chaplain's role

Friends;

I am headed into what appears to be my last month on deployment. I am writing my afteraction report and reflecting on the significance of this work. Janet and I have traveled over 11,000 miles between Afghanistan, Qartar, and Iraq. I have a fairly realistic view of what is going on here and I am encouraged, that we are doing the right thing. I believe that as we increasingly engage the civilian population here the prospects for peace will increase, not only in these countries but across the middle east. I am enclosing a wonderful article from the CENTCOM news. It is exactly what I believe Chaplains should be doing.


26 October 2006
By Spc. Mike Alberts3rd BCT, 25th Inf. Div PAO

KIRKUK – Diversity is the mark of the Kirkuk province. Arabs, Christians, Kurds and Turkman coexist here with all their attendant cultural and religious nuances. Despite its many differences, however, there is a commonality among many of the region’s people, and that’s poverty. Coalition Force religious leaders and representatives from Kirkuk ’s Religious Unity Council met to discuss their joint, cooperative “mosque food-drop” for less-fortunate people here at the Al Rasheed Mosque Oct 12.The Kirkuk Religious Unity Council consists of local and regional Muslim and Christian religious leaders that formed an alliance after a diversity conference 18 months ago. Since then, the group meets regularly to discuss how the community’s religious leaders can positively affect Kirkuk , according to Chaplain (Maj.) Scott Sterling, brigade chaplain, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.“The council is a unique organization. Its membership includes all the different religious sects and ethnic groups of the area,” said Sterling . “Through this humanitarian program they are recognizing the need to come together in a show of unity amidst their diversity for the needy people of the city. They have set aside their differences to do something good for their community,” he said.


According to Sterling , the program was planned to coincide with Ramadan. For Muslims, Ramadan is a month of blessing marked by prayer, fasting and charity. For that reason, religious leaders were determined to give gifts of food to the needy members of their congregations. Coalition Forces assisted by providing the food, which everyone seemed to appreciate.

“Your involvement in giving food is a very good thing,” said Sheik Ali Khalid through an interpreter. Ali Khalid is a Sunni Arab and the Religious Unity Council Chief. “Because it is during Ramadan my people will see that coalition forces are helping people. For that reason, this holiday is the perfect time to reach our people,” he said.
50 food baskets including sugar, tea, rice and cooking oil are delivered to the doorstep of the Al Rasheed mosque, Kirkuk .
The religious partnership provided basic food staples like sugar, tea, rice and cooking oil, among other things, for 50 families per mosque. The program targeted 11 mosques here and five in the district of Hawija. While providing food to the needy is the primary goal of the food drop, Chaplin Sterling emphasized an equally important goal.“In this society, the people tend to listen to their religious leaders more than their political leaders. If we can empower the religious community, they could be a positive force in the city and for coalition forces,” said Sterling .



Let there be HOPE!!!

Dave

leaving afghanistan

Friends;

Janet and I just completed our second tour of Afghanistan. What and extraordinary country and beautiful people. This web address will bring you to the centcom website which details much of what we are doing in Afghanistan. http://www.cfc-a.centcom.mil/ If you go to Freedom Watch and click on Oct 16 you will discover the wonder of what America is really about in this part of the world. Please note the picture and quotation on the last page of this magazine. If you are interesting in what is really going on in this part of the world, spend some time on this website. I am also posting two pictures of Janet and I at KKC which is a good ways south of FOB Sharana where we traveled the other day. My last post dealt with our convoy to the south. Since then we spent a day on the road working with our Red Horse members (or rather watching them work) and living with them in their simplicity for 5 days. It was decided that it was too dangerous to continue on the stretch of road going north our of KCC, so our crew is working to the south of KKC. Roads in this part of the world are a huge advance for the Afghan people.

I have met several people who are involved with the Provincial Reconstruction Teams in both Afghanistan and in Iraq. They are passionate in their belief that what they are doing is decisive for the long term future of the part of the world. It is deeply discouraging to read the papers and watch the news that totally ignores the reality of the good we are doing. I am hopeful for Afghanistan . We are even now seeing the fruits of our labors. I believe this same approach, the PRT's, are the long term solution in Iraq. A young officer from the PRT at COB Speicher shared this with me as we spoke nearly a month ago now. I intend to make appointments with my federal elected officials when I return and share this belief with them.

I wish you well, we head back to Iraq early next week and will make a final round of visitations before we return home around the first part of December.

PEACE;

DAVE

children of afghanistan

These pictures were taken by Janet and emailed to me this morning. What an amazingly beautiful people, but you can tell in these pictures how desperately poor they really are. Keep up the good work Dad and Janet. We are all so, so proud of you! Heidi

New FOB

Friends;

Our journey has led us to a place called KKC. It is a FOB south of our FOB Sharana. This is as far "down range" as I intend to travel. In order to get here we (My assistant Janet and I) traveled with a Route Clearance Team. Its a convoy that looks for IED's and so on. This part of Afghanistan has had very little of this activity so the trip wasn't all that dangerous. This is my fourth convoy and each one has been a revelation. In this instance it was a revelation of a crushingly poor nation and its beautiful people. I am posting two pictures, both of which I found on line. The first is the famous picture of a young girl who was on the cover of National Geographic. This picture reveals the humanity behind the agony of this nation. The second picture is very close to the children I saw today. The little girls especially are dressed in bright, dazzling colors. They would smile at us and give us thumbs up or the peace sign. One young man though, gave us the thumbs up and then changed it to the one finger salute. Perhaps he was revealing something of the ambivalence of our involvement here. The men and boys who were saw were in a word, severe. They all seemed deeply intent on our passing by. Our Red Horse members who are deployed here are building a road to link this FOB to FOB Sharana. Its a distance of about 50 miles (it took me 6 hours to get here this morning) A road is a revolution in this country. A road brings connection between villages and opens up a vast new world for the desperate poor of this nation. I will write more later on how we can become involved in helping this beautiful and elegant people.

Blessings

DAVE