|
 If you
asked
Maj.
Michael
DuCharme
why he
joined
the
Army, he
will
tell you
that God
called
him.
There
were few
people
in his
family
who had
served;
he was
nearing
the age
requirement
where he
would
have
been too
old.
And, in
2002, we
were
already
in the
war, so
his wife
and he
knew it
would
mean
deployment,
according
to
DuCharme.
He
deployed
to
Baghdad
first in
2004 and
then
again in
2006 as
a
Regular
Army
officer.
He
continues
to serve
as an
active
Army
Reservist.
As a
chaplain
in Iraq,
he
provided
religious
support
and
counseling
services
for a
battalion
of over
1,200
soldiers,
mostly
military
police.
These
soldiers
were
spread
out all
over the
city of
Baghdad,
with
some of
the
units
stationed
much
further
away in
the
region.
DuCharme
had to
travel
to visit
the
soldiers
in the
places
where
they
resided,
which
meant
taking
the same
roads
the
soldiers
took
when
they
went out
on
patrols
and
missions.
“It was
a
three-hour
road
trip to
get to
some of
the
guys,”
he said.
“My
truck
was as
likely
to get
hit as
anybody
else's.”
DuCharme
explained
that
there
was a
benefit
to being
out in
the
field
and on
the road
like any
other
soldier.
“If I
went
around
on a
regular
basis...there
was only
one
reason
that I
was
doing
it, and
that was
to see
them
[the
troops],”
he said.
And
traveling
affected
the way
DuCharme
was able
to
communicate
with
soldiers
about
God. |
|
|
“When I
was
talking,
counseling
with
soldiers
about
faith in
God...I
had to
take my
own
medicine,”
he said.
“Prior
to that
I had
faith;
but it
wasn't
the kind
of faith
where
you
really
had to
depend
on God.”
DuCharme
performed
religious
functions
by
holding
chapel
services
or
providing
other
religious
leaders
for
non-Christian
soldiers.
But that
was only
a small
part of
his job.
“Ninety
percent
of what
I did
over
there
was
counseling,”
he
explained.
“I
started
by
building
a
relationship
with the
soldiers.
Once I
saw them
four or
five
times,
then
they
would
naturally
come to
me when
they had
something
to talk
about.”
“A
chaplain
is the
only
person
in the
U.S.
Army
that a
soldier
has
complete
confidentiality
with.
They are
able to
talk
about
anything
that it
on their
minds,”
he said.
“All of
my
counseling
training
is
pastoral
counseling.
I don't
have any
formal
psychological
training,”
DuCharme
said.
Therefore,
he would
ask
regular
questions
and
listen
to what
the
soldiers
were
saying.
“The way
I worked
was, I
would
keep
asking
questions,
until
God
seemed
to take
the
conversation
down a
road,”
he said.
“A lot
of times
it would
be
directly
spiritual.
Other
times it
wouldn't
be. I
was a
friend
to them.
They
could
trust
me,” he
said.
During
deployments,
“Soldiers
were
impacted
because
they
were
watching
friends
die.
There is
a
“constant
low
angst
that a
soldier
has to
go
through
at all
times,
DuCharme
reflected.
“I would
talk to
them
about
friends
and
family,
living
and
dying;
all the
things
that
life is
about,”
he said.
“Something
I will
always
have
from
those
deployments
is that
I could
see
everyday
why God
had
called
me to
this.”
DuCharme
shared a
story of
one
experience
from his
first
deployment
that
changed
his
life. In
2004, he
had
planned
a trip
to visit
soldiers
in a
city
that was
on the
opposite
side of
Baghdad
from
where he
was
stationed.
When he
and the
team he
was
traveling
with
arrived,
the
soldiers
they had
come to
see
weren't
even
there --
to his
frustration
and
disappointment.
But,
because
there
was a
swimming
pool at
the base
and it
was a
hot day,
they
decided
to stay
for a
while so
some of
the team
members
could go
for a
swim.
DuCharme
was
sitting
at a
poolside
table
when a
young
female
soldier
came
over,
sat down
and
started
talking
to him,
he said.
They
ended up
talking
for over
an hour.
“She had
been
distanced
from
God,”
DuCharme
said.
But
following
that
conversation,
they
talked
frequently
and she
started
going to
chapel
services
too, he
noted.
“She
ended up
getting
killed
shortly
thereafter.”
While
out in a
convoy
she was
hit
under
her
armor,
just a
few
weeks
before
she was
supposed
to go
home.
“But I
got to
talk to
her
parent's
back
home,”
he said.
“It was
a relief
[for
them]
knowing
that she
was
walking
with God
before
she
died.”
So, what
seemed
at first
like a
wasted
day at
the
pool,
ended up
being a
significant
part of
this
young
woman's
spiritual
journey
prior to
the end
of her
earthly
life.
“It was
instrumental
not only
in her
life,
but also
for me
in that
I was
able to
share
that
with her
parents,”
DuCharme
said.
“This is
one of
many
stories,
like
that,”
he said.
“God
tends to
put you
in the
right
place at
the
right
time.”
“[Soldiers]
... face
all the
things:
death,
loss,
heat,
separation
from
family.
And even
though
it's
hard,
they go
out and
do it,
day in
and day
out...with
the goal
of
bringing
each
other
home,”
DuCharme
said.
“When
bad
things
happen,
when
people
die,
there is
survivor's
guilt.
Soldiers
ask ‘Why
not me?'
But if
you
struggle
through
it with
God and
others,
you
ironically
come out
with a
deeper
faith,”
he said.
“Even
with all
the bad
stuff
that
happened,
I would
do it
all over
again,”
DuCharme
said.
“Memorial
and
Veterans
Days
will
never be
the
same,”
DuCharme
said.
“Those
used to
be days
where I
would
think
about
taking a
day off.
Now I
think I
celebrate
[those
holidays]
in the
way they
were
meant to
be
celebrated.”
Chaplain
Michael
DuCharme
received
two
Bronze
Stars,
one for
each of
his
deployments. |
