One of the U.S. Army’s newest chaplains in Europe is trying to build a congregation and a sense of community for a faith that has relatively few numbers compared to other religions.

Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Avi Weiss said although his first priority as a Jewish chaplain based in Heidelberg, Germany, is as a deputy commander in Installation Management Command-Europe’s chaplain corps, he also plans to reach as many Jewish soldiers and Jewish Department of Defense civilians as possible.

“I want to be a resource to people,” Weiss said. “People can call me about questions or if there are issues about observances.”

IMCOM-Europe officials said that Weiss may be the first Jewish chaplain at his level in Europe in at least 10 years.

He arrived here in March, but deployed to Afghanistan for about three weeks in April.

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Col. John Mosher, director of operations for the Maine Army National Guard, compares thoughts of suicide to a looming mountain.

“When you get to the top of that mountain, you get a new view on life,” he said. “But when you’re at the bottom, it looks insurmountable.”

To highlight suicide awareness among military members, Mosher is planning to literally climb a mountain. The 20-year guardsman will participate in the annual Mount Washington Road Race in New Hampshire beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday.

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As the Army’s role in Iraq is changing, the importance of peaceful communication and liaison with the Iraqi people is paramount. But as long as there is conflict in Iraq, Soldiers must still train for combat. A special exercise at Fort Polk’s Joint Readiness Training Center is teaching Soldiers to strike that careful balance.

Soldiers with the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, were tested on the Unit Ministry Team and Personal Security Detachment situational training exercise lane, June 15.

“The exercise is designed for the UMT to practice two major skills: battlefield movement and religious leader liaison,” said Chaplain Maj. Steve Peck, senior UMT training mentor for Operations Group, JRTC.

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We Chaplains work in a very strange world.  One the one hand, we are free to honor our denominational distinctives.  On the other, we must be flexible in a pluralistic environment and be able to communicate with those from dramatically different cultural and theological backgrounds.   Expectations heaped on a Chaplains shoulders can range from the comical (handing out candy to “boost morale”) to the divine (many believe that God will somehow hear our prayers over and above their own).   We seem to be constantly defining ourselves as counter to what is expected of us.

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Army chaplains and their assistants who have deployed downrange received some guidance themselves to help deal with the stresses of working in a war zone and giving the troops a shoulder to lean on.

The chaplains got that help during last week’s Resiliency Training Conference in Mannheim, Germany. Similar training has been done in the States, but Col. Doug Kinder, Installation Management Command-Europe’s top chaplain, said he believes this is the first time it has been done overseas. The training was conducted by the San Antonio-based U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School.

“They talked about being able to bounce back during difficult times,” said Chaplain (Maj.) Greg Edison, who is with the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. “Personally, it definitely is a tool that I can add to my spiritual toolbox.”

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (Army News Service) – As the number of Soldiers committing suicide continues to rise, the Army’s suicide prevention campaign shifts its focus to junior leaders in an effort to arm them with the tools they need to help their Soldiers before a problem reaches a tragic end.

A recent Army study shows that 60 percent of suicides are carried out by first-time deployers. That percentage may be hard to believe as news agencies continue to report on how the Army is stretched thin and Soldiers are on their second, third or fourth tours here.

“Soldiers who have deployed before have been able to build resiliency, and they are able to adapt to situations because they have been placed in similar ones before,” said Chaplain (Col.) Kenneth Stice, Multi-National Corps-Iraq command chaplain. “First time deployers need to build that same resiliency, and that is hard to do.”

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Muslims, Jews and Christians usually worship on different days in different places. But the celebration of a U.S. Army Chaplain Corps pioneer brought members of the three faith groups together at the Main Post Chapel Friday.

Chaplain Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad, U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School, was promoted to lieutenant colonel in a ceremony that Chaplain (Col.) Samuel Boone, USACHCS commandant, called historic.

Muhammad has been an imam since 1978 and became the first Muslim chaplain in the armed forces in 1994.

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Staff Sgt. Shaun McBride would rather be in a war zone than at home. He likes the adrenaline, he says, even the “fear someone can shoot you.” He hates the petty responsibilities of home life, the bills and family issues.

He’s clocked 43 months in Afghanistan and Iraq. His first wife of three years sent him divorce papers while he was fighting Taliban militants—she wanted to marry a friend of his. (She couldn’t be reached for comment.) “Whatever,” says McBride, 32, with a shrug. Now he’s remarried—to Evangeline (Star) McBride, a 27-year-old divorced mother of one—and getting ready for his fifth deployment with the Third Brigade combat team of the 101st Airborne Division.

When asked in front of Star what he misses most when he’s overseas, he doesn’t hesitate: his souped-up Mustang. He likes to drive it fast, and “show what’s what” when another flashy car pulls up next to him at a stoplight. But even the driving is better in Iraq. There, you “do whatever you want on the road. You own the road … You can go into people’s houses without being invited in. It’s like you own their house.”

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