wfn.org | Episcopalians: Meeting the troops: Bishop Packard visits armed forces in Asia and Kuwait

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

November 20, 2002

2002-265

Episcopalians: Meeting the troops: Bishop Packard visits 
armed forces in Asia and Kuwait

by Jerry Hames

(Episcopal Life) Bishop George Packard, who returned from a tour 
of U.S. armed forces troops in Asia and Kuwait last month, said 
he was impressed by how well-trained, how alert and especially 
how young the men and women were who are serving their country 
overseas.

The bishop for the armed services spent three weeks touring 
Guam, Japan, Korea and Kuwait as part of his responsibility to 
maintain contact with Episcopal chaplains, support their work 
and conduct confirmations.

Packard, who was an infantry officer in Vietnam, said he found 
the situation in Korea as tense as that in Kuwait, after an 
incident in which one soldier was killed and two other injured 
in a skirmish on a nearby island.

"The visit to the men and women of the Eighth Army [in Korea] 
had more gravity than at other times," he said. "Everyone said 
that recent revelations about nuclear capability to the north 
was not new, but just confirmed their suspicions."

In Kuwait, U.S. Army Chaplain Maj. Robert Neske emphasized the 
precarious nature of that country's geography, a land carved 
from a British protectorate for its petroleum-producing 
capabilities.

"Everything is about an hour's drive away," said Packard. "Saudi 
Arabia to the south, Iran to the northeast, the Gulf to the east 
and, of course, Iraq to the west."

Neske, who joined the Army chaplaincy in 1986, is at Camp Doha, 
whose troop strength ebbs and flows as troops pass through, 
augmenting those assigned there. Eight thousand were there when 
he visited, Packard said. He described the camp, 45 minutes from 
Kuwait City, as a collection of warehouses created as a support 
facility after the Gulf War. When Neske arrived in June 2002, it 
was a routine hardship tour for the chaplain. Now, that has 
changed.

"Bob's responsibilities are enormous, particularly the potential 
amidst an unfolding drama with Iraq," explained Packard, who 
said that for every man and woman on active duty, four are from 
reserve units or the National Guard.

"There is very great need for a chaplain here," said Packard. 
"There are many active opportunities for ministry."

"These are kids who have never been in combat before," he added. 
"There's a factor of boredom, a lot of time just to think, to 
worry about home and to become depressed. Their presence here 
has drawn them from all congregations across our country."

In Kuwait, in keeping with the tradition of Muslims, Packard 
officiated Thursday through Friday at major chapel services that 
included a 30th-anniversary celebration of Neske's diaconal 
vows. 

He also was driven to Arijan, a support-base-in-the-making 
closer to the front, to greet troops, including those from a 
National Guard's engineers' unit from Paris, Tennessee, that is 
responsible for heavy combat, perimeter security and 
mine-clearing.

Packard praised the chaplains' work. "My favorite image was of 
our chaplain in Kuwait stopping, taking a young soldier into the 
shade of a vehicle and listening intently," he said.

------

--Jerry Hames is editor of Episcopal Life.