wfn.org | [LCMSNews] LCMS responds to Fort Hood shootings

["LCMS e-News" <LCMSENEWS@lcms.org>]

> 	
>	
> 	
>	
>11.19.2009		
>	LCMS News	 	
> 	

>THE LUTHERAN CHURCH Missouri Synod  	 	
>	

	

	November 19, 2009 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 98

LCMS chaplains, World Relief respond to Fort Hood shootings

>By Linda C. Hoops

>"It's been an awful week."

These are the words of Chaplain Dann Ettner, one of four Missouri Synod
chaplains assigned to Fort Hood, in the wake of the Nov. 5 shootings
there.  Ettner, an active duty reservist, lost five members of his
division during the rampage that left eight others dead and 42 wounded.

Because all five of the dead in his division were from other states,
chaplains in their home areas were responsible for notifying their
families. Ettner's duty "turned to comforting the living."

In an e-mail, he wrote, "I spent the first night in the ICU with four of
my [injured] soldiers.  On Friday morning I attended the military ramp
ceremony where they loaded the 13 caskets into a military aircraft bound
for Dover Air Force Base, Delaware."

The base serves as the transit point for slain soldiers prior to their
funerals.

"We continue to work with the hospitalized, their families who have
traveled here, as well as the soldiers who were released from the
hospital and returned to their units," he added.  "Survivors' guilt is
huge right now.  Soldiers are starting to say, 'I should have, could
have, would have.'"

It fell to LCMS Chaplain Oliver Washington to notify the family of the
death of a civilian employee who worked with his Army National Guard
division. Two soldiers in the division also were killed.

"When the initial news reports went out about the shootings, there was
no mention of any civilians who had died," he said.  "Therefore, when I
showed up with the CACO [Casualty Assistance Calls Officer] at the home
of Mr. Cahill, his wife was caught off guard by the news."

Michael Cahill of Cameron, Texas, was a 62-year-old physician's
assistant who helped treat soldiers returning from tours of duty or
preparing for deployment and was in the processing center at the time of
the shooting.

"I assisted [Cahill's wife] in making phone calls to tell loved ones,
and made sure a friend would be staying with her until her family
arrived.  They are a strong, Christian family," Washington said.

In the days immediately following the shootings, he and mental health
providers conducted debriefing sessions for anyone directly related to
the incident, then served as host to the three victims' families during
the memorial services.

"The whole event has been surreal," he said.  "I find myself often
reflecting on God's good grace in what He has brought me through in the
past, through my deployments, to have me serve here at this time."

As part of the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center's (CRDAMC) mass
casualty team, Chaplain Joe Pederson, who retired from active duty as an
Army chaplain in 2005 but was voluntarily recalled in 2008, reported to
the emergency room at 2 p.m. that Thursday while the wounded were still
being brought in.

"I worked in the ER until all the soldiers had been forwarded from the
emergency room to the operating room, the third floor, or sent on to
other hospitals," he wrote.  "I stayed at CRDAMC until 9 p.m., visiting
the wounded."

On Friday, Pederson counseled the soldiers and civilians in his
battalion who had been either at the hospital, in the building with the
shooter, or who came from the graduation ceremony next door to the site
of the shooting and rendered first aid.

"That evening I was assigned to the Fort Hood Spiritual Fitness Center
from 6 p.m. until midnight.  A woman who was very upset came in with her
husband. I ministered to her for about 40 minutes," he wrote.

Chaplain Mark Schreiber, director of the Synod's Ministry to the Armed
Forces, said all the chaplains will continue their ministries by
visiting the wounded who remain hospitalized and their families for
several weeks until the trauma has settled and the families are better
able to cope.

"All chaplains are trained in mass casualty exercises and stress
management and know what to do in these terrible, traumatic events,"
Schreiber said.

Rev. Carlos Hernandez, director of districts and congregations with LCMS
World Relief and Human Care (WR-HC), flew to the base Nov. 9 to assist
area LCMS pastors and their congregations in responding to the
shootings.

On Nov. 13, he wrote in a message that has been posted on WR-HC's Web
site ( http://www.lcms.org/?16049): "Probably the most intense moments
of the week were during the memorial ceremonies when 'roll call' began
and the [names of the] deceased are called -- three times -- and there
is no answer.  The silence was a powerful and poignant reminder that
precious lives were senselessly silenced."

"These ceremonies tear your heart out," Hernandez said that same day in
a radio interview on KFUO-AM.  "To see all these young people, just
children practically, whose friends and comrades have been taken away,
it's so emotional."

WR-HC has provided a $5,000 initial grant to Grace Lutheran Church and
School, Killeen, one of four LCMS congregations near the base, to assist
a Family Readiness Group (FRG) that is assigned to the 20th Engineer
Battalion.  Four of the battalion's soldiers were killed and 11 wounded.

The FRG, which provides a supportive network for the spouses of deployed
soldiers, is using the grant money to help families of the wounded as
they stay in the area to be close to their loved ones.

"Most of them came in with limited resources on a moment's notice," said
Nancy Ingenloff, leader of the FRG and a pre-kindergarten teacher at
Grace.  "We are trying to help them with food, gas, housing, and other
basic needs while they are here."

The FRG also assembled activity packets for the children of the
families, which included materials that tell of Christ's love for them,
said Ingenloff, who is the wife of a company commander in the battalion.

"When people are hurting, we would like them to seek comfort in Jesus'
arms," she said.  "They need to know there is a just and loving God,
even in times like these."

Grace's pastor, Rev. Andrew Greene, told WR-HC staff that the majority
of the church's congregation is in some way connected to army life, with
about 15 to 20 members having spouses deployed.

Hernandez visited the three other LCMS congregations that surround the
Fort Hood base:  Trinity and Immanuel Lutheran Churches in Copperas Cove
and Immanuel Lutheran in Temple, whose members already have contributed
more than $1,100 toward helping the victims and their families.

Rev. Bernard Schey, pastor of Trinity, Copperas Cove, said that,
although no one in the congregation had family members injured or
killed, the event still affects the congregation indirectly, as many are
either retired military or employed on the post.

One Trinity member is a respiratory therapist and was on duty at the
hospital where the more seriously wounded were taken.  "Not only was she
treating the young men and women who were wounded, but then she also had
to treat the alleged shooter, an obviously difficult position, and she
became extremely upset," he said.  Schey added that he has been
ministering to her through phone calls and visits.

"The work here has just begun," Hernandez wrote in his Web site message.
"We know that recovery is a long-term process.  But we are blessed to be
here in the early aftermath of this tragedy.  As the chaplain said in
his meditation at the memorial ceremony for the soldiers, 'We are to
make God real for each other in our grief.'"

To help WR-HC assist the families of the wounded:

	

*	Make a credit card gift online at http://givenowlcms.org (click
on "LCMS World Relief and Human Care Disaster Response," then "Fort Hood
Shootings Relief").

	

*	Make a credit card gift by phone at 888-930-4438.

	

*	Send a check to LCMS World Relief and Human Care, P.O. Box
66861, St. Louis, MO 63166-6861. (Make checks payable to LCMS World
Relief and Human Care, and note "Fort Hood Shootings Relief" on the memo
line.)

Linda C. Hoops is a freelance writer and a member of Lutheran Church of
the Resurrection, Sunset Hills, Mo.

>****************************************

If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release, contact
Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org
<mailto:joe.isenhower@lcms.org>  or (314) 996-1231, or Paula Schlueter
Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org <mailto:paula.ross@lcms.org>  or (314)
996-1230.

>****************************************

>	
> 	

This Edition of "LCMS News" e-News is provided
by:

Board for Communication Services, Division of News and Information

Contact Editor

<http://www.lcms.org/enews/contact_editor.asp?title=LCMS%20News&editori d
=6> 
	

This LCMS e-News message comes from a "Send Only" mailbox that
does not recognize replies. To reply to this message, please click on
"Contact Editor" above.

>_____

To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter and many others,
please visit LCMS e-News <http://www.lcms.org/enews> .
Share this Newsletter <http://www.lcms.org/enews/forward.asp?m=8170
with a Friend. 	
MessageId=8170 UserId=10073

>_____

© 2002 - 2008 The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod  <http://www.lcms.org/
.
No reproduction without consent. All rights reserved.