FORT HOOD, Tex. — The day after a gunman killed 13 people here last month, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, the post’s commander, fired off an e-mail message to an unusual audience: local advocates for disaffected soldiers, deserters and war resisters. “I am told you may be able to help me understand where some of the gaps are in our system,” he wrote.

Last week, those advocates put General Cone’s offer to a test. A specialist who had deserted last year wanted to turn himself in. Would the general help the soldier, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, get care?

The general said yes.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said James Branum, a lawyer representing the specialist, Chris Jasinski. “It is very unusual for the commanding general to get involved.”

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Capt. Nicholas Green worked a night shift Christmas Eve. He had managed to talk briefly to his wife by phone, never a sure thing from a U.S. Army base eight time zones away. At home, it was his first child’s first Christmas, and it was hard not being there. Although he attended Mass faithfully, on that Christmas Day in 2005, he simply went back to his room at Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan. He opened the presents that had been sent to him from his wife and family. Then he went to sleep.

Army Chaplain Jim Fogle-Miller spent that same day traveling. He flew on a chopper with senior military officers from Camp Phoenix to a few forward operating bases – FOBs in military lingo ó remote mission outposts run by U.S. and coalition troops. At each stop there was no time to conduct a worship service, just to talk to the soldiers, maybe say a prayer or two. At Sarkani, a lonely, mountainous spot in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, on a table in a makeshift kitchen surrounded by cooking utensils and prepared rations, the troops had set up a Christmas tree. Underneath, Fogle-Miller saw a nativity set and a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

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While Army Chaplain Maury Millican tends to the spiritual needs of soldiers in Kosovo, the Rev. Al Schut is tending to the needs of Millican’s congregation in Bismarck.

Schut, who’s filling in for Millican at Bismarck Community Church until the chaplain returns from his tour in Kosovo in July, is what you could call a professional temporary pastor. Bismarck is Schut’s first assignment as a pastor trained in interim ministry.

The Wisconsin native, who was a tool and dye maker before attending seminary, where he graduated in 1986, is married to Holly, who is a religious educator with a doctor of ministry degree.

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FORT JACKSON, S.C. — The Army’s Chaplain Center and School is dedicating its training wing in honor of a volunteer chaplain’s assistant who distinguished himself in battle during the Boxer Rebellion in China.

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FORT GORDON,Ga.—While the Army is fighting two wars overseas, they’re also fighting a rising number of suicides. This year is the highest number of reported cases since 1980, when the Army began keeping statistics.

Through the right training at all levels of command the Army is hoping to prevent soldiers from dying at their own hands. But there are still many reasons why some of our soldiers are killing themselves.

So how is the Army “fighting” to stop them? News 12 spoke with an Army chaplain at Fort Gordon who is all too familiar with the problem.

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Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan – Capt. Matt Foley hasn’t presided over any weddings or christenings since he arrived here in April – not much call for those services in a war zone.

But the Army chaplain and Catholic priest who spent much of his childhood in Wauwatosa stays very busy ministering to nine companies in the 82nd Airborne Divisional Special Troops Battalion, delivering care packages, checking on soldiers’ welfare, presiding over Catholic Masses as well as handling any calls for a priest.

And like all military chaplains, he cares for all service members regardless of their religion.

His job is very rewarding though he says the toughest part is getting to know people and sharing in sacred moments with them such as funerals and prayers and then seeing them leave when their unit returns home.

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