speak comfort to him or pray with him. The chaplain can also assist some of the medical procedures by getting things from the tray or holding something for the medics but mainly they keep focused on the patient.
My soldier had a seriously broken arm, a collapsed lung, and was covered in blood from the many pieces of shrapnel he’d taken. He was conscious, so I continued to engage him in conversation, including prayer, while the medics worked on him. He said he’d been hit twice. He was in his room when he was hit first. Bleeding, he went outside to get help when another round and hit him again.
We as chaplains have to maintain the peace of God in our own lives so that peace flows over to the ones we minster to so they’re not as anxious. I felt that very strongly and that’s what I was doing. There were about five or six times during that year where I was actively engaged in ministering to dramatically injured soldiers and in each case, I was the calming effect, not only to soldiers injured, but also the young soldiers who were the medics that were traumatized by all the ordeal. Some of these medics running the clinics were only eighteen to twenty years old. They’d been in college and were in a Reserve unit when their unit was called up. The aftercare was taking care of those folks. It was deeply rewarding ministering to them and helping keep them focused on the value that they give the good they do in ministering to the broken bodies of soldiers.
Lord, cultivate in me a spirit which seeks to encourage others as they strive to serve you with their gifts.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
June 22
SERGEANT DIMA
With the ambulance gone, the majority of the medical team went straight to work cleaning the clinic there was a lot of blood and getting it ready to receive more casualties if and when another incident occurred. They must be ready twenty-four hours a day. What heroes they are.
The other few set about to process the remains of the one soldier killed. I assisted them. The soldier was Sergeant Dima, a Romanian who came to the U.S. a few years ago. He hailed from New Jersey and joined the Army Reserves after 9/11 a member of 411th Construction Management Section of the 420th Engineer Brigade. He became a citizen on October 3, 2004; was promoted to sergeant on the morning of November 13 and gave his life for his new country on the evening November 13.
Every soldier has a story; Sgt. Dima has become part of mine. There is something spiritual about kneeling and laying hands on the broken, bloody body of a soldier, praying for his soul and the three young children he was leaving in the care of his now single wife. It is somber and sobering to see the deep respect the medics have as they treat the remains of a fallen comrade. After we finished the preparation, I was honored to pull back the curtain and call the clinic to attention as the medics moved Sgt. Dima to a holding area, awaiting initial transportation to start his way back home. Every person was silent, prayerful, respectful. It takes people with some kind of moxie to do their job as medics, day in and day out, mostly taking care of our little aches and pains, but always ready for the worst. And when the worst comes, so does their best. I thank God that this is the ministry he placed in my hand. We gathered everyone in the clinic together, and I asked one of my Air Force chaplains to offer a prayer for these servants of health. It was well appreciated.
Lord, thank you for your promise that our labor is not in vain; help me trust you for the results.
“Therefore my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
June 23
BLUE FINGERS
The significance of January 30, 2005, is summed up in inked-stained forefingers. This was the day Iraqis voted for themselves.
“The Iraqis who came out to vote did so to say thank you to the coalition,” said our cultural advisor, Kadeem an Iraqi ex-patriot from St. Louis who fled Saddam’s revenge after Desert Storm. It was somehow a validating event for all the work, pain, and suffering of the soldiers here, and their families back home. Kadeem called his three brothers and asked them who they voted for; all three voted for someone different. And he said, “Never before has anything like this happened in Iraq, where people can determine their own future.”
Yet such a thing comes at a cost one that I will never forget, but will always honor. From February 1, 2004 to January 31, 2005 (the time I was in Iraq), we’ve suffered more than seven thousand wounded, almost seven hundred killed by enemy action and another nearly one hundred fifty who died from non-enemy causes and those are just the U.S. military figures. There were many more when you include our coalition partners, civilian contractors, the friendly Iraqi security forces, and the many innocent Iraqi civilians.
“I don’t understand why your soldiers die for my people,” an Iraqi National Guard soldier told one of my chaplains. I hope Sunday’s actions by the Iraqis begin to tell the reason why. With blue fingers as badges of courage, a tidal wave of Freedom began that desperate terrorists could not stop as more than nine million free citizens voted.
Is this the dawning of a new age in human history? I don’t know the answer to that. But it is a new age in the lives of Iraqis, and many other nations are looking to see what it means to them. For us as democratic freedom lovers, it gives hope that the incessant evil of terror is waning. The struggle against such evil as terror brings isn’t over the Devil doesn’t give up easily. So we must persist and continue to pursue the objective of eliminating the demon of terror.
Lord, renew my hope in you above all else.
“Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” (Job 13:15a)
June 24
WHAT CAN WE DO?
It wasn’t part of their official mission in Afghanistan, but it was the most rewarding Col. John Gessner and his Base Engineer Team sponsored an orphanage in nearby Charikar. This humanitarian project was going on when they weren’t reconstructing the Bagram Air Base in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Orphans are part of the terrible cost of warfare, and in Afghanistan, this is particularly pronounced. There are more than thirty thousand orphans in the Kabul area alone.
