wfn.org | Soldier struggles with coming home after war

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 5,2003 News media contact: Kathy Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
7   E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL{529}

NOTE: The following story may be used as a sidebar to UMNS #527 and #528.
Photos are available.

A UMNS Feature
By Kathy L. Gilbert*

FORT STEWART, Ga.-United Methodist Chaplain Maj. Charles Herring pulls up in
front of Victory Chapel on post at Fort Stewart around 5:30 a.m. Inside,
chaplain assistant Cpl. Gary Harvey has the coffee started.

They have a little time to talk before Harvey has to report to P/T (physical
training) at 6:30 a.m. When he returns Herring has a special treat--sausage
croissants from Burger King. Eating the croissants brings back memories of
the opening of the Baghdad Airport Burger King.

"You had to wait three and a half to four hours for a Whopper and fries but
it was so good," Harvey says, grinning.

Those types of shared memories make it easy for soldiers like Harvey to talk
to chaplains like Herring.

"I ate the same sandy food, traveled the same dusty convoys," says Herring.
"To have been where they have been gives me a lot of credibility and gives me
a wonderful door of opportunity to help them explore deeper issues."

Harvey, 23, is having a hard time adjusting to coming back home after serving
in the war in Iraq. His wife Chenoa Cruz-Harvey, 24, is also having a hard
time understanding the man who has come back to her.

"I love my husband very much but the war does have its effects," she says.
"He is not the same man that went over there."

As a chaplain's assistant, Harvey assists in the religious services performed
by the chaplain, but he is also his bodyguard.

"I'm responsible for bringing him (the chaplain) home," Harvey says.

Herring says for a lot of the soldiers at Fort Stewart, this was their first
major deployment.

"A big part of counseling is to help them see 'Yes, you are different; yes,
you've changed, so celebrate the change and growth in your life'."

Herring is helping Harvey integrate his life in Iraq and his battle
experiences to coming back home to his wife and new son.

"Just as he was overwhelmed by battle experiences, now he is overwhelmed with
daddy experiences."

Harvey and his wife are new parents. They found out she was pregnant 10 days
before he deployed.

The images of war burned into his memory sometimes make it hard for him to
talk to his wife.

"Certain times, I realize I'm very different. I'm very cold now emotionally
where I used to be a very emotional person. A lot over there just kinda numbs
your emotions, numbs your nerves."

Herring had become a friend he can turn to, he says.

"It has been a lot of comfort just to be able to talk to him. He's a
soldier's soldier; he knows when it's time to be a soldier and when it's time
to be a chaplain. He melds the two roles very well."

The best advice Harvey has gotten from Herring is to concentrate on his
family.

"He has told me take care of what really needs to be taken care of and
everything else will fall into place."

 
 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org