April 21, 2003 Chaplain brings calm to service families By NORA K. WALLACE Maj. David Terrinoni likes to say that on the battlefield, military chaplains bring a little sanity to an insane situation. Though he wasn't deployed to the war in Iraq, the Vandenberg Air Force Base senior Protestant chaplain has spent the past few months counseling service men and women readying to deploy, as well as their families. Some teens on base, for example, have talked to him because they were afraid of what might happen if their parents were sent to the battle zone. The war and conflicts in Afghanistan and elsewhere have drawn more than 200 men and women away from Vandenberg for months at a time. As they prepared to leave, many came to the base chapel for religious counseling, as did their spouses and children. The minister himself has been deployed to Northern Ireland, Malaysia and three times to Bosnia. Last year, he was part of Operation Enduring Freedom, though he can't disclose where he went. "It is a challenge," he said. "And it's a good opportunity for ministry. This is where chaplains earn their bread and butter. It's like firemen. You don't think about them until you need them. And then you're so glad they're there. I hear that so often." At Vandenberg, seven chaplains and five chaplain assistants serve the base community. Of that group, two are deployed overseas, including wing chaplain Lt. Col. Gary Bomberger. In his absence, Maj. Terrinoni has assumed the acting wing chaplain title. The 46-year-old officer is a "second career minister" who was a salesman in Chicago when he felt called to the ministry at age 29. He has been an active duty officer for 16 years, essentially loaned from his church to the military. "When I was in Chicago (at the seminary), my colleagues in ministry tended to paint people in the military as warmongers," he recalled. "I have not found that to be true. I like to quote (Gen.) Douglas MacArthur at his retirement, who said, 'A soldier has to be the strongest proponent of peace because it's the soldier who has to bear the sins and scars of war.'Ê" Religion and war have historical linkages, and giving spiritual guidance in time of conflict is essential, the chaplain said. "The chaplain service is the safety outlet," he said. "It's a safe place where people can talk, without retribution. We're also charged by the Chaplain Corps to deal not only with the spiritual and moral issues, but also the ethical issues." During the first Gulf War, the minister had a session with a commander at a previous base who was very concerned about the ethical issues involved in fighting a war. Though the officer intended to do his duty, he needed counseling to reconcile his religious beliefs with his charge as a serviceman. With this war, similar issues emerged. On the day before President Bush authorized military attacks on Iraq, Maj. Terrinoni had two visitors. "I talked to one commander who was sharing his anxiety of the unknown," the minister recalled. "Also, on the same day, I had an airman sharing the same things. Even though there was a 10-, 12-, 15-year age difference, the feelings were very common and very normal."
As well as handling the usual concerns by families separated by deployments, the clergy are also "dealing with obvious life and death issues," the major said. "When I went out, you knew life and death was a possibility," he said of his deployment last year. "There were terrorists, al-Qaeda folks out there. Where I was, they captured an alleged suicide bomber in the area where we were. That really brings reality home." |
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