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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BADULA QULP, AFGHANISTAN — The U.S. Army brigade’s Catholic priest spits, smokes, cracks jokes and has come under fire like so many other American soldiers. He keeps altar bread in an empty grenade canister. On Sunday, he donned purple and white vestments over his uniform and celebrated Mass on a makeshift altar of four stacked boxes of MREs.
Capt. Carl Subler stood in the dust at an earthen-walled compound and prayed for the safety of those assembled, half a dozen soldiers who are fighting the Taliban near the contested town of Marjah in southern Afghanistan. He also prayed for peace in a country that has known war for decades. The men kneeled in their faded uniforms and some took communion, a reflective moment in a time of war.
