A Life-Saving Latte
Excerpt from: Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq & Afghanistan
Chaplain, Maj. Gen. (Ret.), Charles C. Baldwin, former Chief of Chaplains, US Air Force
“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Exodus 9:16
“We’ve been bombed,” a guard hollered into the cafeteria where retired Major General Charles Baldwin, a longtime leader of chaplains, was sitting drinking a latte.
The announcement didn’t make sense to Baldwin. He hadn’t heard an explosion, and after more than thirty years in the Air Force, Baldwin knew what a bomb sounded like.
Although he was a General and a senior administrative leader, going to the Pentagon was a normal part of Baldwin’s daily routine. Stationed at nearby Bolling Air Force Base, he came to the Pentagon that morning to attend his first senior staff meeting as the new deputy chief of chaplains for the Air Force. He soon realized that nothing about September 11, 2001 would be routine.
“The meeting started at nine o’clock,” Baldwin said. Led by the Secretary of the Air Force, the meeting took place in the basement of building eight.
“We were about twenty minutes into the daily briefing, when someone interrupted. We turned our attention to the television and watched the second plane fly into the World Trade Center Tower,” Baldwin recalled. Shocked, “we immediately adjourned.”
“I had a ten o’clock meeting on the other side of the Pentagon, but stopped to get a latte in the cafeteria,” Baldwin said.
“Shortly after I got my latte, a guard ordered an evacuation.” We immediately exited the building, ” Baldwin said. “That’s when we saw the huge fireball on the other side of the Pentagon.”
Baldwin the realized that his ten o’clock meeting was located at the site of the black billowing smoke. Had he proceeded to his meeting earlier and not stopped to get a latte, he would have been in the wedge when it was hit.
The Pentagon had turned from an office building into the burning aftermath of a battlefield. Having served as a chaplain in Desert Storm a decade earlier and as a rescue pilot in Vietnam, Baldwin knew what to do.
“I went to the Sheraton hotel across from the Pentagon where they were bringing in the wounded. At that point I turned into a chaplain and went from couch to couch.” Baldwin spoke works of comfort to the patients triaged in the hotel before going to local hospitals. After about an hour, Baldwin decided to return to Ground Zero at the Pentagon. But it wasn’t smoke or shock that drew him there. He wanted to be with the people that were hurting the most. His life’s purpose led him in that moment to step in and simple be ready to face the tragedy head on.
Prayer: Almighty God, you have given me life purpose and meaning. May I embrace the service you desire for me.
Used by permission of AMG Publishers. All Rights Reserved.
Service Members Overwhelm Diminishing Chaplain Corps
Part 2
As the therapeutic profession grows and budget cuts provide fewer chaplains, the chaplain’s counseling schedule soars. From 2007 to 2009, combat-stress counseling cases jumped 350 percent. Overall, chaplains’ counseling sessions have increased 37 percent across all service branches from 2007 to 2009. The DoD Task Force on Mental Health in 2007 found that service members are much more likely to see a chaplain than a mental health worker. Yet, the Department of Defense continues to call for more mental health services and cuts chaplain positions. Col. Harry Mathis reported that in 2008, Air Force Chaplains were averaging about 10,000 counseling sessions per month, significantly more than the other helping professions that offer counseling services.
In the no-prayer environment in the U.S. military, where 98% of those claiming a religious affiliation self-profess Christianity, we would do well to look to the eternal truths known to all mighty men of valor. The Psalmist David, who was certainly well versed in the principles of military warfare, wrote that one generation must tell the next to set their hope in God, and do not forget his works.[1]
The founding principles of the military have been all but abandoned, and the thousands of World War II soldiers, who declared prayer to be a primary source of moral support, are forgotten. Five-star General George C. Marshall was one of America’s foremost soldiers during World War II. He served as Army Chief of Staff from 1939 to 1945, and built and directed the largest army in history. General Marshall said,
…I look upon the spiritual life of the soldier as even more important than his physical equipment…the soldier’s heart, the soldier’s spirit, the soldier’s soul are everything. Unless the soldier’s soul sustains him, he cannot be relied upon and will fail himself and his commander and his country in the end. It’s morale, and I mean morale, which wins the victory in the ultimate, and that type of morale can only come out of the religious fervor in his soul. I count heavily on that type of man and that kind of Army.[2]
Air Force spokesmen openly state that the elimination of chaplains is purely a financial decision. Only the simplest thinking could hide the fact that millions of tax dollars are still available—but now instead of chaplains, they are allocated for mental health treatments, which define the soldier only in terms of mind and body. For 230 years, the first principles of our military provided for a soldier’s soul and spirit, and the assaults of war which have been healed through leader-led prayer[3] and belief that “I will trust in my God and the United States of America,” are now defined as a mental “disorder” which is often treated with antidepressants.
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As a member of the Armed Forces, what does having an available Chaplain mean to you? Post a comment and share your opinion.
[1] Psalm 78:6-8
[2] Joint Pub 1-05. Religious Ministry Support for Joint Operations. Joint Chiefs of Staff. 26 August 1996, p. II-3.
[3]“The Studies in Social Psychology in World War II Series,” produced by the Social Science Research Council, was one of the largest social science research projects in history. Volume II, The American Soldier, Combat and Its Aftermath, Princeton University Press, (1949), reported data on the importance of prayer to officers and enlisted infantrymen. Prayer was selected most frequently as the soldier’s source of combat motivation.
Where Did All the Chaplains Go?
Part 1
The Chaplain Corps’ budget is experiencing severe cut backs as the psychiatrists and psychologists replace chaplains in the US military. Total chaplain authorizations in 2012 were projected to be 2,846 among active, reserve, and guard personnel. Total military personnel at end of fiscal year 2011 was 2,256,600 making the ratios of active duty personnel to chaplains according to 2010 chaplain positions[1]:
|
Service Branch |
Number of Chaplains |
Ratio Troops to Chaplains |
|
Army |
1,640 |
350:1 |
|
Navy |
828 |
700:1 |
|
Air Force |
544 |
785:1 |
This marks a significant move by the Department of Defense from chaplain services to “mental health” counseling. An August 2010 Department of Defense 233-page report on suicide prevention in the Armed Forces offered as a solution a singular focus on mental health services. Under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010, all services must increase mental health services positions by 25%.
Chaplains “contribute greatly to the Air Force mission and to joint operations,” Col. Joan Garbutt, Military Force Management Policy Division chief, said in a written statement to Stars and Stripes. But with high retention, the chaplain corps has grown too big, she said, adding, “We are merely trying to move the chaplain corps toward the right size for the Air Force.” The Air Force scheduled 79 chaplain positions for elimination in 2011 and 2012. There are no current statistics available for chaplain positions.
The Air Force, with 724 currently funded mental health positions, announced the new positions will be filled with psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and psychiatric nurses. In addition, the House amended next year’s National Defense Authorization Act to increase spending for mental health care by $10 million dollars. Rep. Leonard Boswell made the plea for additional spending beside a life sized image of the Time Magazine cover dated July 23, 2012, depicting the “suicide crisis” in the military to make his appeal. The co-sponsor of the amendment, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., called for “development and retention of top-tier psychological health talent for our military at this time.”
Under the guidance of the therapeutic professions, the only balm for war-wearied souls is found in their repertoire of psychotropic drugs and cognitive behavioral therapy.
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Are you a chaplain? How has this cut back affected you and what can we do to help? Post a comment and let us know.
Airman Facing Punishment for Religious Beliefs
By Todd Starnes // FOX News //
Army Chaplain Crest:
For God and Country
An Army chaplain’s assistant said she was accused of creating a “hostile and antagonistic” environment after she posted a message on her personal Facebook page calling homosexuality a sin.
The soldier, who asked not to be identified, said her commander ordered her to either remove the Facebook message or face a reduction in rank and pay.
“I haven’t taken it down and I won’t take it down,” she told Fox News. “It is frustrating that people are trying to silence me – for something that I believe in. We fight for the freedom that I can’t enjoy right now. That’s not right.”
The soldier, who is an evangelical Christian, said she returned home from church on Sunday and was watching a documentary about a minister who endorsed homosexuality.
“I was frustrated with what I saw so I posted a Facebook message about it,” she said.
Her Facebook message read:
“A lot ticked off, now to all my gay friends you know I care about you so don’t think otherwise. I’m watching this documentary and this gay guy went to a church and the Pastor was telling him that he needs to embrace his way and know that it is not a sin. Ok umm wow, dude it is. I’m sick of people making Gods word what it’s not. Yes God loves you as a person but He hates the sin. Tired of hearing about Pastors being ok with homosexuality.”
The 26-year-old chaplain’s assistant said she believes individuals within her unit reported her. On Monday she was ordered to the commander’s office.
“He said I was creating hostile and antagonistic environment in the unit by posting that on Facebook,” she told Fox News. “He said I needed to either take it down or face a UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice).”
The chaplain’s assistant said she’s served honorably in the Army for six years – including a stint in Afghanistan. Her husband serves in the National Guard and the couple has a six-month old daughter.
“I have a good record,” she said. “I’ve never gotten in trouble for anything. And there’s nothing hostile or antagonistic in the post.”
She said there is no way she will remove the objectionable posting.
“For me to do that would be to say they won,” she said. “Where does it stop? If they are going to silence me on Facebook, where will it stop?”
So she reached out to Todd Hudnall, her pastor at Radiant Church in Colorado Springs.
“I read what she posted and there was absolutely no trace of animus, disrespect or hostility,” Hudnall told Fox News. “Instead, she expressed love for her gay friends but insisted that biblical values should not be compromised. Her issue wasn’t with anyone who is gay but with pastors who refuse to acknowledge scriptural teaching about homosexual behavior.”
The pastor said she was reprimanded for “holding to orthodox biblical instruction.”
“I was struck by the fact that the military was denying her right to privately exercise her freedom of expression and freedom of religion,” Hudnall said.
The pastor said it’s not the first time he’s heard of Christian soldiers facing threats and intimidation over their personal beliefs.
“It sounds more like totalitarianism than keeping with our heritage of liberty,” he said. “I’m becoming quite concerned that we are losing the freedom of speech and religion in the name of tolerance and over shifting norms of morality and behavior.”
Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, shares Hudnall’s concerns.
“Just because a person wears a uniform does not mean they give up their religious liberties and their ability to speak about matters of faith,” Crews told Fox News.
Crews said the Chaplain Alliance has been in contact with the assistant and said they play on being fully supportive.
But Pastor Hudnall worries about other military men and women who are facing threats for not “lining up with the current accepted ideology.”
“I’m also hearing that many are deciding to back down rather than stand up for their constitutional rights,” Hudnall told Fox News. “A few have told me they are actually thinking about getting out of the military because of it.”
The chaplain’s assistant vowed to stand her ground and, if necessary, go to court.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “God said we would be persecuted for our faith and I think now is the time.”
Young Marines win fight to keep “God” in prayer
JULY 5TH, 2013 | MILITARY TIMES BATTLE RATTLE | POSTED BY HOPE HODGE
Young Marines program in Louisiana is getting attention after refusing to back down over a prayer.
The Shreveport Times of Shreveport, La., reports that the Bossier, La., Young Marines program lost at least $15,000 worth of federal funding because of a voluntary prayer program cadets can recite.
Fifteen cadets graduate from the Bossier sheriff’s office Young Marines program Photo by Kristi Johnston/The Shreveport Times
The decade-long institution of praying during program meetings has never been questioned or criticized, staff said, but a random audit of the program called its federal funding into question.
According to reports, the Department of Justice requested that the word “God” be removed from the prayer in order to maintain the subsidy, though the DOJ said in a statement that the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement was the entity that decided the program was not in compliance.
Despite the financial hit, Bossier sheriff Julian Whittington has said he won’t have the prayer removed or altered.
“We’ve never had one complaint from anybody for anything,” Whittington told the Shreveport Times. ““I said, ‘Keep it. We’re not doing it. Game over.”
The move has led to an outpouring of donations from locals to keep the program going and messages of support from all around the state. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and country music star Lee Greenwood paid a July 4 visit to Bossier for an “In God We Trust” rally to celebrate the Young Marines’ decision to keep God in their prayer.
“The First Amendment guarantees us freedom of religion, not freedom from religion,” Jindal reportedly said. “It was written to protect people of faith from government officials, and we are going to hold on to that freedom.”
Jindal said if the decision regarding the program’s funding wasn’t overturned, he would personally donate money to help keep it going.