These chaplains were at the Pentagon that morning for various meetings. After the evacuation, they gathered at the casualty collections points to minister to those in need. Unlike local pastors who also arrived, these military chaplains had clearance to the Pentagon, which enabled them to help find survivors.
With all three chiefs of chaplains out of town, retired chaplain, Major General Baldwin and two other deputy chief of chaplains (Army and Navy) developed a plan. “We realized we needed to organize this pastoral care moment, because this was not going to be short term. So we claimed some tent space and then sent many chaplains as far as they could go into the building to look for survivors. Then we developed a plan to organize the chaplains on site as the wounded came out,” Baldwin explained.
Many of these chaplains were senior officers with administrative responsibilities and no longer involved in day-to-day chaplain duties, but they all returned to their roots.
“We all became the chaplains who were present to help the injured. We went to the casualty collection points and just did, what any chaplain would do, what any pastor would do,” Baldwin explained. “I stepped in and out of the role of organizing the chaplain ministries and just being one.”
One gentleman came up to Baldwin, pointing to the gaping hole and said, “My wife’s in that room right there. I need to get in there.”
Baldwin talked to him throughout the day, encouraging him not to give up hope. It was possible she could have been away from her office. The good news didn’t come, but Baldwin knew from experience that a chaplain’s job was to not to give a magic answer but to be a hopeful presence during this trial. The ministry of the site was profound. Some might wonder if those chaplains wanted to be there. “Why wouldn’t you want to be there? If you’re a military chaplain, that is where you belong,” stated Baldwin. “That is exactly the purpose for which you were trained to be present with people during difficult times, not to have the magic answers, but to be present.”
The presence of six times the normal number of chaplains at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, was truly an amazing preparation for the immediate aftermath. For many hurting people that day, chaplains were God’s instruments of hope and peace.
You are a great God. Thank you for putting an extra number of chaplains on site at the Pentagon that day.
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3)
January 4
THE DAY RANK DISAPPEARED
Rank disappeared on September 11, 2001. Everyone wanted to do whatever they could to help. About four o’clock in the afternoon, the fire chief in charge of the recovery process made an announcement at Ground Zero.
“We need volunteers to put on masks and gloves and be willing to do a sweep through the Pentagon. Any volunteers?” he asked.
“People ran to get a place in line,” recalled retired Major General Baldwin, Air Force deputy chief of chaplains.
“So here we were in line. Next to me was a two-star general, and I was a one-star general. We’re standing in our blues. We stepped forward, put on gloves, put on the masks. They gave us the instructions to stay together in rows, and we were going to sweep through the building and walk through the clouds of fire, dust and all that. And just before he said, ‘Okay, this line step forward,’ a brigade from Arlington Cemetery pulled up in buses.”
Because this brigade was trained and ready to do a sweep, the fire chief released the volunteers.
“I looked around and saw the field full of people who were willing to step into the fiery furnace to see if somebody else could be pulled out. So we stepped away and went back to the areas where we could be helpful, be the pastors present.”
Two experiences prepared Baldwin to lead chaplains on that unforgettable day. He was a rescue helicopter pilot in Vietnam, where he witnessed death, carnage, and many other terrible things. Years later as a lieutenant colonel in Desert Storm, he was in charge of chapel services at the base in Saudi Arabia. “We preached every Sunday in the war zone and saw people die. Body bags were brought back to our base to process before sending them back home,” he explained.
He learned his role was to be a calm, encouraging presence in the midst of the tragedy. “You don’t have to be a military chaplain to have the theology of hope that says ‘God is present in the midst of terrible things.’ Military chaplains have the type of experience that says, ‘God is present on the battlefield, not to help people kill people but to help them through the tragedies and consequences of sin. They don’t bless the bombs, they just pray that God would be present with those who are the instruments, even we would say the instruments of peace. It’s an amazing thing.”
Thank you God for your promise to be present with me no matter what.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
January 5
WHERE WAS GOD ON 9/11?
“Where was God on the morning of September 11,” a CNN reporter asked Chaplain Charlie Baldwin in an on- camera interview in his office not long after the terrorist attacks.
“It wasn’t something I had to make up. It was obvious to me that he was present in the midst of the terror. He revealed himself through the angels of mercy who were present,” Baldwin recalled.
Baldwin saw many moments of mercy at the Pentagon that day. “One second lieutenant, a young lady, came running over to me, asking, ‘Chaplain, what can I do to help?’”
“Go to that tent and just wipe their brows, and you will be helping.”
She went to one of the collection tents where victims were being brought. There she set up cots, and did whatever needed to be done.
Right beside her was a two-star general doing the same thing. “I want to help. What else can I do?” Knowing the man was a Christian, Baldwin added, “Tell them not to be afraid. Tell them God is here. He will take care of them.”
Baldwin mentioned that chaplains offer the same message to troops on the ground, “so they can be assured that God is with them; that they might know that they are not alone.”
“These people weren’t the preachers,” Baldwin decreed. “They were just people who cared. They were God’s hands, his instruments of love and comfort, saying ‘God is with you, and he will be with you through this whole thing.’”
Baldwin was asked several times by reporters, “Where was God on 9-1-1?”
“The answer was, ‘He was present.’”
“He worked through that second lieutenant, brand new to the Air Force. She probably didn’t think she would experience something like this so early in her military career. But she just jumped into the middle of it all, carrying
