Well, we’ve reached the half-way point on the training exercise. Tomorrow morning we have “stand down” and mid-course AAR. I don’t have to go to work until after lunch – which is a good thing, I guess, because I forgot to pick up my laundry from the laundry point this afternoon. :-( However, I do still have a couple of days of clean underwear and socks, so fear not!
Anyway, I think that things are going pretty well, on the whole. Not as well as some exercises I’ve been on, but not too badly, either. Yesterday, I was surprised to hear that the Commanding General wanted to give me a commander’s coin, after the morning briefing. Someone had told him about an incident I was involved in right before I left Atlanta for this exercise in Kuwait.
A Soldier in Afghanistan was feeling upset – suicidal, actually – and for some reason he didn’t trust the leadership of his own unit to take care of his problems. So, he phoned back to Carlysle Barracks, Pensylvania – his permanent duty station – and vented his feelings to the mental health counselor he had been to for treatment in the past. When you have someone on the phone that you think is suicidal, you do your very best to keep him or her on the phone, while getting a helper to them. You never want to break contact with such a person.
This counselor, kept the Soldier on the phone, but he didn’t know how to get in contact with anyone who might be able to get to the Soldier in Afghanistan. However, he knew that Headquarters, US Army Central is the supporting Army headquarters for all Army forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and pretty much the whole of the Middle East and Southwest Asia. So, he kept the Soldier on the phone on one line, and on a different line, he phoned the Office of the Commanding General, US Army Central. That’s kind of like phoning the Governor of New York because someone in Queens is suicidal… sort of. The big difference is that pretty much ALL Army leadership takes the danger of suicide VERY seriously.
When the call came in, the Commanding General’s secretary – naturally – forwarded it to the Office of the Command Chaplain. My boss, the Deputy Command Chaplain, and the Current Operations Chaplain and I were still in the office when the call came (though we were pretty much on the way out the door). I went to the Operations Center of US Army Central to get a phone number for the young Soldier’s Brigade Headquarters. The Deputy Command Chaplain and the Current Operations Chaplain kept the mental health counselor on the phone and somehow found a phone number to a Master Sergeant in Afghanistan who knew this particular Soldier personally.
So, by the time I got back with the phone number of the unit headquarters, the Current Operations Chaplain had already launched this Master Sergeant in the direction of the young Soldier to get him the help he needed. For chaplains – as much as for the mental health counselor – we just considered it our duty to do what we could to help this Soldier. That’s especially true since his life was in danger. Apparently, though, the Commanding General’s secretary was impressed, and told the CG about it.
So, he sent notes thanking and commending me and my fellow chaplains, and after the morning operations brief, called for us to meet him by his “office” (a tent which is part of the command post complex of linked tents) and presented a commander’s coin to me and to the Deputy Command Chaplain. The Current Operations Chaplain didn’t come on this exercise. He has a badly sprained ankle, and besides, is getting ready to leave our unit so he has some administrative out-processing to do. I assume he’ll get his coin from the Commander when we get back to Atlanta.
The General said he didn’t want to make too big a fuss over it, because he knows chaplains “aren’t in it for the glory,” but it would have been very easy to say, “It’s just too hard to do,” and he wanted us to know he was pleased that we would go the extra mile for a Soldier’s well-being.
For those who don’t know, military commanders (battalion level and above) traditionally have unit coins made with distinctive designs that they give out as awards for special performance that they want to recognize, but which they don’t consider to be at a level that deserves a medal.
There several traditions that have arisen around those coins, such as – when Soldiers are in the club, they can challenge one another by pulling a unit coin out of their pockets and tossing it on the bar. A Soldier who doesn’t have a coin to respond with buys a round for the Soldier who challenged him. For that reason, the coins are also called “challenge coins”.
Soldiers value those coins. Many of them value them more than medals and it is a point of pride to them if they can get a coin from every unit where they’ve been assigned. It’s also a common way to give recognition to a Soldier who gives good support to a unit to which they are NOT assigned as well, so many Soldiers end up with coins from units they’ve never served in, as well. The tradition is not unique to the Army, either.
Anyway, all three of us chaplains really felt that we were just doing our duty and I suppose I’m really writing this up to have something to write about, just to keep in touch with my friends and family. Still, I think it gives insight into the General’s character, that he values and goes out of his way to show his respect for people who do what it takes to save the life of a Soldier. Actually, I already knew I like this guy. He hasn’t been in command of US Army Central for very long – it will be a month next week – but I can tell already, he controls his temper, he controls his language, I’ve seen him angry but I’ve never seen him abuse or degrade anyone… and I have seen him go out of his way to show how he values people.
So, … as far as the command climate goes… I think I can look forward to a reasonably good year.
Fr. Jonathan Landon +
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