The Riverside Kansas Avenue Church honored U.S. Senate Chaplain Rear Admiral Barry Black, USN (ret), the Whitecoats, and Adventist service personnel on May 22 in commemoration of Armed Forces Day.

More than 100 active duty and retired service men and women marched down the aisles to a standing ovation, filling the front of the church. Fifty members of the church are serving or have served in one of the four branches of the U.S. military.

Lt. Col. Bill Howe, retired from the Air Force, paid tribute to eight Whitecoats and their wives. Operation Whitecoat, 1953-1973, was a military project (mostly at Fort Sam Houston and Fort Dietrick, Maryland) where approximately 2,300 men were agents in the testing of infectious diseases enabling the military to prepare defenses against biological warfare. Most were young Adventist conscientious objectors.

The Kansas Avenue church gave the eight Whitecoats present a replica of a mounted eagle.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants who have gone before us and often don’t give them the flowers when they are alive,” Black commented in his sermon address.

“Lt. Col. Howe and an armed forces committee of the Kansas Avenue church have planned an annual commemoration of Armed Forces Day for 10 years, and we have a packed church each time,” said Jesse Wilson, senior pastor.