Photo By Master Sgt. Jim Greenhill | Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie, the adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard, talks...... read more read more
Subscribe
LANDSTUHL, Germany — The boxes arrive daily from the United States.
Some days, 15 boxes arrive. Some days, 20. Typically each week, between $8,000 and $12,000 in cash also pours in from U.S. citizens and groups.
The boxes and the money are meant for the wounded warriors who pass through here, most coming from Afghanistan or Iraq. More than 54,000 wounded warriors have passed through Landstuhl Regional Medical Center's doors since Operation Enduring Freedom began October 2001, according to a hospital spokesman.
Lined with shelves organized in a manner that would make even the most obsessive-compulsive supply sergeant proud is the Chaplains' Closet. The name is a misnomer, because it is about the size of your average neighborhood convenience store. Its official name is the Wounded Warrior Ministry Center.
The Chaplains' Closet shelves are stacked with clothing, toiletries and shoes. A box of shoes marked "single shoes, left" is for service members who are amputees. Their spirit shows in their humor. Recently, one Soldier took a left shoe and another Soldier took a right from the same pair. They looked at each other. "We're brothers," one quipped.
The service members who receive the donations didn't expect to be here — they arrived suddenly, with nothing, because they required treatment for wounds suffered on the battlefield. LRMC is a jointly-staffed, Army-commanded 138-bed facility near Ramstein Air Base. It is the largest American hospital outside the United States.
"We have CONEX boxes full of stuff," said Air Force Lt. Col. Curtis Wagner, a Protestant chaplain from the 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard, serving a 120-day rotation here. "We have a whole warehouse at Ramstein that's filled with these donations. We just get so much in, and then we distribute it to the Soldiers."
About 1,200 service members visit the Chaplains' Closet each month. If they are bed-ridden, a liaison officer gets their supplies for them. On average, servicemembers spend three to five days here before they are sent to the United States or back into theater.
A team of volunteers -- family members and the local community -- donates 500 to 600 hours each month to help the chaplains accomplish their mission.
"We have distributed over $2 million of financial support in these last seven or eight years," Wagner said.
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the chaplains take wounded warriors on trips in the local area to help them relax and sightsee. The chaplains use some of the donated money to pay for transportation and meals. "That helps break up their time here," Wagner said.
Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Barry of the 183rd Airlift Wing of the Illinois Air National Guard, a Roman Catholic chaplain and teacher from Chicago, is serving his sixth tour at LRMC in five years. "It's the best ministry I've ever done," he said.
Until Sept. 11, 2001, LRMC had two chaplains and two assistants. Since then, that staff has grown to seven chaplains and six assistants. The chaplain staff mirrors the jointness increasingly found throughout the Department of Defense. Two chaplains and two assistants are active duty Army; two each are Navy; two each are National Guard, and one is from the Canadian armed forces.
Service members at LRMC can talk with chaplains from a variety of religious backgrounds, including Buddhist. When they do not want to talk to a chaplain, the chaplains encourage servicemembers to talk with someone, because they believe talking helps with stress.
"One of the things we try to do is to get the guys to talk about what they've been through," Wagner said. "It's a privilege to me. I get a front seat to these incredible, heroic things that they've done."
| Date Taken: | 06.17.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 06.26.2009 15:28 |
| Story ID: | 35685 |
| Location: | LANDSTUHL, RP, DE |
| Web Views: | 213 |
| Downloads: | 96 |
This work, National Guard chaplains contribute to Landstuhl's spiritual warrior care team, by MSG Jim Greenhill, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT