The el26 kernel packed with cwm5 is the absolute safest kernel out there to flash from. I prefer to mobile Odin the kernel btw. Ics recoveries have a brick bug. Where formatting from it will have the possibility of hard bricking your device. There are safe recoveries, however I don't take the chance. It takes a couple extra minutes if that to mobile Odin el26. I believe it was made by chris41g. Whatever rom you flash has its own kernel inside. So the el26 kernel will be overwritten once you are finished flashing. For this phone we do not have a separate recovery and kernel. We need it packed together. Any more questions or if you still don't understand let me know

happy flashing. Also if you don't have it get calkulin's format all.zip over at xda. It formats your data system cache and dalvik in one shot. It leaves both internal and external SD cards alone though.
sent from my BAD A$$ Epic touch