Army Chaplaincy

Year of the Noncommissioned Officer – Spotlight NCO

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:51:58 +0000

Staff Sgt. Rogness enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in his senior year of High school in 1999, following in the rich family tradition to serve their country and its military. His older brother served in the Army National Guard as an Infantryman. His father served in the Air Force as a C-130 mechanic at Bein Hoa Airbase during the Vietnam Conflict. Both of his grandfathers served in the U.S. military during WWII. One of his grandfathers served as an Army Infantrymen and was assigned in the Philippines, while his other grandfather served in the Navy onboard the Shamrock Bay Escort Carrier in the South Pacific. Growing up in a family that has felt called to serve, Rogness felt no different and was eager to join the family tradition of service to a nation that had given so much to his family.

Rogness grew up in Hopkins, Minn., a town that still holds true to small town traditions and values near Minneapolis. As part of the High School wrestling team, he learned the discipline, determination, and dedication it takes to accomplish goals, the importance of doing your best, and the importance of sacrificing personal priorities for the greater cause of a team. He has carried those values with him wherever his life has taken him–through college, deployments, and mobilizations throughout the world. The values he has been taught growing up have assisted him to persevere through whatever the trials have been in his life.

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Guard chaplains contribute to Landstuhl’s spiritual team

admin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:49:03 +0000

LANDSTUHL, Germany (6/26/09) – The boxes arrive daily from the United States.

Some days, 15 boxes arrive. Some days, 20. Typically each week, between $8,000 and $12,000 in cash also pours in from U.S. citizens and groups.

The boxes and the money are meant for the wounded warriors who pass through here, most coming from Afghanistan or Iraq. More than 54,000 wounded warriors have passed through Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s doors since Operation Enduring Freedom began October 2001, according to a hospital spokesman.

Lined with shelves organized in a manner that would make even the most obsessive-compulsive supply sergeant proud is the Chaplains’ Closet. The name is a misnomer, because it is about the size of your average neighborhood convenience store. Its official name is the Wounded Warrior Ministry Center.

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Chaplains Play Critical Role for Troops, Bloggers Told

admin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:47:43 +0000

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Army active and reserve chaplains are playing a critical and strategic role in Iraq, said a U.S. Army chaplain serving with Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq.

“Our troops are working tirelessly and selflessly to create a trusted and viable Iraqi security force,” U.S. Army Maj. William Steen, a chaplain assigned to MNSTC-I, said to bloggers during a DoDLive Bloggers Roundtable June 23. “However, the work, family separation and the long hours all take their toll on our troops.”

Steen discussed how the military is helping these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines cope with the physical, mental, and emotional stress while deployed in Iraq.

Chaplains are playing a critical role in today’s military by providing forward-deployed troops more than religious support. They are providing relational enhancement training to strengthen marriages and families; pre- and post-deployment training; and suicide-prevention training to name a few.

Army chaplain reflects on tour in Afghanistan

admin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:45:35 +0000

Chanhassen resident and Faith Presbyterian Church pastor Chris Carlson sneezed for 10 months in Afghanistan, the “dustiest place” he’s ever been, but now the 54-year-old chaplain is back for a humid Minnesota summer.

His army reserve unit returned in March. The deployment was from May 1, 2008, to March 1, 2009. Carlson was back in the pulpit at Faith Presbyterian in Minnetonka on Easter Sunday, April 12.

After work in Afghanistan, chaplain finds he has Lou Gehrig’s disease

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:00:57 +0000

STEVENS POINT — The Rev. Dan Farley has faced danger before; in fact, he’s survived it many times.

Farley, who ministers at St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church in the town of Buena Vista, has worked to stop gangs in Los Angeles and counseled soldiers in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many of the areas where he worked in Afghanistan were within the most dangerous in the country.

Army chaplain, doctor comfort survivors of Metro crash

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:58:26 +0000

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 26, 2009) — Several Walter Reed Army Medical Center staffers survived the deadliest accident in Washington Metrorail’s 33-year history Monday.

Maj. David Bottoms, a Walter Reed chaplain and Col. Thomas Baker, chief of pathology, said they were both riding in the first car of the train that slammed into another stopped train during Monday’s rush-hour commute home.

“I was reading and listening to my iPod, and I noticed the front end of the car was buckling and it was coming toward us. It looked like a wave … it stopped three seats in front of me … I was praying then,” Bottoms said.

Baker stood in the rear of the car. “It was very scary. Oh my God. It was a very surreal event,” he said.

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Guard Soldier Trains to Protect Freedom, Faith

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:57:25 +0000

CAMP ATTERBURY JOINT MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, Ind. – The U.S. military vows to protect and uphold the constitution’s freedoms and rights, including religion, of individuals at home and abroad.

In the ranks of those troops, one Soldier with the Indiana Army National Guard fights for those freedoms while helping others at the same time.

Nineteen-year-old Spc. Jonathan Dyar, Headquarters Company, 38th Infantry Division chaplain assistant, says he enjoys what he does and is ready to meet head-on the challenge of Afghanistan in August with Task Force Cyclone’s deployment.

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Active, Reserve Chaplains Play Critical Role

admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:44:59 +0000

WASHINGTON – Active and reserve Army chaplains are playing a critical and strategic role in Iraq, a chaplain serving with Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq said this week.

“Our troops are working tirelessly and selflessly to create a trusted and viable security force,” Army Maj. William Steen, chaplain, said during a “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable June 23. “However, the work, family separation and the long hours all take their toll on our troops.”

Steen discussed how the military is helping soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines cope with the physical, mental and emotional stress while deployed in Iraq.

Chaplains play a critical role in today’s military by providing forward-deployed troops more than religious support, Steen explained. Among other things, they also provide training before and after deployments, help service members strengthen their marriages and families, and take an active role in suicide prevention.

READ MORE from DVIDS

From Fort Knox to Iraq, local soldier serves with pride

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:51:18 +0000

When people ask Sgt. Jeremy Levens about Iraq, he tries to set the scene for them. He tells them to fill their hands with a clump of dirt, go to the bathroom and blow the dirt on themselves with a hair dryer — they’ll see what it’s like in Iraq, he jokes.

In seriousness, Levens said in a phone interview that he was glad to volunteer to serve his country in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“I deeply love America and everything it represents,” said Levens, whose home, wife and dogs are in Rineyville, though he’s deployed to Camp Victory in Iraq.

Priest gravely wounded in Iraq in 2004 dies

admin — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:22:58 +0000

Five years after being gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Rev. Tim Vakoc, a well-known and well-loved Roman Catholic priest from Minnesota, has died, his family said Sunday.

Vakoc, 49, who had been living at St. Therese Care Center in New Hope, died about 8 p.m. Saturday after being taken to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, said Barb Rode, president and CEO of St. Therese.

Rode declined to confirm or deny announcements made by several Twin Cities priests during Sunday services that Vakoc had met with some sort of accident at the care center. The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office is expected to release a report on his death later today.