wfn.org | Presbyterian chaplains activated for war on terrorism

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Note #6863 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

25-September-2001
01346

Presbyterian chaplains activated for war on terrorism

"We're never anxious to go.  We go with heavy hearts."

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterians serving in the U.S. Armed Forces are packing
their duffle bags and kissing loved ones goodbye as they prepare for
deployment in the campaign to strike back at terrorism.

More than 64,000 Presbyterians serve in the active forces of the military -
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. An even larger number are in
the reserves and National Guard.

About 120 Presbyterian clergy serve as active-duty military chaplains, and
about 150 others are chaplains for reserve or National Guard units. Sixteen
of them are women.

Some already have been deployed to potentially explosive areas such as the
Persian Gulf. Others are helping with homeland defense or with relief
efforts in New York City and Washington, DC. Some still await assignment.

"We're never anxious to go," said the Rev. Thomas Chadwick, a Presbyterian
who retired after 23 years as a Navy chaplain. "We go with heavy hearts. ...
We go with regrets."

Chadwick, director of the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military
Personnel, said thousands of Presbyterians, including chaplains and
uniformed personnel on active status, will be used in Operation Nobel Eagle,
the Bush administration's reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Chadwick said he knows of at least a handful of reservists and active
chaplains who already have been mobilized or have had their assignments
extended or altered.

"They make sacrifices, so that others might live in comfort. I think it's a
very humanitarian calling that these young people answer," said Chadwick,
who referred to chaplains as "Christ-like" patriots. The council Chadwick
directs recruits, interviews and endorses clergy from four Presbyterian
denominations, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), for active and
reserve duty in the Armed Forces, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the
Civil Air Patrol.

For more than 200 years, military chaplains have accompanied U.S. forces
wherever they have served. Chaplains conduct worship, provide pastoral
counseling and religious and moral education, and support family services.
They are active in crisis intervention, community services and humanitarian
programs. Chaplains won't be involved in combat, Chadwick said, noting that
the Geneva Convention prohibits chaplains from bearing arms.

But that does not keep them out of harm's way. Chadwick said Presbyterian
chaplains have been killed before in the line of duty.

He said he was aware of at least two Presbyterian chaplains killed during
World War II - George Rentz and Thomas Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick, who was not
related to PC(USA) stated clerk the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, was  killed
aboard the USS Arizona when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Both men later
had U.S. Navy ships named after them.

"They go with a sense of responsibility," Chadwick said. "And when the
balloon goes up, (when) the President calls, they're going to do their job."
Chadwick said the actual number of Presbyterians that have been deployed or
activated is not available. He said he learns every day of additional
active-duty Presbyterians and chaplains who have received new orders since
the Sept. 11 aerial attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Many part-time military chaplains are full-time church pastors. Some have
already notified their sessions and congregations that they will be
mobilized or are standing by for possible activation.

"I've been getting lots of calls from ministers," Chadwick said. "They're
anxious. ... (They ask), 'If I am called up, does my church continue to pay
my pension? Do I get any salary from the church? Do I only get salary from
the government?' These guys are realizing that they may soon be called, and
they're trying to get their house in order."

Presbyterian reservists were involved in the "partial mobilization"
announced by President Bush on Sept. 14, the first substantial mobilization
since Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The measure authorizes the call-up of
as many as 50,000 reservists and National Guard men and women to active
duty. About 35,000 of those were to be used to conduct port operations, lend
medical, engineering or general civil support, or help with homeland
defense, officials said.

"These initial call-ups had to do with ... individuals that have specialty
skills, but not necessarily whole (military) units. It's when an entire unit
gets activated that the unit chaplain is going to go. I'm waiting for the
next shoe to drop."

So is the Rev. Bill Wildhack, a chaplain and lieutenant commander in the
Navy reserve. Part of his unit, which drills at MacDill Air Force Base in
Tampa, FL, is serving in support of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in
the Middle East.

For now, Wildhack, a father of two young children and co-pastor of Maximo
Presbtyerian Church in nearby St. Petersburg, performs regular reserve
duties at MacDill - and waits.

"Forget what I'm doing right now, basic Navy reserve stuff," said Wildhack.
"The President said, 'Be ready,' and my family and congregation are talking
about what that will mean if the call comes."

Wildhack said he feels fortunate that, if he is called up, he can leave his
pulpit to his wife, Holly, co-pastor of the 350-member church.
"If I have to go, the church has a pastor," he said. "They don't have to
scramble to find somebody to cover for pastoral-care emergencies. They don't
have to scramble to find pulpit supplies. The church will be taken care of
... which is a great blessing to this congregation."

The Rev. Jeffrey Bell, a major in the Virginia National Guard and pastor of
Providence Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach, VA, also has been
mobilized since the attacks. He's chaplain for the Joint Task Force for
Civil Support at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, VA.
Among other PC(USA)-affiliated active duty chaplains mobilized or with new
orders: the Rev. Phil King, a Navy lieutenant stationed in San Diego, CA,
who is now in the Persian Gulf region; the Rev. John Owen, an active-duty
Navy lieutenant from North Puget Sound Presbytery serving on the USS Denver;
the Rev. Robert Fuehrer, a Navy lieutenant and chaplain from Grand Canyon
Presbytery, serving on the USS Theodore Roosevelt; and the Rev. Mark Tidd,
an active-duty Navy commander and chaplain stationed in the Persian Gulf
region.

Other Presbyterian active-duty chaplains are serving with the U.S. Coast
Guard, including the Rev. Larry Greenslit of Kiskiminetas Presbytery, a Navy
commander based in Miami, FL, who was sent to New York City in wake of the
attacks; and the Rev. Wilbur Douglass of Eastern Virginia Presbytery, also a
Navy commander, who also was assigned to a Coast Guard unit in New York
City.

Chadwick said of the Coast Guard chaplains, "They are not being deployed,
but simply re-utilized or put into new positions of ministry."

Many Presbyterian chaplains helped some victims at the Pentagon after a
commercial jet slammed into part of the building, killing more than 180
people.

Navy Commander Phil Gwaltney of South Alabama Presbytery felt the full force
of the attack and immediately rushed to minister to the injured. He has
since served as the Navy's chaplain coordinator, responding to requests from
the White House for chaplains to pray with and comfort grieving staff
members.

It is a long-practiced military tradition that a chaplain always accompanies
a fellow officer to notify family members of a service member's death.
The Rev. Margaret Kibben of Philadelphia Presbytery, a Navy commander
serving as a Marine chaplain in Quantico, VA, was called to Washington to
help with that duty. The Rev. Jim Boelens of Mission Presbytery, an Army
lieutenant colonel, and the Rev. Art Pace of Elizabeth Presbytery, also an
Army lieutenant colonel, were assigned to a joint-services Family Crisis
center in the Pentagon, offering grief counseling for families of Army
victims and conducting prayer sessions with rescue workers.

The Rev. David Hicks of Lehigh Presbytery, a brigadier general who is the
Army's deputy chief of chaplains, was in his Pentagon office at the time of
the attack but was not injured.
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