forward? Thanks. I'm gonna go out here because I've never been one for much of a podium. I usually don't have the easier. First I wanna tell you I'm very humbled by the United States Air Force and the outpouring of support that y'all came here to show my son. Great warrior he was. And thanks general, gotta get good crew, Colonel. By the way, I've heard from Christopher Sheenan command that I'm very proud as a father of that warrior. And by talking to the Sheenan command, his fellow airman, I know that he did it right. You know, the things that he learned from the Air Force and the things that I taught him as a father, the things that we learned as a military family, he did it right. He was doing things right. So with that said, everybody in here in the United States Air Force and other branches of the service, y'all did everything right. And I'm here to tell you as an old crusty master team that you are here now because the Air Force decided that they needed the best people at the best time to carry out these multitude of missions that y'all are doing. And I'm very personally telling you that you did right by my son. You know, we don't ever win every battle. Y'all are doing it right. And like I said again, I'm humbled in your presence. We will go on. We will win the day. To God tells us, he will give us beauty for our ashes. This is just temporary. We will go to that place with our Lord and we'll be the perfect warriors. We'll win the eventual final battle. And knowing Chris is up there with God taking care of business just like he did down here. And he just, you know, that warrior, it was that warrior's time to be with the main general up there. So I just want to, once y'all to know from me as his dad and a fellow warrior and friend that there is hope out there. The Air Force will be or is a better place because Christopher was here. And that I also want to tell you from the bottom of my heart from an old sailor that this country has never fielded or this world has never fielded a better Air Force and warriors than is sitting right here today. The Air Force today is the finest that this world has ever seen. And it will be even greater in the future. So keep your heads up. All this stuff that's happening, it'll stuff like that happens. You're gonna have great times in the future. The Air Force will get greater and greater as the days go by. You'll continue to be an awesome tip of the spear for our country. And from the bottom of my heart, I really want to just thank you as a friend for that outpouring that you showed my family and really stepped up to the plate. I can't thank you enough for that. And with that said, I gotta give y'all a new round, you know? Hang in there, stay in the fight, chin up and never forget to smile. I always told Christopher when it gets tough out there, and I've also told my sailors and my warriors that you gotta smell the roses along the way. You know, just do that for me, please. Do that for Christopher. When things are getting tough and you're bitching them on on each other, you're cussing the chain of command, you're just looking at each other and smile and say it like Christopher would say. It's all good and dead. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In memory of Chris, privatized housing, 47th against CES, the military has an office, an unlisted heritage hall, a planning and treating of honor annex in addition to a comrade brick. This is to forget that one cup in this, this momentum reads, this is the certify that a comrade brick of favor, honor, and Christopher Messler has been placed in the unlisted heritage hall at Maxwell Air Force Base, Gunner, and it's Alabama. This action symbolizes the respect and admiration that Messler and Messer has earned and is a token of reflecting reflecting the highest traditions of the United States Air Force. It also symbolizes a motor competence in the heritage hall and its commitment to the preservation of unlisted history. Mr. Jeff Beyer, Chris's father-in-law would now like to say a few words. I'm Jeff Beyer, the chairman. A program can tell you I'm Chris's father-in-law, but I'm up here because I want to let you know that Chris was much more than that to me. And in fact, he was much more than just an airman. The first impression I had of Chris was he came to a family gathering at Pine Mountain Lake with my daughter Nicole in our household. The rule was our kids didn't date until they were 16 and the first date was always at our house. But you couldn't have pulled that rule once your kids left the house. However, I think Chris kind of knew that I wanted to get to know him better. He told me that he had never been to Yosemite and Pine Mountain Lake is very close to there. And I said, hey, I know Yosemite quite well, let me show you around. So this was my opportunity as a father to give Chris a good grilling. And the one thing that impressed me about Chris was he was a real and genuine man. In fact, his attributes were kind of unique because he was confident yet modest, forthright yet respectful and responsible yet fun-loving. And those are combinations of traits that you don't often see together. That made me have the impression that this was a man who was worthy of my daughter. And from that moment forward, I never lost that impression. I must admit, it took a little longer than I would have liked for Chris to propose to Nicole. Yet it gave me extra time that I needed to know Chris without the filter that comes up when someone is a son-in-law. So I got to know Chris well. I didn't have to put in any pretense because he was my son-in-law. And I first wanna let you know that the label of son-in-law doesn't really mean a lot to my wife and I. We are devout Christians and we believe that the second chapter of Genesis tells us which is that through matrimony to become one. So quite simply, Chris was not a son-in-law to us. He was plain and simply another son, just as important and just as loved as any of our other children. As many of you know, Chris was well-read and he was very knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics. He used the knowledge that he had to help us with several projects around a home that we were remodeling. And Chris also has already been alluded to a phenomenal cook and he taught me many things about cooking. I consider myself a good cook. So I wasn't readily a son-in-law to me. I was willing to tell Chris just how much it wasn't taught me about cooking. But there were times when the projects were done and the meals were over where Chris and I just sat and talked, sometimes debated about a wide variety of subjects. But the one thing that Cecilia and I loved most about Chris was that we saw that he deeply loved and provided for our daughter Nicole and our granddaughter Ann Marie. Chris proposed and Nicole and Chris got married. It blessed us with two more beautiful granddaughters, Maria and Ava. To Cecilia and I, Chris was more than a son-in-law. Chris was a confidence-building co-worker, a master chef, and an engaging conversationalist. He was a devoted husband to my daughter, a loving father to my granddaughters, and a faithful son to Cecilia and I. But whether he were Chris's relative by blood or marriage, a fellow airman or their spouse, government contractor or employee, I know there's one thing that all of us have in common that we could say about Chris. We could all call him our friend. Chris's genuine love and concern for everyone made, everyone feel important. And I believe that that was Chris's greatest gift to us as the Lieutenant Colonel had alluded to the circumstances of Chris's passing, trouble us and may give us some concern. But there is another thing I wanna share with you that is less about Chris and more about the feeling that I have that one day I know I will see Chris again in paradise. At the bottom of your program, there's a scripture from Paul's letter to the Romans that was a snippet that my good friend Art Nesser and I chose that we were thinking about putting on his headstone and we realized we didn't have enough space to put it there. I wanna read the reason why we think that. I wanna read to you the scripture that happens before verses 38 and 39 and the eighth chapter of Romans. What then shall we say to this if God is for us who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but handed him over for all of us. How will he not also give us everything else along with him who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who equates us who will condemn. It is Christ Jesus who died rather was raised who also is at the right hand of God who indeed intercedes for us. What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword? No. In all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us for I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor present things nor future things nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God or Christ Jesus our Lord. At this time the family would like to offer the audience an opportunity to share a personal high note. We wish us to speak about Christ to begin to text our concern on the level of love. So I'm not like our, I can't be out in front of a podium. So I'm gonna stay behind my podium in safety. So in honor of Master Sergeant Master Chris I'll do it in the form that he would appreciate it the sandwich method, right? That's, you know, some good, some bad, that's more good. So this is gonna be more of some happy, a little bit of funny, maybe some sad, but hopefully we'll end with some happy. So when Chris first arrived, he was eager to learn and wanted to do everything right by his people. So the common trait around here, right? Want to do it right by the section in the college. He drove me nuts sometimes because he was the, how do we get to yes guy? You like that JR? I was for you. It was okay though, because I'm the realist of the duo. We balanced each other very well. At least I think we did. I remember pitching the idea to Mr. Nick when he first got here that he should go to a specific school with me, of all people on his first trip. If you've been around the college long enough you will know that the school I am referencing is a four letter word in our office. I was internally giggling at the thought because a similar situation happened when I first got down to CCF at Mississippi. Thanks Mr. Nick. When we got to this particular school we were sitting around the table and I could see in him the confusion, the disbelief of what was happening in this room. I think that was the first time he saw my face go from whatever thing everybody thinks is my mean face. This is my normal face, but to my regular, from my regular face to the one that said if you keep blaming me for everything I'm going to jump across the table and throw a punchy. But that didn't happen because I had Chris there with me. But we definitely threw him into the deep end after his first trip. The most memorable trip though was when we found him on flavor and I'll never forget it. We went to El Paso, Texas and to drive to Alamora, New Mexico. This was also the location he introduced me to what was called a Michela and I still drink them to this day every time I go to a Mexican restaurant. But on this trip, it took us an hour longer to get there than it should have and there was no traffic. That should have been my warning sign to steal the keys from him and not letting him drive the rest of the way because he drove like an old man. So from Alamordo, we drove up to Albuquerque and visited our old friends. A five hour drive that should have been three. But we did finish two books on that trip and he got it and he started in audio books. The first book I ever listened to him with was Ready Player One. He really liked that book. And as somebody who drives almost 1500 miles every week, he challenged me to utilize that time more productively and I still do that today. We only accompanied each other five trips in his time here and I enjoyed every one of them. I can go on and on from trips to times I spent at his house to just be in and around in him. I spent a lot of time in his office just for fun. Not because I'm in trouble. So from our first trip to our last, he never once doubted my capabilities and he often let me do my things because he trusted me, he supported me. He was a good leader. He did something for me that only a few other supervisors have ever done before. He cared. On the day of his death, the book Ready Player Two came out and I was eager to ask him if he was going to get it that day so we can start at the same time. But as he was already Player One, he had readied up before me. I'm not ready to join you, Chris. But when I am, I know you'll be holding my spot as Player Two. Chris was a foodie. One of the many things I'll love about him because he would bring in food and I would bring in food and then we would have cookouts in the office and we would share recipes. Lieutenant Colonel Pesudo, Art, Bobby Law. You all mentioned that he was the Irish chef of CCF or, you know, the best cook. I'll give it to him because it's today is his day. Ah. But I'm guessing you guys have never heard of the time he tried to get the salmonella poisoning with chicken and waffles. So, I'm just going to leave it at that. Every time I cook, especially in Asian style dishes, I'll remember him and the good times we all had. Art, you came and spoke to us and I appreciated it. When you came and spoke to the team, you looked at me square in the eye and said, I was his right hand man. Knowing that he thought of me, that's his right hand man. I can't help but think I let him down but I can only hope that I can follow in his footsteps and be as good of a person and a leader as he was. Chris was my supervisor, my superintendent, whatever professional title he would like to give him. There will be many titles, some of them will be remembered but I will remember it as someone I want to be like. My fellow for me, my blue lens, my balance. He was many things to me. But most importantly, he was the brother I never had. If anyone else would like to share remarks, we'll be collecting them for the family. Do you have a funny story? All right, so, this is back in the days when the military used to let us have cons. So, we lived on ADAC Alaska. A couple stories wrapped up in here. We lived on ADAC Alaska. If you're standing on ADAC on the airfield and you look two miles behind you, you can see nowhere. So, the only way we could go Christmas shopping or do any kind of cool stuff is the Air Force had to give us a lift into Washington State and the court. Boy, it was the only thing they ever saw until we left ADAC or military aircraft. We had our only station bird C-130 but it's always broken down. So, every time we'd come a ride though when we got a chance, well, 141, I think, something insulting on down here sure remember what that aircraft was. We're on a C-141 camouflage by Ed Horton-Cork and consultant. So, we asked the pilots, the data head crew, I went and said, I watched for a while. Christopher got up to take the stick. And then the pilot let us out. I could see some nervous faces. He's all the civilians. Come on, approach the lands that my two young boys out of the cockpit, sitting down and strapping back in. I wasn't everybody's best friend just saying they didn't. So, finally did get to go on a real McCoy civilian aircraft on Resolution Airways, two rambunctious older boys, Christopher. Ricky went scampered up the ladder, no, the stairwell. He went scampered up the ladder and got in the plane coming about halfway up the staircase. And I see two little heads bobbing around the door. Dad, it's got seeds. Yeah, and carpet, dude. Anyway, always having fun with these boys. Chris Cowell is the son. I'm glad y'all got that. Thank you, and we're excited about carpet. At this time, I would like to bring Chatham Shelton back to the stage to end this interview. Before I pray, I just want to know, I want y'all to know if you're here, just because of the nature and the sadness of this moment. If you're here and you would like to talk to someone or to be some extra support, I want to just echo what it's gonna come up for you to say, is it's used to reach out my phone. And that is welcome. And there are people even stationed around the auditorium, the Chatham staff from the Wayne movie in the auditorium. And after we've discussed it out, we'd love to talk to you as we process this delicate moment. Take care. With that said, I would close us in Christian prayer. I'd invite you to pray with me if you want to. Father God, this morning as we give you honor for your eminent goodness and kindness and Master Sergeant Messer's life. As we say goodbye to father, son, and friend, as you grant the needed grace as a deeply effective family, his countless friends, and we airmen all more for today and in the days ahead, father, may the security of your perfect city to come that is yet to be seen, stabilize us. May your victorious promise presence be a place of anchor for our tumultuous grief, even through the tears we do now see. I pray you be near to those of us who are broken hearted by your loving power, find us in our confusions, in our frustrations, in our fears, in mindless. May your forgiving nearness be known and absorb our shortcomings. And may your good counselor help us in our frailties. May you bring great good even through grief for your reliable wisdom that I pray that will help us to grow forward towards you and each other. It's for our good, the glory of the Christ Jesus Christ. Amen. This includes the memorial service for Master Sergeant Chris Messer. I ask that everyone came to the States for the family, the hearts, the young children. Thank you.