Global Special Operations Featured Web Site: Thank You Soldier

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A Chaplain's Thoughts of Iraq
By LT Daniel M. Nichols, Chaplain USNR

Department of Labor, VETS
Strategic Communications
(Mobilized in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom:
February - October, 2003)
 
I cannot say which memory is most lucid, or perhaps 
haunting is a better term.  I'll sit in a pew at 
church and hear the faint echo of my marines and 
sailors, voices raised in song against a background 
of tent flaps and grinding machinery. Other times, 
while rocking my own dearly missed children, the soft 
furtive touch of a hundred little hands seems to tickle 
my legs as it once did while walking through the dusty 
streets of a sprawling Iraqi village. I'm home, and I 
thank God that I am, now with more fervency and perhaps 
a little more wisdom than I have in the past. And yet, 
I cannot ... nor will I forget the faces or the hearts 
of the men and women, many no more than 19 years of age, 
who fashioned, formed and defined my existence over the 
past nine months. Nine months. A short time in the grand 
scheme of things, and yet an eternity that seems a world 
away, now that I once again follow the busy crush of 
humanity from home to work and back home again. Nine 
months. A child can be conceived and born. In nine months 
a boy can become a man, and a harsh critic be softened by 
unaccounted miracles in his midst. Was it as difficult as 
some may make it sound, to weather the winds of war?  
Perhaps not so difficult as one might expect; and yet, it 
changed my heart in ways that could never have been 
accomplished in my now domestic setting. But, if I am left 
with a profound sense of accomplishment, or of having 
reached some hitherto unimagined milestone in my life, I 
stand in far greater awe of the far simpler and yet more 
sublime power of God in response to fervent prayer. Great 
men will speak of great deeds and mighty acts of heroism, 
small men may dwell only upon recurrent violence that 
follows any time freedom is given new birth, but me, I 
shall forever dwell upon what prayer and faith have 
wrought in the hearts and lives of so many men and women, 
and so many fervent hearts. To you who have offered prayer 
for one of my Marines or Soldiers or Sailors, or their 
families, to you I owe a debt of gratitude that can never 
be repaid.  I can only offer my own prayer in return, that 
our amazing and able God would restore to you a measure of 
blessing that far exceeds the abundance he lavished upon us 
during our trials in the deserts of Kuwait and Iraq. With 
your permission I would add one final note on behalf of my 
brothers and sisters of the armed services with whom I had 
the privilege to serve. As their chaplain, I had ample 
opportunity to walk with them through their darkest hours, 
often listening with quiet attention to the myriad of 
concerns that stretched from a sick child at home to the 
persistent sleep stealing nightmares that sapped their 
strength and resolve. One theme, however, reinforced in my 
mind the critical role we play here on the home front. I 
cannot recount the number of times those conversations 
turned toward the deeply embedded fear of either having no 
job upon their return or not knowing what the future would 
hold for them when their time of service had come to an end.  
Across the board, from four-year-and-out lance corporals to 
over-twenty Sergeants Major and everywhere in between, the 
greatest fear they had in the midst of war was either coming 
home to no job or no hope for a job upon release. That, at 
least, is one persistent nightmare we can do something about 
... and are doing something about. You may think it strange 
for me to say, and I'll admit that writing it from this 
comfortable chair would not have happened nine months ago, 
but for a fact, I ended no less than nine imminent harm-to-
self referrals by directing Marines and Sailors to DOL and 
VETS resources and connecting them with ways to begin 
mapping their future even while out in the deserts of those 
far away lands. On behalf of those veterans, and many 
hundreds of thousands of others, I thank you, for your 
prayers to be certain, but also for the day to day tasks 
that, no matter how mindlessly unimportant they may seem at 
times, contribute quite directly to the lives and welfare 
of those who would and do freely offer their lives on our 
behalf, and for the sake of freedom. It is a true privelege 
and honor to return to an  Agency and Coworkers that I deeply 
respect ... to a job I fully enjoy.  I look forward to 
trading my boots for polished leather loafers and the hood of 
a HUMVEE for the pleasant woodgrain of my desk.  It is a 
pleasure to be with you all once again.

Again, Thank you,