ON THE HOME FRONT
Chaplains face challenges, staying or going
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
Kelly Wagner's husband is on his way to Iraq, and the mother of three now finds herself scoping out Baptist chapel services and lining her three children up for special Army group sessions to help them cope with the yearlong separation.
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Wagner will be leaning on her chaplain. "It helps just knowing there's someone there," she said.
Bryan Simoneaux, Aviation Brigade chaplain at the Family Life Center at Wheeler Army Airfield, talks with Susan Davis, whose husband is brigade commander. Simoneaux, who will deploy to Afghanistan in a few months, said leaving this time will be harder than when he went to Korea.
Being the "someone there" is no easy task.
Twenty Hawai'i based Army chaplains have been deployed overseas with the 25th Infantry Division (Light) to Iraq and the upcoming rotation into Afghanistan. Their duties take on new dimensions, ministering to the 8,500 soldiers as they carry out the mission they're trained to do in those war-torn countries. But 17 Army chaplains are staying behind, and their jobs also just got harder.
Those in garrison will try to keep the home fires burning, but are faced with the prospect of doing more with less — keeping up worship services at the six chapels on the Army's installations, adding support programs for families in need, and coping with spouses who may be hearing no news, or worse, bad news.
The biggest problem for those left behind is loneliness, said Schofield Barracks chaplain Col. James Griffith. "It's the tiger in the room," he said. "If they can deal with it, they'll make it. If they don't, the tiger will get them."
Michele Adams-Thompson, whose husband oversees 24 other chaplains, has been there before and she'll be there again in a few months. She knows all about loneliness.
"Minutes seem just years long," the mother of five said. "It's a craving and there's no way to fix it."
Since Adams-Thompson also shares her husband's Presbyterian ministry, she hopes to make the time go faster and loneliness fade by helping out the families of other chaplains who may be coping with their first deployment.
That esprit de corps will be out on the battlefield, but also makes an appearance at home. Ranks swell in worship services and more people become willing to help one another out in times of need, said chaplains, who add they'll harness that energy as they try to do more with less.
Wagner and her friend, Kelly Sutterfield, want to be among the helpers.
"It makes me feel good, when I can help other people," said Sutterfield, who joined her friend and about 20 others at Wheeler Chapel last week to hear a talk about stress management for families.
When the speaker warned the men in the room that they'd be surrogate fathers for the neighborhood, Chaplain Bryan Simoneaux absently nodded in agreement.
He's been there. While he'll be deploying to Afghanistan in a few months, the Baptist minister knows all about going and staying back.
For some reason he's unable to pinpoint, this will be harder than the time he went to Korea many years ago, leaving his wife and young children behind. The kids may be grown now, but this time, with separation, the packing, the loading ...
"Monumental," Simoneaux said. "Maybe I like routine more now."
Routines will change, all right.
Griffith expects a slight increase in chapel attendance, but with the 8,500 departing soldiers, some realignment may occur. He may consolidate a few of the more sparsely attended Protestant services.
On base, a full slate of worship services have been offered — and will continue to be offered —Êfor people of myriad faiths and denominations: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Islamic, even Wiccan.
Besides the adjustments back home, there will also be adjustments for the deployed.
There's usually one chaplain for every 500 to 700 soldiers while on base, but that ratio doesn't always hold during deployment. During a deployment, it's not always feasible for every denomination to be represented when it comes time for a worship service.
It will be up to Lt. Col. Larry Adams-Thompson, the division chaplain, to see if he can get all the needs of deployed soldiers ministered to. He'll offer his Protestant services, but also try to procure other chaplains when, say, a Roman Catholic soldier wants to attend Mass.
Lt. Col. Adams-Thompson has helped prepare other chaplains, now in Iraq or headed for Afghanistan, for their duties while out in the field. He's also readying himself. He expects to counsel soldiers who are facing crises of faith.
"It's a unique role people outside the military don't understand, that young soldiers are figuring out who they are," he said. "As we prepare for combat, they're asking themselves those life questions."
It may be the first time some have thought about faith.
Lt. Col. Adams-Thompson understands that. It was in a foxhole in Vietnam that he pledged his life to God: He and his platoon were under friendly artillery fire.
"I promised God, 'If you're real, stop the artillery fire right now.' Not even a nanosecond passed and the artillery stopped," he said.
"That got my attention."
Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.
