Col. Stanford Polonsky arrived at Fort Monroe in Hampton in 1967 for what would be his final tour of duty in the Army Corps of Engineers. He had served across the United States and Europe and in the Far East, building military camps, doing repair and maintenance on military installations, even constructing missile launching silos in Roswell, N.M.
This time his help was sought by Fort Monroe’s chaplain, Harry G. Campbell Jr. He led Polonsky to a wooden building.
” ‘Stan,’ he says, ‘we’ve got some kind of problem with this wall,’ ” Polonsky said, remembering that long-ago meeting at the Chapel of the Centurion. “I realized there’s some settlement going on, the foundation is giving way and the wood will snap eventually.”
The chapel is a beloved landmark on the historic military installation and holds the distinction of being the Army’s oldest wooden structure continually used for religious services.
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