Article 32 and other Genuine Ones
An Article 32 hearing is a legal proceeding where an officer is appointed to investigate and make a recommendation if a courts martial should be held. In this case the BN XO was appointed as the Article 32 officer that vests him with the power to conduct something like a grand jury hearing to see if a crime has been committed. But, the difference is that the officer is prosecutor, judge and jury. There had been a case of sexual harassment in which a SGT was implicated on three counts.
The XO requested that I come along (not to be part of the hearing), but to be present as witnesses gathered in case a soldier wished to speak with a chaplain. I agreed that it was a good idea. In fact I complimented him on thinking about how a chaplain's presence can be helpful in these situations. Events like this can be hard on units because emotions run high and individuals have mixed loyalties. When we arrived at the site there were a few soldiers milling about, so I made some small talk with one of them. It turned out that he and one of his sons were on the deployment together. His children were rather accomplished—one had just completed engineering school.
As we were talking, more soldiers gathered including the XO who gave a brief statement about the process. One young female soldier with a slender frame and face looked upset. It turned out that she was deployed with her father. They were from Tennessee. The soldier had brown hair and eyes. I could see some anxiety there. I approached here and she shook a little and starting tearing up. The only thing I could say was “Tell what you know. This is part of making things better.” Her father agreed. After the session began, Hargrave and I waited downstairs a bit. It ended rather quickly. Apparently, the defendant “lawyered up” and there was not much to be said at this point. This means that in a few weeks there will be a formal Courts Martial proceeding—the first one for the 28th since WWII. I have since learned that the proceedings will continue sometime later in March. I have been asked to be present again. The presence of a chaplain is a reminder that these are very much human matters as they are official matters. Plus I see my purpose of “presence” to take things as they come up and that God’s truth and purpose will be revealed.
Missteps can happen even when one tries to show discretion and “do the right thing.” While I cannot reveal much in the way of details, I can say that I ended up being involved in another investigation regarding a male and female who were involved in an affair. While that fact of relations itself is touchy in the Army, add to the fact that they’re both married and the male broke into the female’s quarters one evening and you have a big problem. On top of all that, the male had previously come to see me for counseling. Plus, at one time I witnessed him grabbing her but chose to speak with her about it instead of confronting him. Where I didn’t pay attention was when I was asked if I would sit in during an investigation. It is here where I should (and properly) have said it was not my place to be involved. Instead I was involved and even asked questions of the soldiers. A chaplain should be aware of the dangers of being perceived as part of a prosecutorial process. One could quickly lose creditability. At one point, it was suggested that I may be required write a sworn statement. As the days have passed since this conversation, it seems less likely that I will have to face such a thing. I indicated that any statement on my part would be very limited due to issues of confidentiality. The Army is clear on what constitutes confidential or sensitive information. As I move further away from this episode, I will take it as a learning experience.
I am not sure that either the male or the female trusts me. I may have done what the command thought was right, but had I known the boundaries better, I probably wouldn’t have fallen into the potential trap. God knows that there are all sorts of little sagas going on in the camp. If I were to be seen as a policeman, then I might as well hang up the ministry hat.
Recently, I was blessed by a visit from a chaplain friend who I met during training at Ft. Jackson. CH Fisher gave me a big hug when he saw me and immediately I felt like we could pick up from where we left off. The last time we spent any real time together was at a pub in downtown Columbia where we shared beers, dinner and laughter. Jonathan Fisher pretty much stole the hearts of the audience at our graduation dinner with his comedic antics and impressions of the cadre NCO’s and officers. When arranged alphabetically in class, we were adjacent to each other. I was able to hear his fine voice while singing and gained a sense that he is a happy person. CH Fisher comes from an evangelical free church background and leads services with a guitar and praise. While I come from a whole different tradition an approach to ministry, I feel that I have made several friends from the school house days. More and more, I am finding that they are deployed here.
Frequent Flyers. Every Chaplain has them. That is what we sometimes call those hapless souls that find their way to the chaplain’s office regularly. They can sometimes test one’s patience. There is one young man with whom I have been supporting throughout most of the deployment. Initially he came to me with concerns about sleeping and then he came to me asking if I could do an “engagement ceremony” over the phone. We took care of these things. Then he got it in his mind that he didn’t belong here, so he put all his effort into building a case against his sanity. After months of being bounced around and even being demoted for a stupid threat, it seems like he is getting his wish. Part of me is truly concerned for him and part of me trusts that he knows to get what he wants because I’ve seen him do it here. After almost reaching the boiling point of my frustration with him, I decided that it wasn’t my job to try to fix him, simply to acknowledge and argue for his humanity. I believe that even though some treated him as though he were giving the Army a snow job, he is truly a person in need and deserves good care. I just hope that when he gets home, that he is able to get more of what he does need in order to live a more stable and happy life.
The long deployment is wearing on some of the college aged soldiers. Many of them had their studies disrupted. There were some who were even freshmen and had attended college for a number of weeks before they were called up. Recently I dealt with two women friends who had to be separated because one was needed at another FOB. Both were in their late teens/early twenties. The one who remained here took it hard. She was brought to my office sobbing. I told her that she didn’t have to talk about anything if she didn’t want to—that she could just sit a feel OK here. After a while I broke the silence with a couple of questions about the situation and I talked about loneliness and that there was no shame in it. Taking a cue from an old friend of mine, I decided that maybe she would enjoy me reading some “Winnie the Pooh” to her. We all regress in times of stress and letting her know that it was OK to go back to a place where she needed to temporarily be soothed a child. Yes, unconventional. Yet it was effective. In a matter of a short time the soldier decided that she should go use the phone to talk with her parents. In chaplain’s school we were shown photographs of young injured soldiers holding teddy-bears and were reminded by our cadre that many of our soldiers are still adolescents. I am grateful for the experience that I had on campus at Franklin and Marshall College for six years. My mentor used to say that “the twenties are a difficult time in life.” They are when one has something of a “normal” life. Add a deployment and life in a war zone and the issues quickly come to the surface. These kids are required to grow up so quickly. I admire and feel for them.
One interesting man I met recently over lunch was a young Captain, an Airbone-Ranger type. He had served his entire career in the infantry. By his looks he had some Asain or Polynesian in him. He may be in his late twenties and was thinking about what he wants to do next in life. He said, “Infantry gets old after a while.” I asked him about the impressive tabs and patches he was wearing. He said that he was “just checking off boxes.” I reminded him that we are always changing a growing into something new. When I talk in this pastoral way, I often feel that I am mostly preaching to myself. He was the kind of young man that anyone would be proud to have as a son or friend. I kept hearing in the background of my mind, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
The XO requested that I come along (not to be part of the hearing), but to be present as witnesses gathered in case a soldier wished to speak with a chaplain. I agreed that it was a good idea. In fact I complimented him on thinking about how a chaplain's presence can be helpful in these situations. Events like this can be hard on units because emotions run high and individuals have mixed loyalties. When we arrived at the site there were a few soldiers milling about, so I made some small talk with one of them. It turned out that he and one of his sons were on the deployment together. His children were rather accomplished—one had just completed engineering school.
As we were talking, more soldiers gathered including the XO who gave a brief statement about the process. One young female soldier with a slender frame and face looked upset. It turned out that she was deployed with her father. They were from Tennessee. The soldier had brown hair and eyes. I could see some anxiety there. I approached here and she shook a little and starting tearing up. The only thing I could say was “Tell what you know. This is part of making things better.” Her father agreed. After the session began, Hargrave and I waited downstairs a bit. It ended rather quickly. Apparently, the defendant “lawyered up” and there was not much to be said at this point. This means that in a few weeks there will be a formal Courts Martial proceeding—the first one for the 28th since WWII. I have since learned that the proceedings will continue sometime later in March. I have been asked to be present again. The presence of a chaplain is a reminder that these are very much human matters as they are official matters. Plus I see my purpose of “presence” to take things as they come up and that God’s truth and purpose will be revealed.
Missteps can happen even when one tries to show discretion and “do the right thing.” While I cannot reveal much in the way of details, I can say that I ended up being involved in another investigation regarding a male and female who were involved in an affair. While that fact of relations itself is touchy in the Army, add to the fact that they’re both married and the male broke into the female’s quarters one evening and you have a big problem. On top of all that, the male had previously come to see me for counseling. Plus, at one time I witnessed him grabbing her but chose to speak with her about it instead of confronting him. Where I didn’t pay attention was when I was asked if I would sit in during an investigation. It is here where I should (and properly) have said it was not my place to be involved. Instead I was involved and even asked questions of the soldiers. A chaplain should be aware of the dangers of being perceived as part of a prosecutorial process. One could quickly lose creditability. At one point, it was suggested that I may be required write a sworn statement. As the days have passed since this conversation, it seems less likely that I will have to face such a thing. I indicated that any statement on my part would be very limited due to issues of confidentiality. The Army is clear on what constitutes confidential or sensitive information. As I move further away from this episode, I will take it as a learning experience.
I am not sure that either the male or the female trusts me. I may have done what the command thought was right, but had I known the boundaries better, I probably wouldn’t have fallen into the potential trap. God knows that there are all sorts of little sagas going on in the camp. If I were to be seen as a policeman, then I might as well hang up the ministry hat.
Recently, I was blessed by a visit from a chaplain friend who I met during training at Ft. Jackson. CH Fisher gave me a big hug when he saw me and immediately I felt like we could pick up from where we left off. The last time we spent any real time together was at a pub in downtown Columbia where we shared beers, dinner and laughter. Jonathan Fisher pretty much stole the hearts of the audience at our graduation dinner with his comedic antics and impressions of the cadre NCO’s and officers. When arranged alphabetically in class, we were adjacent to each other. I was able to hear his fine voice while singing and gained a sense that he is a happy person. CH Fisher comes from an evangelical free church background and leads services with a guitar and praise. While I come from a whole different tradition an approach to ministry, I feel that I have made several friends from the school house days. More and more, I am finding that they are deployed here.
Frequent Flyers. Every Chaplain has them. That is what we sometimes call those hapless souls that find their way to the chaplain’s office regularly. They can sometimes test one’s patience. There is one young man with whom I have been supporting throughout most of the deployment. Initially he came to me with concerns about sleeping and then he came to me asking if I could do an “engagement ceremony” over the phone. We took care of these things. Then he got it in his mind that he didn’t belong here, so he put all his effort into building a case against his sanity. After months of being bounced around and even being demoted for a stupid threat, it seems like he is getting his wish. Part of me is truly concerned for him and part of me trusts that he knows to get what he wants because I’ve seen him do it here. After almost reaching the boiling point of my frustration with him, I decided that it wasn’t my job to try to fix him, simply to acknowledge and argue for his humanity. I believe that even though some treated him as though he were giving the Army a snow job, he is truly a person in need and deserves good care. I just hope that when he gets home, that he is able to get more of what he does need in order to live a more stable and happy life.
The long deployment is wearing on some of the college aged soldiers. Many of them had their studies disrupted. There were some who were even freshmen and had attended college for a number of weeks before they were called up. Recently I dealt with two women friends who had to be separated because one was needed at another FOB. Both were in their late teens/early twenties. The one who remained here took it hard. She was brought to my office sobbing. I told her that she didn’t have to talk about anything if she didn’t want to—that she could just sit a feel OK here. After a while I broke the silence with a couple of questions about the situation and I talked about loneliness and that there was no shame in it. Taking a cue from an old friend of mine, I decided that maybe she would enjoy me reading some “Winnie the Pooh” to her. We all regress in times of stress and letting her know that it was OK to go back to a place where she needed to temporarily be soothed a child. Yes, unconventional. Yet it was effective. In a matter of a short time the soldier decided that she should go use the phone to talk with her parents. In chaplain’s school we were shown photographs of young injured soldiers holding teddy-bears and were reminded by our cadre that many of our soldiers are still adolescents. I am grateful for the experience that I had on campus at Franklin and Marshall College for six years. My mentor used to say that “the twenties are a difficult time in life.” They are when one has something of a “normal” life. Add a deployment and life in a war zone and the issues quickly come to the surface. These kids are required to grow up so quickly. I admire and feel for them.
One interesting man I met recently over lunch was a young Captain, an Airbone-Ranger type. He had served his entire career in the infantry. By his looks he had some Asain or Polynesian in him. He may be in his late twenties and was thinking about what he wants to do next in life. He said, “Infantry gets old after a while.” I asked him about the impressive tabs and patches he was wearing. He said that he was “just checking off boxes.” I reminded him that we are always changing a growing into something new. When I talk in this pastoral way, I often feel that I am mostly preaching to myself. He was the kind of young man that anyone would be proud to have as a son or friend. I kept hearing in the background of my mind, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
posted by Chaplain (CPT) Fokas at 9:13 AM
