More than 170 Soldiers, civilians and family members attended the Fort Benning observance of the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 17 at the Benning Conference Center. The event coincided with Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a 40-day period preceding Easter that many Christians observe as a time of prayer and abstinence.

The celebration was open to all faiths and included prayers by Muslim imam Dawud Salahuddin Bin Pearson and Jewish Chaplain (MAJ) Carlos Huerta, 30th Adjutant General Battalion (Reception).

“I think it (is) very unique that we can all come together to observe our different faiths,” said CPT Vladimir Sotosanchez, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 11th Engineer Battalion, who attended the post observance for the first time. “This country was founded on freedom of religion. The first pilgrims who arrived – that was one of their main focuses. (We’re) paying homage to one of the founding principles of our country.”

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As Congress and the Pentagon grapple with a proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the military, some chaplains — especially evangelicals — worry the change will infringe on their religious beliefs.

”It’s morally wrong,” said the Rev. Billy Baugham, executive director of the International Conference of Evangelical Chaplain Endorsers, saying his group believes the Bible condemns homosexuality.

”The implication of that is that the military is going to force military personnel — both Christians and non-Christians — to accept that value.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, with the backing of the White House and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon will spend a year studying the ramifications of repealing the Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy, which has been in place since 1993.

In the midst of war, service members and the Fort Gordon community came together Feb. 18 to observe the “National Prayer Breakfast.” They joined many Americans around the country celebrating this occasion. This year’s theme was “Partnering Together for Peace.”

A crowd of 360 people filled the Gordon Club’s Ballroom before sunrise to hear from a New York rabbi and a police officer who kept their faith in the face of tragedy during the attack on America Sept. 11, 2001.

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The North Dakota National Guard’s Office of the Chaplain will host a workshop to help single Soldiers and Airmen hone the skills they need for a successful, lifelong relationship.

PICK, or Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge, will take place from Feb. 26-28 in Fargo. The course is provided by trained facilitators within the North Dakota National Guard and is based on the “How Not to Marry a Jerk (or Jerkette)” series. It focuses on those who are single, dating or in a pre-marriage relationship. Among the five-session program’s tenets are the Relationship Attachment Model, which ranks and prioritizes five parts of a healthy relationship, and FACES, an acronym for five areas that are important to learn early-on to determine the relationship’s possibilities for the long term.

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Today’s military couples are challenged in every way, from the daily stress of providing for their families, raising children, and maintaining healthy relations, to dealing with the stress of deployment.

The 101st Combat Aviation Brigade offered a relief to those married couples with the Strong Bonds Marriage and Family Retreat in Nashville over Valentine’s Day weekend.

Brigade Chaplain, Maj. Shawn McCammon invited couples of the brigade to participate in this event, providing them with food, childcare, a room at the Sheraton Music City Hotel and a chance to relax and rebuild life’s most important bonds.

Couples of the 101st CAB received nine hours of interactive guidance that introduced new skills for enhanced communication, emotional expression and healthy conflict resolution.

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The Army Strong Bonds retreat is a no brainer, you are being paid to attend, you are staying at a beautiful resort, and you are receiving world class instruction on communication, intimacy, and conflict management skills, that’s according to Chaplain Col. Steven Dyess the 81st Regional Support Command Chaplain.

More than 70 married couples and approximately 30 single Soldiers took part in a Strong Bonds retreat for Army Reservists at a hotel resort in Hilton Head, S.C., hosted by the 81st RSC, Feb., 19-21 2010. Strong Bonds is a chaplain led program designed to help Soldiers improve on their relationships and in the end increase the Army’s overall readiness rate.

Capt. Jared Corsi a civil engineer with the 926th Engineer Brigade and his wife, Katherine participated in the retreat.

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More than one hundred locals, wearing their Sunday best, sit on wooden pews in a dilapidated building, while gaping holes in the stone walls let in the morning light. The people reach their hands toward the red, white and blue tarps that make up the roof of the structure, their eyes closed, lost in prayer.

Maj. Brad Baumann, a native of Blue Earth, Minnesota, and 2nd Brigade Combat Team chaplain, was invited to preach at the Prophecy Church of God of Caradeux, in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 21. Baumann and his chaplain’s assistant, Spc. Midine Beauvais, who grew up in Haiti, have spoken with many pastors in the area since arriving in Haiti, gathering information about people in need of shelter, food and medical aid. But, he found that delivering his first sermon to the Haitian people was a surprising challenge. “The challenging thing for me was to articulate a message in another language,” he said, not wanting his message to be lost in the translation.
Planning ahead, he and Beauvais prepared two manuscripts, one in English, and one in Creole for her to translate during the service. “Beauvais put it in a way that they could understand,” he said.

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There are 1,650 chaplains in the active-duty Army. Each brigade and battalion on Fort Polk is assigned a chaplain. The role of the chaplain is as crucial as it is unique. According to Chap. (Col.) David Darbyshire, command chaplain, Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk, “chaplains ensure the free exercise of religion for Soldiers and serve as advisors to the commander on issues of religion, morals and morale.”

While those tasks sound simple enough, Army chaplains juggle a multitude of responsibilities. Chaplains provide marriage and career counseling for Soldiers in their units, marriage retreats and outings for single Soldiers. They perform marriages, baptisms and are the primary instructors for unit-level suicide prevention and intervention. Chaplains deploy with their units and provide comprehensive religious support to Soldiers and their Families during deployment. They conduct Sunday morning services in garrison and worship services in the field while the unit is training. They assist in next-of-kin notification, accompanying the casualty notification officer to provide pastoral care to the Family and help them deal with tragic news.

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