Combat Veteran Returns to Sand Hill as Chaplain; Rusack Returns to Minister to Trainees

FORT BENNING, GA, UNITED STATES

11.30.2004

Courtesy Story

Fort Moore Public Affairs Office

1/34 Brigade Combat Team

FORT BENNING, Ga. - Chris Rusack was a reluctant 19-year-old basic trainee the first time he attended service at Soldiers' Chapel on Sand Hill, Fort Benning, Ga.

The Rochester, N.Y., native wavered for a year after high school before taking the plunge. The bottom line - the decisive factor - was money for college. He certainly never thought he'd go to war.

That was 18 years ago.

In the years that followed, Rusack, who grew accustomed to being called "Rucksack," honed his Infantry skills in Germany with the 3rd Infantry Division and at Fort Stewart, Ga., where he deployed with the 24th Infantry Division in the Gulf War.

There was one telling moment in the midst of war, a foreshadowing, when Rusack gazed at the battle and thought, "If there was a man of God here, today, what an impact he would make."

After the war, Rusack married and moved his bride, Cindy, home to Rochester, where he attended seminary and joined the Army Reserves. He and Cindy, and the two daughters who followed soon after, moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., where they bought their dream home and pastored a church.

Rusack tried to ignore the persistent, gentle calling back to the Army. For a time. "I resisted it for years," he said. "I said, 'Please, Lord, you can change this. Please.'"

But "God nailed it," Rusack said, "when he gave Cindy the vision." He confirmed what Rusack knew all along - his is a military ministry.

When Chaplain (Capt.) Rusack arrived at Sand Hill in April, after attending the Chaplains' Officer Basic Course, he parked his car in front of Soldier's Chapel and stood gazing at the place where his past met his future.

"I wept. I realized that everything cumulatively in my life had prepared me for this very place and this very time," he said. "I can say that in hindsight. God directed me every step of the way."

Now Rusack ministers to basic trainees who are headed to war. "That's the difference between them and me," he said. "They know they're going to war. To me, they're great American heroes."

As surely as Rusack knows God directed his path back to Fort Benning, he knows the road had to run through the Middle East.

"I've seen the horrors of war firsthand. I know what they're going through now, and I know what they're going to go face over there," he said. "They look to me for spiritual support and encouragement, and I can tell them, 'I was just like you, and if I can make it, you can make it.'"

Though Rusack insists he's nothing special, his experiences make him uniquely qualified for the ministry God designed for him.

"This isn't a job or a profession, it's a ministry unequaled," he said. "You can't match this level of impact in a civilian church. I see young men who would never darken the door of a civilian church. To get the opportunity to touch their lives is very serious business. I feel it strongly.

"I tell them physical and mental fitness is important to a Soldier, but spiritual fitness will carry you through the hardship and stress and terrors of combat. It did me."

• Date Taken: 11.30.2004
• Date Posted: 08.05.2005 03:00
• Story ID: 2650
• Location: FORT BENNING, GA, US