In a foxhole

"Once you've seen the brutal face of evil, says the Rev. Robert Barry, you start looking for the tender face of God."

That's the lede of a Religion News Service article about the role of military chaplains. Chaplains don't carry guns. They don't fight in the war. They are the silent forces on the battlefield that heal the spiritual wounds caused by war.

"The word really has power with these people," Barry said. "Shrapnel hits the body, but it also hits the soul, and that's where we come in."

I can't imagine this task is getting any easier at the beginning fo the war's fifth year. Chaplains also have the pleasure of comforting servicemen after they return home to find their world a different place. Here's the beginning of an article I wrote two years ago for The Sun in San Bernardino:

TWENTYNINE PALMS - Navy Lt. Robert Grove awoke before the sun rose and prayed.

During the next 12 hours, Grove chaplain for the 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines welcomed 40 Marines and sailors to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center here; he prayed over 103 men leaving for Iraq; and he celebrated with 139 returning home.

It was a typical whirlwind. Grove's workload has been heavy since he joined the Navy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It intensified two years ago when the United States attacked Iraq, where 150,000 American troops remain. There are another 17,000 in Afghanistan. California has sent more troops to the Middle East than any other state; thousands have been from Twentynine Palms, Fort Irwin and the California Army National Guard.

Peppered throughout the nation's military are about 4,000 chaplains with a daunting task: Win the emotional wars waging within troops.

"I am responsible for the spiritual fitness of this battalion," Grove told the new Marines and sailors during a breakfast address.

That day, newspaper headlines announced the death toll for American troops in Iraq topped 1,500.

The number didn't phase Grove, a two-tour veteran of Iraq.

Death is sad, he said without a hint of emotion, but it is part of war. It's the reason the military employs chaplains.

"There are no atheists in foxholes," the axiom says. And so military ministers are there to prepare troops to meet their maker whatever they believe it may or may not be.

"They are the spiritual backbone of the unit. ..." said Gunnery Sgt. Frank Patterson, Twentynine Palms base spokesman. "Chaplains provide an invaluable service."

Read the rest here.