Military chaplains …

A JANUARY 11 "Century marks" item quotes war correspondent Chris Hedges as saying, "This [disillusioniment about the U.S.] is why so many combat veterans hate military shrinks and chaplains, whose task it is to largely patch them up with the old cliches and ship them back to the battlefield."

Hedges's comment is simply uninformed drivel. I spent a year in Iraq. I have been home for a year and I am about to deploy for another year. I am the chaplain for a combat arms unit. It is my call and mission to reflect and incarnate God's love and light in loveless and dark places. I can objectively state that the soldiers I serve love me. I have shared their pain and hardship, even at the risk of my own life as a noncombatant, on more than one occasion. I have prayed with them and for them and held their hands while the doctors and nurses attempt to save their limbs and lives. I help them to be gentle and loving fathers and husbands--to be heroes in their homes as well as on the battlefield. I have conducted thousands of hours of marriage counseling. I also speak the truth in love to and within the military culture, announcing that "the emperor has no clothes" when that prophetic voice is needed.

Yes, a good portion of the time it is my practice to assist a soldier in staying with his or her unit, just shipping folks home often leads to post-traumatic stress disorder and a sense of shame down the road for having abandoned their comrades, especially if one of those comrades dies. Shipping soldiers home prematurely only isolates them and leads to the very same "corrosive feelings of self-loathing and regret" that Hedges accuses us of fostering. Ironically, restoring a soldier to his or her unit usually is the best form of therapy available.

Chaplain Glenn Palmer

Fort Riley, Kan.

COPYRIGHT 2005 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning