Deployed chaplains minister to warfighters

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Scott Elliott
  • Air Force Print News
BOLLING AIR FORCE BASE, D.C. --  It was the summer of '69, the height of the Vietnam War. Young men were bleeding and dying daily all around war-torn Southeast Asia.

But on one particular day, things were different for the Americans at a base near the village of Buon Me Thuot, in the central highlands.

For a few hours that day, everything was OK - the Padre was there!

"What was going to be OK, I didn't know, but for a few hours there was an overwhelming calm feeling (because) the Padre was here and all was right in this hell hole," said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Warren "Randy" Robnett of his days as an air operations sergeant.

Many of the young men who knelt with then-Sergeant Robnett on that muddy ground to receive communion from the Padre died on that same muddy ground. But did having the chaplain and his assistant visit and share the gospel make a difference in their lives?

"Oh, yeah, an eternal difference," he said.

Robnett, who now serves as the readiness and Reserve affairs officer in the office of the chief of the chaplain service here, said deployed chaplains are still making a difference.

"I recently visited the troops at every location in (Southwest Asia) where we have Air Force personnel, and I saw on those young faces the same expression," he said.

The Air Force currently has about 60 chaplains of all faiths, along with 50 enlisted chaplain assistants, deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. These deployed religious support teams provide worship, liturgies, rites, ceremonies, pastoral care and counseling service to deployed airmen.

According to Chaplain (Capt.) Leslie A. Janovec, those duties are not too different from those performed at home station.

"One thing remains consistent for chaplains, either in a deployed setting or stateside: service to people," said Janovec, who is forward-deployed with the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing in the Arabian Gulf region.

That includes providing religious services to all people, even those who may be of different denominations or religions.

"Chaplains offer worship services and serve as a resource for personnel to accommodate their religious needs, whatever their faith group or denomination," Janovec said. "Chaplains facilitate free exercise of this constitutional right of all military members."

Janovec equates the military's need to deploy chaplains with those of other specialized career fields.

"How important is it to have doctors or nurses deployed?" she said. "Just as their services are necessary, so are the services that chaplains provide.

"Spiritual, emotional and physical health stand side-by-side equally," Janovec said. "When one of these aspects is damaged or missing, the whole person suffers. Just as there are professionals to deal with the emotional and physical dimensions, chaplains serve the spiritual aspect of life."

And bringing the whole person together is more important now than ever, Janovec said.

"As the probability of war looms, questions of faith and spirituality arise when one is confronted with the finiteness of life," she said. "Who is better trained to help others address these issues than a chaplain?"

Besides all the personal attention given to deployed airmen, chaplains play an important role in advising commanders of ethical and moral, as well as morale, issues, Robnett said.

"Commanders have come to realize that having a chaplain available to the troops means he or she will be able to keep more robust troops in the fight," Robnett said.

"To know that someone cares about their spiritual needs equates to spiritual health, and spiritual health is just as valued as physical health," he said. "That assures that Air Force men and women are ready to perform their missions."