Fort Bliss chaplain gets 6 months for assault
Associated Press
June 20, 2013
FORT BLISS, TEXAS — A chaplain at a West Texas post has been sentenced to six months of confinement after pleading guilty to assault and battery on a female civilian.
Officials at Fort Bliss on Wednesday night announced the penalty for Maj. Geoffrey Alleyne. Military investigators say the charges stem from a series of encounters last year between Alleyne and the civilian worker.
read more here
Showing posts with label military chaplains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military chaplains. Show all posts
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Reflections of Vietnam
REFLECTIONS OF VIETNAM
Citizen Times.com
Local man fights effects
Written by Barbara Hootman
Staff Writer
May 21, 2013
Greg Miller served in Vietnam in 1969, and remembers it as six months that has affected his entire life.
“I was stationed in Lay Binh in south Vietnam,” the Black Mountain resident said. “I was in the Army Signal Corp. I helped coordinate communications from the bottom half of Vietnam to 28 different sites every day. Then I would trouble shoot, figuring out what they needed and making sure they got it.”
Miller describes the area as one not under fire a lot of the time.
“On a stress level of one -10, it would rank about a four or five,” he said. “We were stationed across from a Medi-Vac hospital and there were lots of wounded soldiers coming in.”
Miller had been a divinity student in the States, but had grown tired of college and decided to volunteer for the Army.
“I probably could have served as a chaplain, but I was interested in electronics, and that put me in communications,” he said.
read more here
Citizen Times.com
Local man fights effects
Written by Barbara Hootman
Staff Writer
May 21, 2013
Greg Miller served in Vietnam in 1969, and remembers it as six months that has affected his entire life.
“I was stationed in Lay Binh in south Vietnam,” the Black Mountain resident said. “I was in the Army Signal Corp. I helped coordinate communications from the bottom half of Vietnam to 28 different sites every day. Then I would trouble shoot, figuring out what they needed and making sure they got it.”
Miller describes the area as one not under fire a lot of the time.
“On a stress level of one -10, it would rank about a four or five,” he said. “We were stationed across from a Medi-Vac hospital and there were lots of wounded soldiers coming in.”
Miller had been a divinity student in the States, but had grown tired of college and decided to volunteer for the Army.
“I probably could have served as a chaplain, but I was interested in electronics, and that put me in communications,” he said.
read more here
Sunday, May 19, 2013
VA to offer free training for clergy in rural areas
St. Cloud VA to offer free training for clergy in rural areas
Written by
SC Times staff report
May 19, 2013
LITTLE FALLS — The Department of Veterans Affairs National Chaplain Center, along with the St. Cloud VA Health Care System, is offering a workshop for clergy in rural areas.
The one-day workshop hopes to educate those who participate about how they can partner with veteran’s affairs organizations to support rural veterans.
read more here
The need is great.
Written by
SC Times staff report
May 19, 2013
LITTLE FALLS — The Department of Veterans Affairs National Chaplain Center, along with the St. Cloud VA Health Care System, is offering a workshop for clergy in rural areas.
The one-day workshop hopes to educate those who participate about how they can partner with veteran’s affairs organizations to support rural veterans.
read more here
The need is great.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Spiritual Fitness "teaches" that PTSD is physiological and biological
Let's put it this way. When I read the advertisement for Jiffy Lube on this, I started to laugh because of how fitting it was. When you read the following you'll have a better idea of how little they really do understand, including what went on with Fort Belvoir Chapel.
Spiritual Fitness teaches that PTSD is physiological and biological
Belvoir Eagle
By Justin Creech
Staff writer
Posted: Thursday, May 16, 2013
The Fort Belvoir Chaplaincy, in cooperation with the Fort Belvoir Chapel Community, hosted a conference of the Spiritual Fitness Initiative May 7-9 at Thurman Lecture Hall.
The conference focused on explaining that post-traumatic stress disorder isn’t a behavior flaw or problem. PTSD is actually a biomedical condition which can affect the brain’s ability to make logical decisions.
read more here
Friday, May 3, 2013
DOD allows free speech to willing audience and that is good thing
Yesterday I was very happy to post Pentagon: OK to talk about faith Hallelujah!
I received a few email questions on why I was so happy, so this is a good time to let more people know my thoughts, especially just coming home from church service for Holy Friday and the Descent from the Cross. I am Greek Orthodox and this is our Holy Week. I attend Holy Trinity but honestly I don't get there as much as I would like to. I was heading there Sunday morning when I opened my email discovering a note from a friend in crisis. I am sure Christ would forgive me for missing the service to take care of my friend. After all, that is what He gave as His greatest commandment.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35
If we do not love then we are not following Christ. Rightly we cannot call ourselves Christians if we do not help others with compassion, understanding and mercy. If we condemn them or show hatred, we are not acting Christlike.
Most of the time servicemen and women need spiritual healing as much as they need medical healing. When their wound involved Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, they need spiritual healing more and that is why it is essential that Chaplains are not only able to take care of all of them from wherever they are spiritually but with a true understanding of what ills them. To prevent Chaplains and others from talking about their faith does more harm than good but the other side of this is the issue of proselytizing pushing one denomination over others.
There have been reports of soldiers forced to attend Christian concerts and prayer groups. No one should be forced. Forcing them ends up pushing the door against them.
I have a rule that I will not contact a veteran for this reason alone. They have to contact me or the help I can offer will not be heard. It has to be on their time and by their own freewill. I tried it the other way in the beginning and discovered they were not listening to me. They know how to contact me and they know I am here when they need me but again it has to be on their terms, when they are ready.
Getting them to understand they are forgiven for whatever they believe they need forgiveness for, is perhaps the easiest to achieve because of what a day like this means. Christ forgave the hands that nailed Him to the Cross, so they accept His forgiveness more easily than they are able to forgive themselves. It is easier for them to forgive others especially when they have survivor guilt. Forgiving themselves is the hardest and requires the most work but they can do it with the right help.
Once this happens, they are able to heal faster and find peace with what remains of PTSD because they understand it.
I rejoice with the decision of the DOD to allow Christians to talk about their faith as much as they allow others to do the same with a willing audience.
What it comes down to, officials said, is that discussing matters of faith and religious practice with a willing audience is allowed, but pushing religious beliefs on those who don’t want to hear it is a form of harassment forbidden under Defense Department policies.
I received a few email questions on why I was so happy, so this is a good time to let more people know my thoughts, especially just coming home from church service for Holy Friday and the Descent from the Cross. I am Greek Orthodox and this is our Holy Week. I attend Holy Trinity but honestly I don't get there as much as I would like to. I was heading there Sunday morning when I opened my email discovering a note from a friend in crisis. I am sure Christ would forgive me for missing the service to take care of my friend. After all, that is what He gave as His greatest commandment.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”John 13:34-35
If we do not love then we are not following Christ. Rightly we cannot call ourselves Christians if we do not help others with compassion, understanding and mercy. If we condemn them or show hatred, we are not acting Christlike.
Most of the time servicemen and women need spiritual healing as much as they need medical healing. When their wound involved Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, they need spiritual healing more and that is why it is essential that Chaplains are not only able to take care of all of them from wherever they are spiritually but with a true understanding of what ills them. To prevent Chaplains and others from talking about their faith does more harm than good but the other side of this is the issue of proselytizing pushing one denomination over others.
There have been reports of soldiers forced to attend Christian concerts and prayer groups. No one should be forced. Forcing them ends up pushing the door against them.
I have a rule that I will not contact a veteran for this reason alone. They have to contact me or the help I can offer will not be heard. It has to be on their time and by their own freewill. I tried it the other way in the beginning and discovered they were not listening to me. They know how to contact me and they know I am here when they need me but again it has to be on their terms, when they are ready.
Getting them to understand they are forgiven for whatever they believe they need forgiveness for, is perhaps the easiest to achieve because of what a day like this means. Christ forgave the hands that nailed Him to the Cross, so they accept His forgiveness more easily than they are able to forgive themselves. It is easier for them to forgive others especially when they have survivor guilt. Forgiving themselves is the hardest and requires the most work but they can do it with the right help.
Once this happens, they are able to heal faster and find peace with what remains of PTSD because they understand it.
I rejoice with the decision of the DOD to allow Christians to talk about their faith as much as they allow others to do the same with a willing audience.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Pentagon: OK to talk about faith Hallelujah!
Pentagon: OK to talk about faith, but not to push beliefs on others
By Chris Carroll
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 2, 2013
WASHINGTON — It’s OK to evangelize. But it’s not OK to proselytize.
That’s what the Pentagon said Thursday, attempting to clarify its position on religious speech in uniform as controversy swirled up around press reports over possible prosecutions of troops for sharing their faith.
What it comes down to, officials said, is that discussing matters of faith and religious practice with a willing audience is allowed, but pushing religious beliefs on those who don’t want to hear it is a form of harassment forbidden under Defense Department policies.
“Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization),” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a written statement.
Officials said there was no plan to step up disciplinary action to weed out unacceptable religious speech.
read more here
By Chris Carroll
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 2, 2013
WASHINGTON — It’s OK to evangelize. But it’s not OK to proselytize.
That’s what the Pentagon said Thursday, attempting to clarify its position on religious speech in uniform as controversy swirled up around press reports over possible prosecutions of troops for sharing their faith.
What it comes down to, officials said, is that discussing matters of faith and religious practice with a willing audience is allowed, but pushing religious beliefs on those who don’t want to hear it is a form of harassment forbidden under Defense Department policies.
“Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization),” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a written statement.
Officials said there was no plan to step up disciplinary action to weed out unacceptable religious speech.
read more here
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Soldier saved by Kapaun gets chance to hold his hero’s Medal of Honor
Soldier saved by Kapaun gets chance to hold his hero’s Medal of Honor
By STAN FINGER AND ROY WENZL
The Wichita Eagle
April 12, 2013
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A few hours after he accepted his Uncle Emil’s Medal of Honor from the president of the United States, Ray Kapaun walked into the lobby of the Pentagon Sheraton Hotel in Arlington, Va., where he and his uncle’s Korean War comrades are staying.
In his hands, Kapaun held the Medal, with its sky blue sash, encased now in a small wood display box.
Several aged heroes from the war stood in the lobby, including former U.S. Army Master Sergeant Herbert Miller, an old soldier who now talks with a crack in his voice and whose hands shake so much from an affliction that makes it hard for him to sign his name.
At the White House, Ray had sat in the front row with his relatives and listened to the president describe the heroics of his uncle. Miller and his wife, Joyce, also sat in the front row, off to the president’s left, with some of the other eight soldiers who had been in the death camp with Kapaun.
read more here
By STAN FINGER AND ROY WENZL
The Wichita Eagle
April 12, 2013
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A few hours after he accepted his Uncle Emil’s Medal of Honor from the president of the United States, Ray Kapaun walked into the lobby of the Pentagon Sheraton Hotel in Arlington, Va., where he and his uncle’s Korean War comrades are staying.
In his hands, Kapaun held the Medal, with its sky blue sash, encased now in a small wood display box.
Several aged heroes from the war stood in the lobby, including former U.S. Army Master Sergeant Herbert Miller, an old soldier who now talks with a crack in his voice and whose hands shake so much from an affliction that makes it hard for him to sign his name.
At the White House, Ray had sat in the front row with his relatives and listened to the president describe the heroics of his uncle. Miller and his wife, Joyce, also sat in the front row, off to the president’s left, with some of the other eight soldiers who had been in the death camp with Kapaun.
read more here
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Capt. Emil Kapaun, Soldier, Chaplain, Hero and Saint
Soldier priest to get ultimate medal
By Larry Shaughnessy
CNN Pentagon Producer
April 10th, 2013
Washington (CNN)-– Capt. Emil Kapaun served in the U.S. Army in World War II and Korea but he didn’t carry a rifle and never fired a shot. His weapons were a Bible and his faith.
Capt. Kapaun was also Father Kapaun, a Roman Catholic chaplain who will be awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday, 60 years after his death while a North Korean prisoner. The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in the U.S. military.
Kapaun was born and raised in Pilsen, Kansas. After high school he attended Conception Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Missouri. After the abbey, he studied for the priesthood at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis. Kapaun was ordained in 1940 and that same year became a U.S. Army chaplain.
After serving at several posts in the United States and India, he left the Army and went to the Catholic University of America in Washington to earn a master's degree in education. After getting the degree in 1948, he returned to the Army.
read more here
Korean War Chaplain may be first Medal of Honor Recipient and Saint
By Larry Shaughnessy
CNN Pentagon Producer
April 10th, 2013
Washington (CNN)-– Capt. Emil Kapaun served in the U.S. Army in World War II and Korea but he didn’t carry a rifle and never fired a shot. His weapons were a Bible and his faith.
Capt. Kapaun was also Father Kapaun, a Roman Catholic chaplain who will be awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday, 60 years after his death while a North Korean prisoner. The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in the U.S. military.
Kapaun was born and raised in Pilsen, Kansas. After high school he attended Conception Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Missouri. After the abbey, he studied for the priesthood at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis. Kapaun was ordained in 1940 and that same year became a U.S. Army chaplain.
After serving at several posts in the United States and India, he left the Army and went to the Catholic University of America in Washington to earn a master's degree in education. After getting the degree in 1948, he returned to the Army.
read more here
Korean War Chaplain may be first Medal of Honor Recipient and Saint
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Army chaplain’s Passover seder a draw across Europe
Army chaplain’s Passover seder a draw across Europe
By Steven Beardsley
Stars and Stripes
Published: March 26, 2013
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Break out the Haggadah and crack the matza — Passover has arrived at this small Army garrison, where U.S. Army Europe’s only Jewish chaplain is holding services for the second straight year.
Capt. Andrew Shulman of the 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion guided participants in the first of four Passover seders on Monday, a meal that commemorates the Jewish exodus from Egypt and the tale of an angel of death passing over homes marked with the blood of a lamb.
The holiday began at sundown on Monday and continues through next Tuesday.
read more here
On the subject of "your" Easter and "my" Easter (Orthodox) here's the answer on why it is different.
By Steven Beardsley
Stars and Stripes
Published: March 26, 2013
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Break out the Haggadah and crack the matza — Passover has arrived at this small Army garrison, where U.S. Army Europe’s only Jewish chaplain is holding services for the second straight year.
Capt. Andrew Shulman of the 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion guided participants in the first of four Passover seders on Monday, a meal that commemorates the Jewish exodus from Egypt and the tale of an angel of death passing over homes marked with the blood of a lamb.
The holiday began at sundown on Monday and continues through next Tuesday.
read more here
On the subject of "your" Easter and "my" Easter (Orthodox) here's the answer on why it is different.
What differences are there between Easter and Orthodox Easter? The most obvious difference between “Western Easter” and Orthodox Pascha is the date. While the feast-days occasionally coincide, Orthodox Christians still calculate the date of Easter on the old calendar established under Julius Caesar, a calendar which many Orthodox Churches still employ. At St. John’s, we use the modern calendar for most of our “fixed feasts” (we celebrate Christmas on December 25 according to the Gregorian calendar, for example), but in order that all the Orthodox Christian churches may celebrate the great “Feast of feasts” together, we calculate the date of Pascha following the more ancient Christian tradition.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Military Chaplains -- Treating PTSD at the Battlefield
Military Chaplains -- Treating PTSD at the Battlefield
Huffington Post
Lisa Cypers Kamen, MA
Executive Director, Harvesting Happiness
This week, Rebekah Havrilla, an army rape victim, testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee on sexual assault in the military.
She had refrained from formally reporting the rape at first because she believed the system was broken. When she went to her military chaplain for guidance and support, Havrilla explained, he told her, "The rape was God's will and that God was trying to get [her] attention so that [she] would go back to church." Havrilla's response was silence.
Havrilla's case is just that: one case. Her chaplain's conduct shouldn't be taken as representative of the 3,000-plus chaplains on active duty as of 2011. Just this week, President Obama announced the military chaplain Capt. Emil J. Kapaun would be receiving the Medal of Honor for his heroic efforts on behalf of troops during the Korean War. Kapaun, who is a candidate for sainthood, risked his life to provide comfort to troops amidst battle, running from foxhole to foxhole to provide support and returning to peril, even after he had reached safety, to help his troops.
read more here
Huffington Post
Lisa Cypers Kamen, MA
Executive Director, Harvesting Happiness
This week, Rebekah Havrilla, an army rape victim, testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee on sexual assault in the military.
She had refrained from formally reporting the rape at first because she believed the system was broken. When she went to her military chaplain for guidance and support, Havrilla explained, he told her, "The rape was God's will and that God was trying to get [her] attention so that [she] would go back to church." Havrilla's response was silence.
Havrilla's case is just that: one case. Her chaplain's conduct shouldn't be taken as representative of the 3,000-plus chaplains on active duty as of 2011. Just this week, President Obama announced the military chaplain Capt. Emil J. Kapaun would be receiving the Medal of Honor for his heroic efforts on behalf of troops during the Korean War. Kapaun, who is a candidate for sainthood, risked his life to provide comfort to troops amidst battle, running from foxhole to foxhole to provide support and returning to peril, even after he had reached safety, to help his troops.
read more here
Friday, March 8, 2013
Vietnam Veteran receives Bronze Star 46 years later
After 46 years, Vietnam veteran awarded Bronze Star
MyFOX Tampa Bay
March 7, 2013
TAMPA (FOX 13)
After 46 years, a veteran of the Vietnam War was awarded the Bronze Star at MacDill Air Force Base.
Sgt. Robert French received the medal in a ceremony Wednesday.
French served in the Army as a radioman in the South Vietnam Mekong Delta.
read more here
MyFOX Tampa Bay
March 7, 2013
TAMPA (FOX 13)
After 46 years, a veteran of the Vietnam War was awarded the Bronze Star at MacDill Air Force Base.
Sgt. Robert French received the medal in a ceremony Wednesday.
French served in the Army as a radioman in the South Vietnam Mekong Delta.
read more here
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Korean War Chaplain may be first Medal of Honor Recipient and Saint
Posthumous MoH for Korean War Catholic priest
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Feb 23, 2013
WICHITA, Kan. — A Roman Catholic priest from Kansas will be awarded the nation's highest military award for bravery for his actions during the Korean War, according to former Kansas Congressman Todd Tiahrt.
Tiahrt told The Wichita Eagle that Emil Kapaun will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama in April. Tiahrt also posted a letter from a Pentagon official on his Facebook page, saying that Kapaun will be honored April 12 at the Pentagon.
Kapaun, a priest from Pilsen, Kan., who died in 1951, has been celebrated for his actions during the Korean War. The Vatican has also classified Kapaun as a Servant of God, a step in the process to sainthood.
The Pentagon is expected to invite several of Kapaun's fellow former prisoners of war to attend the ceremony. They survived horrific conditions in the prison camp after they were captured in battles against the Chinese Army in late 1950, shortly after China entered the Korean War.
Kapaun grew up in Pilsen, in Marion County, and served there as a parish priest before joining the Army. He served in World War II and in Korea before he was captured. Kapaun died at the prisoner of war camp hospital seven months after he was first taken captive by the Chinese in 1950.
read more here
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Feb 23, 2013
WICHITA, Kan. — A Roman Catholic priest from Kansas will be awarded the nation's highest military award for bravery for his actions during the Korean War, according to former Kansas Congressman Todd Tiahrt.
Tiahrt told The Wichita Eagle that Emil Kapaun will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama in April. Tiahrt also posted a letter from a Pentagon official on his Facebook page, saying that Kapaun will be honored April 12 at the Pentagon.
Kapaun, a priest from Pilsen, Kan., who died in 1951, has been celebrated for his actions during the Korean War. The Vatican has also classified Kapaun as a Servant of God, a step in the process to sainthood.
The Pentagon is expected to invite several of Kapaun's fellow former prisoners of war to attend the ceremony. They survived horrific conditions in the prison camp after they were captured in battles against the Chinese Army in late 1950, shortly after China entered the Korean War.
Kapaun grew up in Pilsen, in Marion County, and served there as a parish priest before joining the Army. He served in World War II and in Korea before he was captured. Kapaun died at the prisoner of war camp hospital seven months after he was first taken captive by the Chinese in 1950.
read more here
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Chaplain casualty-care video game draws fire
Oh my God how much more are they going to keep getting wrong? They are right here in Orlando on top of everything else!
Chaplain casualty-care video game draws fire
By Michael Peck
Posted : Wednesday Feb 13, 2013
An Army computer game to train military chaplains may bring judicial rather than divine intervention. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is vowing to stop the project, and possibly file a lawsuit in federal court.
The simulation, tentatively named Spiritual Triage, is being created for the Army’s Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson, S.C., but the school doesn’t want it.
“The school still hasn’t made any requests for the simulation, nor does it intend to at this point,” said spokeswoman Julia Simpkins.
Spiritual Triage is beginning development at the Army’s Simulation and Training Technology Center, which awarded the contract to Orlando, Fla.-based Engineering and Computer Simulations. Scheduled to be completed by September, Spiritual Triage is intended to expose chaplains and chaplain assistants to stressful situations such as ministering to dying soldiers.
“Non-player characters are used to elicit feelings and conditions that one may encounter, such as fear of death and dying, faith, guilt, separation, despair, grief, as well as physical trauma such as pain, burns, amputations, and disfigurement, to name only a few,” according to the ECS website.
read more here
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Fort Campbell Military Ministry Fair focused on PTSD
'Military Ministry Fair' gets positive reviews
Mission of building bridges largely accomplished, participants say
Jan 11, 2013
Written by
Philip Grey
Leaf-Chronicle
FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — Over 180 people, representing a large number of area churches and mental health advocacy groups, participated in Fort Campbell’s Military Ministry Fair on Friday.
The event – the second such meeting in recent months – was held at Fort Campbell’s Liberty Chapel. Hosted by Installation Chaplain (Col.) Jeff Houston, the stated purpose of the meeting was to continue to build a bridge between the military and civilian faith communities.
According to participants who were interviewed, that task was largely accomplished.
'An informational event'
The goal beyond building bridges was to ensure that participants left with a good idea of the number of programs available to the military members of their faith communities, and information on how to refer soldiers and family members in need to appropriate agencies and programs.
Those who attended were provided with nearly an overload of information pertaining to the issues of PTSD, depression, military suicide and military family problems that stem from the stresses of over a decade of war.
Mission of building bridges largely accomplished, participants say
Jan 11, 2013
Written by
Philip Grey
Leaf-Chronicle
FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — Over 180 people, representing a large number of area churches and mental health advocacy groups, participated in Fort Campbell’s Military Ministry Fair on Friday.
The event – the second such meeting in recent months – was held at Fort Campbell’s Liberty Chapel. Hosted by Installation Chaplain (Col.) Jeff Houston, the stated purpose of the meeting was to continue to build a bridge between the military and civilian faith communities.
According to participants who were interviewed, that task was largely accomplished.
'An informational event'
The goal beyond building bridges was to ensure that participants left with a good idea of the number of programs available to the military members of their faith communities, and information on how to refer soldiers and family members in need to appropriate agencies and programs.
Those who attended were provided with nearly an overload of information pertaining to the issues of PTSD, depression, military suicide and military family problems that stem from the stresses of over a decade of war.
Frustration and hope
Pastor Carlo Serrano of Extreme Ministries, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who hosts “The Spirit of Clarksville” on WJZM 1400 AM on weekday mornings, was frustrated by the fact that military suicide rates continue to climb despite hundreds of programs, policies and procedures instituted by the military to help service members and their families.
However, he also sounded a hopeful note based on the day’s events. “Ultimately, I know the Army is doing everything they can,” he said, “just like local pastors are doing everything they can. I think the more we do these kinds of get togethers and meetings, we’ll eventually fill that gap.”
read more here
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Healing comes spiritually because PTSD is a trauma to the soul
Healing comes spiritually because PTSD is a trauma to the soul
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
January 9, 2013
There has been so much nonsense printed lately on PTSD connected to military service that it is hard to know where to begin on this other than at the beginning. If you ever read the Bible, you'd see all the signs of what we call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder being connected to ancient warfare and the spiritual struggles other humans faced. If you study the history of war, you'll see the suffering of the warriors from all across the globe and throughout generations under different titles but all of the reports point to just how humans suffer after war as well as heal.
It is understandable when people want to pretend the reports on combat PTSD are new just as they want to deny how many take their own lives. Having to face the reality of how many years this has all gone on is sickening. It is a lot easier to pretend it never happened before.
Just because it wasn't in the newspapers didn't mean it was not happening. All generations of warriors suffered the same way because combat is brutal and humans are still human.
Research began in overdrive after Vietnam Veterans came home but that was because they pushed for it to happen. In WWII, my husband's uncle was on the Merchant Marine ship sunk by kamikaze leaving survivors in the ocean. Back then "shell shock" veterans were sent to an institution or as in the case of his uncle, taken in by a family living on a farm where he spent the rest of his life. Few reporters were working on it back then and most reports came from local, small media publications. The movie The Best Years of Our Lives came out in 1946 and did a great job trying to explain what had been happening to too many WWII veterans. None of what is happening today is new as much as some want to pretend it is. There is much we have learned over the years but all of it supports what was already known by ancient people. Healing has to begin where the wound hit first. The soul.
Most of the veterans I talk to claim to be Christian but claim no church as their spiritual home. They left their churches many years ago because the church failed them. Honesty, we have to look at the fact while most Americans claim to be Christian, the percentage of "churchless" is evidence of the spiritual void.
U.S. Catholics going to church less frequently reported on CNN in 2011 was only part of the story. There has been a return back to the original ministry of the early Christians.
Churches fail them. I worked for a church for 2 years as Administrator of Christian Education. I kept trying to get the church involved in healing military families, especially National Guards and Reservists but they were not interested in doing anything to help the community. They were not unique. I visited over 20 huge churches here in Central Florida. I heard back from just one. The pastor happened to be a Chaplain but was being transferred and couldn't take on a new project. There are too many reports on how much community wide efforts help heal from trauma. Not just from war but from trauma in a civilian's life. The problem is too many are simply not interested in the fact that psychology addressing trauma is only part of the answer. The whole veteran needs to heal, bodily, mindfully and spiritually, in order to heal the hole in the veteran.
They try fill it with whatever gives them temporary relief. Alcohol to go to sleep when in fact they are passing out. Drugs they justify taking because the military/VA answer to all is medications. Driving dangerously because they are in "control" over how fast they go. Cutting because that is a pain they are in control over. Sexual encounters because it offers relief for the moment. The list goes on but none of them heal. It all wears off.
A Churchless Faith article has this piece of information from Sociologist Alan Jamieson
There is a place for all different approaches. Too many times it has been reported that military Chaplains are proselytizing instead of serving all who come to them in spiritual crisis.
This is what they called "suicide prevention" discovered in a report Army Chaplain Holds Christian Prayer During Suicide Prevention Class, Soldiers Say by Andrea Stone for the Huffington Post back in October of 2012.
They cannot feel as if they can see a military Chaplain without being condemned to hell if they do not covert. Yes, that is what is happening with too many servicemen and women seeking to heal spiritually. Medications numb but healing comes spiritually because PTSD is a trauma to the soul.
Now there seems to be some members of the clergy doing a push back against something that helps people from all backgrounds.
Meditation is healing for those with and without a faith base and Chaplains are supposed to be doing the same. Taking care of ALL coming to them in spiritual crisis.
If military Chaplains were doing their jobs and civilian members of the clergy were doing theirs, they would be a lot more involved in what heals.
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
January 9, 2013
There has been so much nonsense printed lately on PTSD connected to military service that it is hard to know where to begin on this other than at the beginning. If you ever read the Bible, you'd see all the signs of what we call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder being connected to ancient warfare and the spiritual struggles other humans faced. If you study the history of war, you'll see the suffering of the warriors from all across the globe and throughout generations under different titles but all of the reports point to just how humans suffer after war as well as heal.
It is understandable when people want to pretend the reports on combat PTSD are new just as they want to deny how many take their own lives. Having to face the reality of how many years this has all gone on is sickening. It is a lot easier to pretend it never happened before.
Just because it wasn't in the newspapers didn't mean it was not happening. All generations of warriors suffered the same way because combat is brutal and humans are still human.
Research began in overdrive after Vietnam Veterans came home but that was because they pushed for it to happen. In WWII, my husband's uncle was on the Merchant Marine ship sunk by kamikaze leaving survivors in the ocean. Back then "shell shock" veterans were sent to an institution or as in the case of his uncle, taken in by a family living on a farm where he spent the rest of his life. Few reporters were working on it back then and most reports came from local, small media publications. The movie The Best Years of Our Lives came out in 1946 and did a great job trying to explain what had been happening to too many WWII veterans. None of what is happening today is new as much as some want to pretend it is. There is much we have learned over the years but all of it supports what was already known by ancient people. Healing has to begin where the wound hit first. The soul.
Most of the veterans I talk to claim to be Christian but claim no church as their spiritual home. They left their churches many years ago because the church failed them. Honesty, we have to look at the fact while most Americans claim to be Christian, the percentage of "churchless" is evidence of the spiritual void.
U.S. Catholics going to church less frequently reported on CNN in 2011 was only part of the story. There has been a return back to the original ministry of the early Christians.
Churches fail them. I worked for a church for 2 years as Administrator of Christian Education. I kept trying to get the church involved in healing military families, especially National Guards and Reservists but they were not interested in doing anything to help the community. They were not unique. I visited over 20 huge churches here in Central Florida. I heard back from just one. The pastor happened to be a Chaplain but was being transferred and couldn't take on a new project. There are too many reports on how much community wide efforts help heal from trauma. Not just from war but from trauma in a civilian's life. The problem is too many are simply not interested in the fact that psychology addressing trauma is only part of the answer. The whole veteran needs to heal, bodily, mindfully and spiritually, in order to heal the hole in the veteran.
They try fill it with whatever gives them temporary relief. Alcohol to go to sleep when in fact they are passing out. Drugs they justify taking because the military/VA answer to all is medications. Driving dangerously because they are in "control" over how fast they go. Cutting because that is a pain they are in control over. Sexual encounters because it offers relief for the moment. The list goes on but none of them heal. It all wears off.
A Churchless Faith article has this piece of information from Sociologist Alan Jamieson
"Ironically, Jamieson says, the people perhaps best equipped to help postmodern seekers understand God were being lost to the church."
There is a place for all different approaches. Too many times it has been reported that military Chaplains are proselytizing instead of serving all who come to them in spiritual crisis.
This is what they called "suicide prevention" discovered in a report Army Chaplain Holds Christian Prayer During Suicide Prevention Class, Soldiers Say by Andrea Stone for the Huffington Post back in October of 2012.
During an Army-wide stand down for suicide prevention sessions, a Christian chaplain in Texas improperly led rookie soldiers in a candlelight prayer, an Army instructor said in a formal complaint last week.
Staff Sgt. Victoria Gettman, a lab technician instructor at Fort Sam Houston, told The Huffington Post that she was among 800 soldiers from the 264th Medical Battalion undergoing resilience training on Sept. 26. Almost all of the soldiers were fresh out of boot camp and in training for their first job in the Army.
After a 45-minute talk on how to cope with stress, the officer in charge turned the stage over to a chaplain for the sometimes controversial "spiritual fitness" part of the session.
Gettman did not catch the chaplain's name, and he has not been otherwise publicly identified. But as an atheist, she wasn't interested in what he had to say so she stood up and moved to the back of the auditorium. The 17-year Army veteran knew -- unlike the young soldiers -- that this part of the program was optional. Still, she could hear most of what the clergyman said from just outside the room.
"The chaplain said we have to have something bigger than ourselves. We need, and he stresses need, to have something divine in our life," she recounted, adding that the soldiers were not informed they were allowed to step out.
They cannot feel as if they can see a military Chaplain without being condemned to hell if they do not covert. Yes, that is what is happening with too many servicemen and women seeking to heal spiritually. Medications numb but healing comes spiritually because PTSD is a trauma to the soul.
Now there seems to be some members of the clergy doing a push back against something that helps people from all backgrounds.
Conservative Leader Upset Over Marine Corps MeditationPerkins may know a lot about what he thinks the Bible says but doesn't seem to know much about what happened in it when Christ walked this earth or what the very imperfect human body needs to recover. Meditation heals military Vets with PTSD
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
By Beth Ford Roth
A recent news article about Camp Pendleton Marines using meditation as a means of improving their mental health has the head of the Family Research Council up in arms.
Tony Perkins's comments were prompted by an article that ran last month in the Washington Times. In the piece, Camp Pendleton-based Marine Staff Sgt. Nathan Hampton discussed the benefits he got from attending meditation classes on base before deployment.
read more here
"George struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, a form of anxiety that develops after enduring a traumatic experience.
For five years, George underwent stints of medication and talk therapy, both intended to quell his PTSD symptoms. But neither method worked for him, he said.
"It [the medications] helped make me not who I am. It took away my creativity, my personality, my ability to care about anything," said George. "The one-on-ones were like, why am I talking to someone who has no idea what I've been through."
Until one day in 2009, while participating in a research session on transcendental meditation, George sat still for 20 minutes and focused on repeating a mantra.
"From the first time I did it, I knew it was what I would do for the rest of my life," said George. "It was the first time I felt quiet in my mind for five years."
Meditation is healing for those with and without a faith base and Chaplains are supposed to be doing the same. Taking care of ALL coming to them in spiritual crisis.
Chaplain / Pastor - Is There a Difference?
WRITTEN BY STEVE BALLINGER. POSTED IN TRAINING.
A question that has often been asked of me is—what is the difference between a chaplain and a pastor? That is a very legitimate question and one that needs to be answered, for many people are under the impression they are one and the same.
Both callings are wonderful callings on a person’s life, and are desperately needed, but they are very different in ministry. A pastor’s ministry deals mainly with in-reach, or we can say is church-based. Whereas, a chaplains ministry deals mainly with out-reach, and is community-based. A simple definition of a chaplain is, “a minister in the workplace.” In other words, Chaplains have a home church they attend, but their church is actually outside the walls of the church building. It’s called the community. Chaplains serve people of all faiths.
I am not saying the church does not do Missions work, for it does great missions work—locally, nationally and internationally. However, a chaplain at the local and national level has Constitutional protection, whereas a pastor does not. An ordained chaplain is recognized by the government, whereas an ordained pastor is not because of the separation of church and state issue.
If military Chaplains were doing their jobs and civilian members of the clergy were doing theirs, they would be a lot more involved in what heals.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Battle of Ia Drang Chaplain Nevin Snyder Remembered
From Bill Vagianos, President, Brevard Veteran's Memorial Center
In a place that came to be known as The Valley of Death, in a football field-sized clearing called landing zone X-Ray, Lt. Colonel Hal Moore and 400 young troopers from the elite newly formed American 7th "Air" Cavalry, were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers dug into the surrounding tunnel-pocked mountainside.
The ensuing battle was one of the most savage of the Vietnam War. Those men under fire, their common acts of uncommon valor, and their loyalty to and love for one another continually reflect our Honor and Commitment in service to our country.
The battle was depicted in the book and movie, "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young" Nevin Snyder was there and served heroically.
Nevin served for many, many years as Chaplain to the Vietnam Veterans of Brevard, the Brevard Veteran's Council, the Brevard Veteran's Memorial Center, and also ministered to the Veteran population at-large on an ongoing basis.
Nevin Snyder fought his final battle January 2, 2013. He will buried, alongside his wife at the Brevard cemetery with full Military Honors on Friday, January 18, 2013 at 1500 hours.
In a place that came to be known as The Valley of Death, in a football field-sized clearing called landing zone X-Ray, Lt. Colonel Hal Moore and 400 young troopers from the elite newly formed American 7th "Air" Cavalry, were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers dug into the surrounding tunnel-pocked mountainside.
The ensuing battle was one of the most savage of the Vietnam War. Those men under fire, their common acts of uncommon valor, and their loyalty to and love for one another continually reflect our Honor and Commitment in service to our country.
The battle was depicted in the book and movie, "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young" Nevin Snyder was there and served heroically.
Nevin served for many, many years as Chaplain to the Vietnam Veterans of Brevard, the Brevard Veteran's Council, the Brevard Veteran's Memorial Center, and also ministered to the Veteran population at-large on an ongoing basis.
Nevin Snyder fought his final battle January 2, 2013. He will buried, alongside his wife at the Brevard cemetery with full Military Honors on Friday, January 18, 2013 at 1500 hours.
JANUARY 5, 2013
My brother Nevin
My brother Nevin died Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 2, at Fellowship Manor in Whitehall, Pa. He was 84.
Nevin served as a pastor in Pennsylvania, where he grew up, before becoming a full-time army chaplain.
As a chaplain, his tours of duty included Vietnam and Thailand.
He was chaplain to the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Ia Drang where 72 American soldiers died, the first big loss of American lives in the Vietnam War. This battle was the basis for the movie We Were Soldiers, although the movie distorted the facts of the battle to try to make the story more upbeat.
It was not an upbeat story except for the honor of the soldiers who served and died. Retired General Hal Moore tells the real story in his book We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young on which the movie was loosely based.
The night before the battle, Nevin served communion to some of the 72 men who died the next day. After the battle, he was called upon to identify their bodies.
He told me that he smoked a cigar while identifying the bodies because the cigar smoke masked the smell of death. Otherwise, he said, he would have vomited. Better to look manly smoking a cigar than to break down.
read more here
Sunday, December 30, 2012
'Spiritual Triage' Training for Military Chaplains in Orlando
'Spiritual Triage' Training for Military Chaplains
Dec 25, 2012
Orlando Sentinel
by Richard Burnett
During more than a decade of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military chaplains often found themselves caught between heaven and hell: one moment leading a prayer service, the next dodging enemy fire to be at the side of a dying soldier.
From loss, grief and post-traumatic stress to plain old holiday blues, combat chaplains have seen it all in responding to calls for help from soldiers struggling with issues of faith and doubt, life and death.
Now, with the U.S. out of Iraq, operations winding down in Afghanistan and military spending under budget-cutting pressure, the Army is calling on Central Florida's computer-simulation training industry to create new "virtual" exercises for chaplains -- at a bargain price.
By all accounts, it is the first time the local training-simulation industry has tackled the sometimes thorny issue of war and faith. Considered the country's largest cluster of military-training contractors, the local industry is known more for high-tech weapons simulators than for counseling simulations -- much less religious ones.
Yet training-simulation engineers in Orlando are now crafting "serious-game" software to lead chaplains through a "virtual battlefield" in which they respond to injured and dying soldiers. Dubbed the "Spiritual Triage Trainer," it is based on a combat-medic training simulator that the Army has been using for the past several years.
"The Army's chaplain school really doesn't have a budget for these kinds of things, so we were looking for something we already have that we could reuse," said Beth Pettit, chief of medical-simulation training at the U.S. Army Research Lab's simulation-technology center in Orlando. "We saw this as low-hanging fruit: a low-cost system that could be turned around relatively quickly."
read more here
Dec 25, 2012
Orlando Sentinel
by Richard Burnett
During more than a decade of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military chaplains often found themselves caught between heaven and hell: one moment leading a prayer service, the next dodging enemy fire to be at the side of a dying soldier.
From loss, grief and post-traumatic stress to plain old holiday blues, combat chaplains have seen it all in responding to calls for help from soldiers struggling with issues of faith and doubt, life and death.
Now, with the U.S. out of Iraq, operations winding down in Afghanistan and military spending under budget-cutting pressure, the Army is calling on Central Florida's computer-simulation training industry to create new "virtual" exercises for chaplains -- at a bargain price.
By all accounts, it is the first time the local training-simulation industry has tackled the sometimes thorny issue of war and faith. Considered the country's largest cluster of military-training contractors, the local industry is known more for high-tech weapons simulators than for counseling simulations -- much less religious ones.
Yet training-simulation engineers in Orlando are now crafting "serious-game" software to lead chaplains through a "virtual battlefield" in which they respond to injured and dying soldiers. Dubbed the "Spiritual Triage Trainer," it is based on a combat-medic training simulator that the Army has been using for the past several years.
"The Army's chaplain school really doesn't have a budget for these kinds of things, so we were looking for something we already have that we could reuse," said Beth Pettit, chief of medical-simulation training at the U.S. Army Research Lab's simulation-technology center in Orlando. "We saw this as low-hanging fruit: a low-cost system that could be turned around relatively quickly."
read more here
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Bedford VA Chaplain investigated by the Archdiocese for the Military Services
UPDATE
VA chaplain suspended for alleged inappropriate talks with minors
VA chaplain suspended for alleged inappropriate talks with minors
Bedford VA Medical Center has had some of the best doctors working on PTSD in the country. I am not sure what the Chaplain is accused of but will post an update as soon as it is available.
Chaplain at VA hospital in Bedford is suspended
11/23/2012
By Brian Ballou and Martin Finucane
Boston Globe Staff
A chaplain at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford who has been living at a church rectory in Stow is under investigation for “personal conduct matters,” the Archdiocese of Boston said today.
The Rev. Luke Odor is being investigated by the Archdiocese for the Military Services, which supervises him, the Boston archdiocese said in a statement.
Odor has been suspended by the military archdiocese and the Boston archdiocese said it had followed suit, taking “similar action.”
read more here
Monday, November 12, 2012
Suicide prevention program for military announced, more of the same
Asking the same questions to the same people provides the same wrong answers. They need to stop what they have been getting wrong, beginning with Resiliency Training, and start from scratch. Telling these men and women they can train their brains to be mentally tough translates into they are mentally weak if they end up with PTSD. When will they ever learn this?
Suicide prevention program for military announced
MEDICAL NEWS
By Geraldine A. Collier
CORRESPONDENT
November 11, 2012
Military service members, from left, Bill M. Davidson, suicide prevention program manager for the Massachusetts National Guard; Laura K. Lakin, resilience coordinator for the Guard; Chaplain Laurence J. Bazer and Paul Gregory Smith, assistant adjutant general-Army for the Massachusetts National Guard, attend a suicide prevention partnership meeting held last week at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.
(T and G Staff/TOM RETTIG)
WORCESTER — More members of the U.S. Armed Forces died by their own hand — usually with a gun — during the first nine months of this year than had their lives ended by the enemy in Afghanistan during the same period.
That startling suicide statistic has led to a realization by National Guard units across the country that more effort needs to be spent identifying Guard members who could be suicidal, and getting them the help they need before a tragedy occurs.
During the first nine months of 2012, there were 247 suspected suicides among Army active- and reserve-duty personnel, compared to 222 military deaths among active and reserve personnel from “hostile causes” as of Sept. 28.
Members of the Massachusetts National Guard are as much at risk as their counterparts across the nation, although the number of suicides among Massachusetts Guard members since 9-11 has remained in the single digits, according to Major Gen. L. Scott Rice, adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard.
“That’s still more than we have had in the past,” said Major Gen. Rice, although he did not have exact figures.
“Every single one is more,” he said. “Every single one is special, making it important that we figure out why, what and where and how do we make it better for the future.”
read more here
Monday, November 5, 2012
Evangelical Protestant Navy Chaplains Pursue Bias Complaint
Court Lets Navy Chaplains Pursue Bias Complaint
Military.com
Nov 03, 2012
Associated Press
by Frederic J. Frommer
WASHINGTON - Evangelical Protestant chaplains who claim the Navy discriminates against them have won a second chance to obtain a quick court order against practices they say favor mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic chaplains for promotion.
read more here
Military.com
Nov 03, 2012
Associated Press
by Frederic J. Frommer
WASHINGTON - Evangelical Protestant chaplains who claim the Navy discriminates against them have won a second chance to obtain a quick court order against practices they say favor mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic chaplains for promotion.
read more here
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