In January, reporter Moni Basu and photographer Curtis Compton began documenting life at war with Darren Turner, chaplain for the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart.

They traveled with him to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington while he was home on leave, then caught up with him in Iraq, where they spent five weeks reporting this story.

They shadowed the chaplain as he counseled soldiers, baptized them and dealt with war’s hardships. They also went on foot patrol with a platoon that lost six men last summer.

Every soldier in this story gave the journalists permission to document their interactions with the chaplain. All except one of the scenes were witnessed firsthand. The one reconstructed scene — the events of last summer — appears in Chapter 3 and was pieced together through interviews with soldiers who were there.

READ MORE from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Military.com | By Bryant Jordan | February 04, 2008

Soldiers may come to Chaplain (Maj.) David Langer’s services for a little bit of peace. They may come for God.But they come armed, nonetheless.

“Most of the guys just put their weapons under their chairs,” said Langer, a Congregational minister and Army chaplain assigned to the 5th Iraqi Army Division Military Transition Team, which travels throughout Diyala province.

There are no rules against taking the weapons into the service, he said.

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[I originally wrote this reflection in April 2007 while deployed to Baghdad, Iraq. I had ministered to the casualties of another unit earlier in the day.]

9 April 2007

It is times like these that cause me to examine my faithfulness to God’s call. Am I living up to the standard of godliness for the vocation of priestly ministry?

This afternoon, I stood beside the bed of a soldier as he fought for life. The medics and doctors worked their hardest to save him. He, and his buddy who lay on the next bed, were seriously injured in an explosion; their third comrade was killed instantly. The soldier for whom I prayed was breathing laboriously, moaning, and fighting with his hands to stop the pain as the doctors worked to stabilize him. That fight was his last.

For about fifteen minutes, the battle for life and death was fought. In the end, the soldier and his buddy both died.

Later, I went to the morgue to offer a commendatory prayer over the three bodies and to sprinkle them with holy water.
And, now I wait for the transportation that will take their bodies away in a few hours. I will join the fighting brothers from their platoon, the doctors and medics, and other soldiers in paying respect and rendering honors to these brave men. I will offer a prayer, salutes will be rendered, and the remains will be taken away.

A few days from now, their battalion will have a memorial and pay their final respects. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to participate. But I have done my work here today.

Soldiers need love—they need the love of God to be ministered to them in moments of crisis. Not only are there three bodies to respect and commend into the Lord’s hands, there are also a couple of dozen soldiers here right now who need to know God cares about them and sees their grief and the turmoil of their hearts. There are souls who need God’s love ministered to them.

If I ever forget that there are souls that need nurturing, or if I ever fail to nurture those souls, I will have forsaken my vocation.

Rest in God’s hands, H, S, and W.

Lord, strengthen me by thy grace to so minister to thy children that they may turn to thee for safety and surety. Amen.

Higher call to duty

Lawrence County native finds ‘rewarding’ work as Army chaplain in Iraq

By Melanie B. Smith
Staff Writer, The Decatur Daily

Hitting the dirt of Baghdad after hearing the whiz of an incoming rocket, the Rev. Daniel Sparks might have wondered why in the world he was in Iraq — had there been time to think, that is.

An explosion shattered a 6-foot concrete fence pillar and sent gravel flying. Shrapnel wounded a soldier in his arm, Sparks said.

If things had been different, Sparks might have been in his native Alabama, serving as rector of a church. Or he might have been delving into politics, putting his university degree to use.

Instead, he was serving as an Army chaplain — his “calling,” he said.

Read more from The Decatur Daily

(KABUL, Afghanistan) – When a Chaplain blesses the convoy you are about to head out on in war torn Afghanistan, and as Tim King reports, it brings a certain amount of serious thought to the mission that lies ahead.

IED’s, ambushes and flags at half-mast are the constant reminders of mortality to the combat soldier. For a Chaplain like Captain Andrew Werner of the Oklahoma National Guard, the job of being a combat soldier and a man of God is one of many challenges.

I am constantly amazed by people who seem surprised that those who join the military are deployed to engage in war. After all, that’s why armies exist.

Sure, there are arguments of just and unjust wars, but there are no logical definitions of military armies and non-military armies. An army is, by definition, military. Those who join it bear arms. Arms are used to fight and kill.

Yes, I can believe that some Americans enlist in the Army (and other military services) for money, for education, and for other benefits. I have a harder time believing that those who enlist for these reasons are so naive as to think that the military is some club for upward social mobility and not a machine of war.

Cowardice is a term infrequently used these days, but it is a characteristic alive and well.

Although I don’t carry a weapon and am a noncombatant, I didn’t accept a commission in the Army because I wanted to stage a passive protest. Yes, chaplains are deliberate noncombatants, and I realize the value of this. But we are still soldiers in the defense of our nation; a chaplain who betrays this nation shall still suffer the consequences of his treason. Therefore, my thoughts on this matter do not even reflect on the noncombatant chaplain.

Instead, my thoughts turn to those who, for their own inane reasons, become soldiers in name only. Inwardly, they are interested only in their own machinations and are not compelled with love of country and liberty. There may be some place in the military for conscientious objectors, but anyone who joins the armed forces with the intent of avoiding arms or being involved in the maneuvers of war is at best naive and at worst an imbecile.

Does this mean that soldiers are blood-thirsty, cravers of the deaths of their enemies? Not in the least. As the saying goes, no one cherishes peace so much as he who fights the war. It is natural for a man who loves life and liberty to defend his family, his nation.

And so go I to war. Just as ministers accompanied their flocks to battle in the days of the American Revolution, so they continue today. The cure of souls does not end where the threats of tyranny begin.

O LORD God of Hosts, stretch forth, we pray thee, thine almighty arm to strengthen and protect the soldiers of our country; Support them in the day of battle, and in the time of peace keep them safe from all evil; endue them with courage and loyalty; and grant that in all things they may serve without reproach; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

On this Memorial Day, we honor the dead—those fallen in defense of this great nation. Let us ever remember them and the price they paid. And let us continue, with diligence, the protection of such valued liberty.

The words of Rudyard Kipling’s hymn come to mind. We mustn’t be confident in our own might or our own designs without first being confident in the Lord.

God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart;
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Ninevah and Tyre!
Judge of the nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the law—
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not to thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word—
Thy mercy on thy people, Lord! Amen.

In my reading of General Douglas MacArthur’s pictorial autobiography, I have found many an item for serious reflection. Gen. MacArthur was a man devoted to the great ideals of liberty. He knew well the cost of freedom and the necessity of defending it at all costs.

His words speak clearly to us today. I shall provide no additional commentary. From Duty, Honor, Country, pages 204-206:

Great changes have taken place in our military establishment, some good, some not so good. Materially the improvement has been spectacular, psychologically yet to be proven. The men in the ranks are largely citizen soldiers, sailors or airmen–men from the farm, the city, from school, from the college campus–men not dedicated to the profession of arms; men not primarily skilled in the art of war; men most amazingly like the men you know and see and meet each day of your life.

If hostilities come these men will know the endless tramp of marching feet, the incessant whine of sniper bullets, the ceaseless rustle of sputtering machine guns, the sinister wail of air combat, the deafening blast of crashing bombs, the stealthy stroke of hidden torpedoes, the amphibious lurch over perilous waves, the dark majesty of fighting ships, the mad din of battle and all the tense and ghastly horror and savage destruction of a stricken area of war.

These men will suffer hunger and thirst, broiling suns and frozen reaches, but they must go on and on and on when everything within them seems to stop and die. They will grow old in youth burned out in searing minutes, even though life owes them tranquil years. In these troublesome times of confused and bewildered international sophistication, let no man misunderstand why they do that which they must do. These men will fight, and, perchance die, for one reason only–for their country–for America. No complex philosophies of world intrigue and conspiracy dominate their thoughts. No exploitation or extravagance of propaganda dims their sensibilities. Just the simple fact, their country called.

But now strange voices are heard across the land, decrying this old and proven concept of patriotism. Seductive murmurs are arising that it is now outmoded by some more comprehensive and all-embracing philosophy, that we are provincial and immature or reactionary and stupid when we idealize our own country; that there is a higher destiny for us under another and more general flag; that no longer when we send our sons and daughters to the battlefields must we see them through all the way to victory; that we can call upon them to fight and even to die in some half-hearted and indecisive war; that we can plunge them recklessly into war and then suddenly decide that it is a wrong war or in a wrong place or at a wrong time, or even that we can call it not a war at all by using some more euphemistic and gentler name; that we can treat them as expendable, although they are our own flesh and blood; that we, the strongest military nation in the world, have suddenly become dependent upon others for our security and even our welfare.

Listen not from these voices, be they from the one political party or from the other. Be they from the high and the mighty or the lowly and the forgotten. Heed them not. Visit upon them a righteous scorn, born of the past sacrifices of your fighting sons and daughters. Repudiate them in the market place, on platforms, from the pulpit. The highest encomium you can still receive is to be called a patriot, if it means you love your country above all else and will place your life, if need be, at the service of your Flag…..

U.S. Army Chaplain Lewis writes this week of his hope for Iraq: a society full of freedom. He reflects on his dirt-colored life in Iraq and the majestic miracle of a red flower, which reminds him of the red blood spilled in Iraq. Just as the flower has potential to create hundreds of more flowers, so the blood has the potential to create hundreds of free Iraqis.