Vice Admiral Arthur Cebrowski in October 2001 was tapped by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to help figure out how to fight terrorism.

The director of the Office of Force Transformation is the former president of the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. A naval aviator who served in Vietnam and Desert Storm, Cebrowski commanded Fighter Squadron 41 and Carrier Air Wing Eight, the aircraft carrier Midway and the assault ship Guam.

He spoke with Register correspondent Carlos Briceño about how faith helped him fight personal battles.

Where did you grow up and what influenced your Catholic faith?

I grew up in northern New Jersey, in the town of Hasbrouck Heights. As my name implies, my parents and all four of my grandparents are Polish. It's a very Catholic family. Church and CCD were a routine part of the day.

I recall the strong adherence to the rule of going to Mass on Sunday and on holy days and to receive the sacrament of reconciliation and avoiding unnecessary manual labor on Sunday. Sunday was meant for church and family. I didn't go to Catholic grade school or high school but went to the local public school. We had a very strong and active parish in my hometown.

My mother and father are still living in Hasbrouck Heights. They passed their 65th wedding anniversary. My father is a very honest person who always treated people fairly, and there was a sense in my family that one should do the appropriate things to be a good citizen:to make commitments thoughtfully and see to it that those commitments are respected. It was a strong moral upbringing. This general attitude seemed to be quite common amongst the families in my community at the time. So we were not an isolated family. We were part of a whole community of church-going people who were quite patriotic and able to do their part as citizens. It was no surprise that I joined the Navy.

How did that happen?

After high school, I attended Villanova University and graduated with a degree in mathematics. I joined the Navy immediately. The very first day as a freshman, I signed up for the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Has your faith helped you during combat situations?

I have had hundreds of carrier landings, day and night, in high-performance jet fighters. And a night carrier landing, particularly in bad weather, is very, very challenging. And there have been times, particularly when the aircraft hasn't performed well — because of equipment malfunction in heavy seas — when I've landed and been arrested by the arresting wires, taxied clear of the landing area, (and) parked the aircraft fully confident that I arrived in that position by an act of God and convinced that there were people praying for me, and the result has been success and safety. I have also had two major bouts with cancer.

You pray, and then you try to do the right thing and do the best you can.

Did your faith life waver during your bouts with cancer?

No, they were strengthening experiences. I can recall with the first bout, when I was just a junior officer, and I had a very young family. When I was told the kind of health trouble I was in, I remember going to Mass at the chapel in the hospital and just sitting there and praying. My prayer was, “God, I'm a responsible person. There's people I'm meant to be looking after here. It would be irresponsible of me to die now.” I was overwhelmed with the interior thought of “What pride. What false pride.” (God's reply was,) “Do you think you're the only way I have to look after these people?” At that point, I said, “There's no end to the ways you have to do what you do, and why don't I just relax and get on with life.”

In terms of your current position, how has your faith helped you?

In doing the kind of work that I do — whether it was operational assignments within the Navy or staff positions such as the one I'm in now — frequently, at the beginning of the day, it's difficult to see how one can have a positive outcome on all the many challenging things that you know are going to be placed before you during the course of the day. I have never been disappointed when I have asked for help from the Lord in tackling the tough issues of the day. I would start the day in prayer, not knowing how I could possibly be successful at what was before me that day, and during the drive home in the evening, realize that the day had actually turned out quite well. And that's day in and day out.

As far as what we're doing here, in the Office of Force Transformation, we recognize that the whole world, certainly the United States, is moving from the industrial age to the information age, which means there are new sources of power, there are new challenges, and it's important for the nation, for our national security, to maintain a strategic advantage, or a strong competitive position, in the national security area.

That means as new sources of power, such as those stemming from the information age, are developed, that the force move toward them and make the appropriate changes in procedures, tactics, organization and technique to take advantage of those.

At the same time, the world is changing, as far as all the various activities that go on in the world — economic and financial, the demographic changes, energy flows and the like — which create a certain imperative for a certain kind of force which we might not now have. So we try to look toward the future and make some judgments about the direction the nation has to go in regards to national security.

This comes in the form of how the force might be organized, what technologies it pursues and how it uses those technologies. This would include everything from a space system to information systems, to weapon systems to vehicles, to the full spectrum of the Defense Department undertakings. There's a compelling need for transformation.

I understand you attend daily Mass when you can. Why is it important for you to do this?

There's a story told that I heard — it's not my own story — about a man in a hospital bed who is offered Communion by a visiting priest. In the bed alongside him is a non-Catholic who turned to the Catholic and said, “You know, if I believed what you believe — but I don't — but if I believed it, I would walk a mile on my knees to receive Communion.” The fact of the matter is that we are here to move our relationship with God toward perfection. That's why we are here. I'm not here to be a success in my job. I'm not here to make a lot of money. It's like Mother Teresa once said, “We are called not so much to be successful as to be faithful.” And that's why you go to Mass — to strengthen the faith. Life is hard. Even for us who have a good life here in America, we still have our challenges. It's hard. What person in his right mind would turn down help? And it's free.

Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.