Chaplains Comfort Families of Fallen
(April 29, 2009) |
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Air Force Chaplain (retired
Lt. Col.) David Sparks counsels a fellow Port
Mortuary team member at Charles C. Carson Center
for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base,
Del., April 21, 2009. |
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DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del., April 24, 2009
– The night sky looked calm and tranquil from a gently
soaring aircraft, miles above the Eastern Seaboard towns
below. However, there was nothing tranquil or calm in the
hearts of one family on board, traveling to Dover Air Force
Base to witness the dignified transfer of their son's
remains. Their son, their
Marine, their hero had paid the ultimate sacrifice in the
mountains of Afghanistan only the day before. The staff at
the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center would
carefully prepare his remains for transfer to his final
resting place.
As the family arrived at the Dover flightline, the mother's
tear chalice overflowed and her emotions began to stream
from her eyes. Her husband quickly comforted her with his
embrace as a Port Mortuary chaplain swiftly made his way
over to console the grieving couple. |
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Later that night, an aircraft landed at
Dover and an advance team boarded the jet to inspect and
pre-position the transfer case. An honor guard of Marines
reverently transported the fallen Marine from the aircraft
to a specialized transfer vehicle waiting nearby. Among the
few airmen and Marines respectfully performing their duties
on the aircraft was a familiar face – another Port Mortuary
chaplain, the counterpart of the chaplain who comforted the
parents earlier that evening.
The Marine's remains are meticulously prepared for their
escorted delivery and final interment in a family plot in
his hometown. Once the remains are prepared, a fellow Marine
arrives at Dover to escort his comrade on the journey home.
Before departing on this solemn mission, the escort receives
a briefing from his Marine liaison team with Port Mortuary
chaplains present.
The Port Mortuary chaplain staff consists of Air Force
Chaplains (retired Lt. Col.) David Sparks, (Lt. Col.) George
Ortiz-Guzman, (Maj.) Klavens Noel, and Master Sgt. Timothy
Polling, a chaplain's assistant. Throughout the dignified
transfer process, they provide humble counsel to the family,
Port Mortuary staff and escorts, and pray over the remains
of the fallen hero. This process has been repeated thousands
of times over the past several years, as the nation's fallen
continue to make their way back home through the Port
Mortuary at Dover.
“As a chaplain, comforting grieving families and watching
over the remains of those heroes who keep me safe is the
greatest calling I could answer,” said Ortiz-Guzman, who
added that he is humbled and honored to “serve those who
serve.”
Working at the Port Mortuary can be horrific and
overwhelming. Constant exposure to the fallen takes a mental
toll on the mortuary staff, as they know well that it could
be them or their brother's or sister's remains waiting to go
home. The chaplains work the same processing system as the
rest of the staff, but must remain strong during those
distraught times.
“Remaining strong and sane for the sake of the mission is a
defense mechanism humans use to perform amongst all that
horror,” Ortiz-Guzman said. “But we try to be as real as we
can with our troops. They know when you are ‘snowballing'
them. We cry with them and laugh with them. We are part of
the team and they all know it.”
Chaplains must continue to convey the rock, and that rock is
beyond any chaplain – the rock is God, Ortiz-Guzman said.
When a chaplain begins to have difficulty dealing with the
situation and cannot show his emotions to the troops, he
bounces his feelings off a fellow chaplain in private, and
relies on his faith, keeps his spiritual focus and draws on
the support of the 436th Airlift Wing chapel staff, he
added.
Chaplains use these resources to keep themselves spiritually
ready to help others.
“I have the greatest admiration for these loyal chaplains,”
Air Force Col. Bob Edmondson, commander of the Air Force
Mortuary Affairs Operations Center, said. “As a commander, I
place the highest priority on the safety, health and
well-being of all those in my charge. For this mission, our
chaplains are the sensors, confidants, caregivers, and
friends that keep us all safe and healthy and sane. Each
member of the AFMAO team bears a very personal and unique
responsibility; our mortuary staff and the families of the
fallen depend on these dedicated chaplains for their mental
and spiritual well-being.”
Edmondson's team is responsible for all Air Force mortuary
matters, from both current and past conflicts, and operates
the nation's sole port mortuary, which serves the entire
Defense Department. To succeed in their mission, his team
must remain healthy – physically, mentally and spiritually.
Sometimes staying healthy is a task in itself – a task that
requires professional counselors.
“Port Mortuary troops have various, but certainly
significant stress issues,” said Sparks, who explained a
chaplain must maintain absolute confidentiality with those
troops and families he serves.
Sparks said he's awakened many nights by servicemembers and
others who cannot sleep due to the stress they were
enduring.
“We are where they are,” is the overlying theme to Sparks'
approach to his mission, he said. “I've been out at bars at
midnight, drinking a Coke and talking things through with
team members. This is the duty of a chaplain. We are there
when they need us, not when it is convenient.”
Many chaplains have served the Port Mortuary team, Sparks
said, explaining that the mortuary keeps two long-term
chaplains on staff and consistently rotates a third chaplain
through on four-month cycles. They do this to ensure a
chaplain can handle the stresses of the mortuary prior to
taking them on long-term, he said.
Not every chaplain is suited for Port Mortuary duty, said
Sparks, who has been on staff here for more than five years.
Certainly, not every chaplain can sustain this duty for a
year-long tour. Sparks said he believes a chaplain goes
through three stages once he assumes Port Mortuary duty: the
horror stage, the sadness stage and the focus stage.
“At first, a chaplain just reacts to the horror of mortuary
duty,” he said. “We see more of the destruction of war here
than teams out in the field will ever see. For instance,
let's say a team loses 20 soldiers, which weighs heavy on a
team in the field. Here, we see those same 20 fallen
warriors, plus all the fallen from every other team.”
Many chaplains begin to feel a profound sadness – which can
linger if they don't find a focus, Sparks said. To
compensate, he explained, many of the mortuary staff members
focus on the science of their job.
Since early April, when Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates
approved a policy change allowing media filming of dignified
transfer operations, more and more family members now attend
the transfers. The increasing number of grieving families is
another consideration the chapel staff must remain focused
on.
“With the constant human toll in front of us, the mortuary
staff feeling the stress of this work and an increase in the
number of grieving families, a sustainable focus is the only
way a person can function here,” said Sparks, who added that
he does not view this as a negative thing, but rather an
opportunity to touch the lives of families in need.
Sparks and his fellow chaplains remain dedicated to those
who need them most, Sparks said: their staff members and the
families of the fallen.
As the fallen Marine's family flies home and the escort
leaves Dover with the hero's remains, more transfer cases
arrive on an aircraft from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. At
this point, the Port Mortuary chaplains stand ready and step
forward to comfort the next arriving family.
Somewhere in the grieving mother's mind and in the minds of
the mortuary staff, a change was being made. Sparks prayed
that he comforted them and changed their focus “from
devastation to dignity, from horror to honor, from remains
to respect and from fatalities to families.” | |
Article and photo by USAF TSgt. Kevin Wallace
Special to American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2009
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