"Thunderbolts"
So9
Posted on 04/20/2003 11:48:12 AM PDT by Servant of the Nine
Baghdad, Iraq The 500 soldiers in the Army's 2-70th Battalion have broken through Iraqi strongholds a dozen times with their tanks and other armored assault vehicles. It's not a unit for the faint of heart.
When the battles are over, officers regularly tell their soldiers they can turn to the battalion's chaplain for counseling to deal with what they have seen on the battlefield or what they have done.
But what happens when it's the chaplain who says he can't deal with the horrors of war and quits the battlefield?
Word of the chaplain's abrupt departure this week hit the battalion hard.
Plans for an Easter Sunday service have been canceled. The chaplain, Capt. Glenn Palmer, faces disciplinary action, but that's the last thing on anyone's mind. He sits at the Baghdad airport, hoping to catch the next military flight back to Fort Riley, Kan., where the unit is based.
"Look, being a chaplain is not an easy job," said Lt. Col. Jeff Ingram, the battalion's senior officer and a veteran of U.S. interventions in Kosovo and Bosnia.
"We have very young soldiers seeing ugly things they shouldn't be seeing," he said. "These young guys .‘.‘. need someone with a deep religious background to listen to them, because soldiers are dying. I am sorry they don't have it anymore."
Ingram said he is trying to understand exactly why the chaplain decided to leave.
A spokeswoman for Fort Riley said Col. Daniel Paul, the base's command chaplain, said Palmer had e-mailed him Thursday saying he had been transferred temporarily to the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, but would be going back to the 2-70th Battalion "in a few days." But the spokeswoman said Palmer was "not coming back here (to the fort)."
In his 19 years of service, Ingram said he has never heard of this happening. Nor have any of the senior noncommissioned officers, many of whom have more than 20 years of service in U.S. military conflicts.
"No one wants to be here," said Sgt. Maj. Vias Williams, a veteran of Desert Storm, Desert Shield and Bosnia over the last 27 years. "I can understand the man wants to go home. Apparently, war is a little too much for him, and he doesn't want to see this every day."
Dr. Leonard Grado, the unit's physician and a major, said he and Palmer are here to help soldiers. "I can't sugarcoat it," Grado, 46, of Fort Leavenworth, Kan., explained. "Both of us have professional oaths to uphold. I am here to address the soldiers' physical needs, and the chaplain is here to address the spiritual needs. Both of those needs are very important."
Among the enlisted personnel, the concern has turned to 50 soldiers undergoing counseling. Others are simply confused that the man who was a constant source of encouragement has quit.
Pvt. Kurt Singer, 20, of Richardton, N.D., saw a soldier die in the back seat of his Humvee as they sped away from Iraqi machine-gun fire. Singer said the chaplain helped him cope with feelings of confusion, anger and depression after the attack.
"I was really feeling messed up," said Singer. "I had to have someone to tell, because I wasn't prepared. The chaplain talked me through it, and I will always be grateful."
Others noted the difficulties wartime chaplains face.
"You see some really ugly things out here," said Staff Sgt. Juan Cruz, of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. " .‘.‘. Think about it -- it's pretty serious when the man who is supposed to help us can't deal with it himself."
Senior officials here say chaplains receive extensive training to help them prepare for battlefield conditions, and it will be difficult to find another one while the battalion is in Iraq.
"It hit us as a total surprise," said the battalion's Maj. Eric Wick. "It couldn't have happened at a worse time."
Sgt. Thomas Abney of Poplar Bluff, Mo., the chaplain's assistant, was the last one to speak to Palmer. Abney had been at the side of the shaken Lutheran minister as he gave last rites to a soldier killed as the tank unit pushed toward Baghdad.
When they arrived at a field medical hospital, Abney recalled, medics unzipped a black vinyl body bag of the 20-year-old. Palmer kneeled down, and prayed over the body.
"It was an emotional moment for him," Abney said. "The chaplain is basically a good man with a good heart.
"Before he left, (the chaplain) told me he was sorry."
So9
This pretty much says it all - he took an oath when he accepted his commission, and he willfully broke that oath, leaving the soldiers in his charge to fend for themselves.
May his judge in this world grant him justice, and his Judge in the next world grant him mercy.
Get someone tougher in there, fast! The troops need their chaplain.
Infantry? Armor? Nothing personal, but --as a vet of the mech side of the Army -- the media's inability to get unit names right is driving me nuts.
So9
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant [exceptin' Alice]
True, but I have to give him credit for admitting he couldn't hack it as opposed to sticking it out and not doing the job well or with the right attitude. We have several chaplain friends, including the Army chief chaplain for the Pacific Rim. It's not an easy job and takes a certain personality, a lot of faith, and tremendous abilities in counseling, empathy, etc.
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