[Marxism] Recommended: "Troubled soldiers turn to chaplains for help"

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clintonf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx recommends this article from The Christian Science 
Monitor



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Headline:  Troubled soldiers turn to chaplains for help
Byline:  Patrik Jonsson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Date: 03/08/2006

(FORT GORDON, GA.)Army Spc. Travis Dulaney, who served in combat in Iraq, is 
wound as
tight as a trip wire.

Visibly pained, the Mississippi native says he is unable to tell his
family what happened to him - and what he did - in his year of
fighting. Those memories, he says, are his wagon to pull. So far, the
weight has been too great. That is partly why Specialist Dulaney has
been assigned to the Eisenhower Army Medical Center's Delta Company
here at Fort Gordon until he is fit to return to duty.

Walking with him on his journey back from the battlefront of Iraq are
the chaplains, a corps of officers who quietly watch over US Army
troops from the front lines to the barracks back home. For Dulaney and
perhaps thousands of American troops returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan, chaplains are a source of strength in days of
vulnerability.

"[The chaplains] can tell when the time bomb is ticking inside - and
they know how to defuse it," says Dulaney, who fought with the 155th
Brigade Combat Team. "They help you understand what has happened."

Soldiers say chaplains are trustworthy confidants who help them grapple
with dark moral dilemmas in war's aftermath. Now the Army's 1,400
chaplains are carving out an expanded role, working to keep soldiers
mentally healthy and military families together amid the extraordinary
strains of war. The top brass is aiming to recruit nearly 600 more
chaplains to serve in the next five years. Like soldiers, they are
assigned units and deploy with them. In battle zones, chaplains are on
the scene to counsel soldiers when they return from patrol.

"[Commanders] just see the soldier and maybe the family, but chaplains
have this ability to take a more holistic approach to the organization
and the soldier," says Morton Ender, a sociologist at the US Military
Academy at West Point in New York. "Chaplains have the big picture."

As the Army increasingly relies on redeploying the same troops, the
effect on soldiers is giving cause for alarm. About 92 percent of all
veterans who served in Iraq have encountered small-arms fire, according
to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Many have been in situations
where, as Dulaney says, they've seen and done things that "nobody
should have to see or do."

Their relationships with friends and family are suffering as a result,
according to the Army. Divorce rates are high among war veterans. Base
towns, too, are reporting an increase in bar fights. The "thousand-yard
stare," once seen among many Vietnam vets, has resurfaced.

Through the chaplaincy, the military is trying to do more to help
soldiers shore up their relationships and improve their health so they
can return to the battle front. The Bush administration this year
allotted $7 million toward Strong Bonds, a new chaplaincy program. The
added investment is a "huge deal," says Chaplain Ran Dolinger, noting
that the Army's total annual budget for the chaplaincy is about $14
million.

Strong Bonds aims to teach military couples how to communicate without
fighting. Chaplains can send feuding couples on retreats to reconnect
at places like Myrtle Beach, S.C. On Fort Bragg, N.C., Chaplain Bradley
West teaches a class he calls "How (Not) to Marry a Jerk" to single
soldiers to help them make good decisions about potential partners.

Already, new chaplaincy programs have been effective, playing at least
a small role in cutting in half the divorce rate among Army officers
between 2004 and 2005, Army officials say.

Moreover, the Army is giving chaplains increasing flexibility to use
funds to send soldiers who are coping with the loss of comrades to
Washington for war memorial tours for example, as members of Fort
Gordon's Delta Company recently did.

"We bring to the table ... a spiritual aspect to the healing process,"
says Chaplain Klon Kitchen of Fort Jackson, S.C.

Spc. John Shelton returned from Iraq with a front tooth missing and a
blown-out knee from a road-side bomb. He admits his tour of duty and
his injury put stress on his marriage. Now, a chaplain spends time on
the phone with Shelton and his wife, dealing with "marital stuff."

"It's a two-sided story when you come back like this," says Shelton.
"Your family views you differently and the Army views you differently.
That's one reason why I use the chaplains a lot."

Others in the military also say chaplains are needed now. Evangelical
pastors, in particular, are on the rise, while the number of Roman
Catholic chaplains has dropped to fewer than 100, according to the
Army. (Most chaplains are Christian, but there are about 30 Jewish
clergy and 15 Muslim clergy.)

But stiff requirements keep many away: Candidates are required to have
a master's degree in theology and two years of experience in a civilian
church. They also must pass the Army fitness test, which includes doing
40 pushups and running two miles in 16 minutes, 36 seconds. First-year
chaplains earn an annual salary of $45,969.67.

Once on the job, chaplains help soldiers cope with their actions in
battle, guided by the "just cause" theory that violence, even killing,
can be the morally responsible thing to do in wartime.

As counselors to soldiers, they, themselves also confront post-battle
stress. Fort Gordon Chaplain Steve Munson fights back tears as he talks
about visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Va., with
a group of Iraq war vets. For weeks after returning to the US from duty
in Balad, Iraq - a town troops call "Mortarsville" - Chaplain Dolinger
experienced "overpass effect," or the subconscious habit of gazing up
at bridges in search of grenade-droppers or snipers.

While counseling the first wave of troops returning from Iraq in the
fall of 2003, Chaplain West says he had to work hard "not to lose hope."

Meanwhile, critics say that many troops, hesitate to take part in
programs such as Strong Bonds, whether it's for faith reasons or out of
fear of reprisal from officers that single out soldiers who show what
they perceive as weakness.

"Most guys in Vietnam never saw a chaplain, and I think that may still
be true today," says Larry Tritle, a Vietnam war veteran and a military
affairs professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "The
reason was that chaplains were seen as part of the establishment."

But at Fort Gordon, chaplains minister to members of Delta Company.
There, active-duty soldiers on "medical hold" from the war are assigned
one mission: Get well enough to return to the Army and their families.

Of Delta Company's Dulaney and Shelton, Chaplain Munson says: "They are
amazing guys, and if you saw them when they came in, you might not
believe how far they've come."





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