Keeping the Faith in Iraq

There are no atheists in foxholes, the saying goes, and that is what makes the job of military chaplain both, rewarding and challenging. Until last year, Captain Don Larson served as a chaplain with the Army National Guard at Balad Air Base in Northern Iraq. He made national headlines, when he converted to Wicca and lost his chaplaincy during the beaurocratic redtape that followed. However, Capt. Larson has kept his faith despite this setback; his faith in his religious path, his faith in the US mission in Iraq, and most importantly: his faith in the men and women who are deployed there.

As he told me of his experiences in Iraq, his voice was calm, almost serene. I had the sense I was speaking with a deeply spiritual man.

He could not hide his admiration for the soldiers under his care, even over the phone.

"I just look at these nineteen and twenty year-olds with profound respect," he said. "Because when I was their age, I was just beginning to understand who I was."

To illustrate his point, he related the story of a young man who conducted himself with bravery and compassion.

The event occurred when he was filling in for another chaplain. Capt. Larson was briefly attached to a QRF, a quick reaction force, tasked with security and reconnaissance; they are expected to respond to any given event on very short notice, usually less then fifteen minutes.

"When they come back (from a response call), and they have lost one of their team members or they have engaged the enemy, they have a debriefing," he explained. "You sit down, and you ask them what happened and let the soldiers share and touch base."

Capt. Larson's role during these debriefings was to help assess the soldiers' psychological and spiritual state of being.

"I try to see if everybody is okay," Capt. Larson said. "Or if someone is going through a grief cycle or is closing down, cutting off from everbody else, because they've experienced something extremely traumatic."

In this particular event, the unit was ambushed. An IED, an improvised explosive device, went off, disabling the first vehicle in a convoy, and an insurgent sprayed the soldiers with small arms fire.