Chaplain

As we watch members of Task Force 151, here in Washington, leave for two months of training at Ft. Stewart GA, we are witnessing the largest mobilization of Indiana National Guard forces since WWII. Altogether, more than 3,000 members of the Indiana Army National Guard will serve overseas in 2008. In my own role as Chaplain for the 76th Brigade, I will not be as close to our Washington Guard members as I was in 2003. However, I will share their love for the same hometown.

For me, this has been a time to realize the importance of this mission. I am not sure that I sensed it well enough the last time. Now, I have become a bit more exhausted as the National Guard has felt the shortage of up to 500 chaplains nationwide. For various reasons, chaplains have become scarce in our National Guard units. We may have filled some of the vacancies in the last year as Indiana brought in 6 new chaplains in 2007. Even so, the burden is quite heavy.

This is not to ignore the stress on other National Guard members and their families. I am not the only one citing this as my third deployment since March of 2002. Many others have been away from their families on missions to Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, and elsewhere. While we might claim a much-deserved break, we also know that our experience is needed now more than ever. So we embark on a mission as part of the best-trained, most-experienced, and best-organized brigade team Indiana has ever known.

More importantly for me, we pray and hope for peace and safety like never before. We know that a lot of things will change in the U.S. and overseas in the next year. We carry a lot of uncertainties. But we will also carry the love of those who know us at home. We will carry the hopes of those who have known of freedom for only a few short years in Iraq. And we will carry a faith that certainly preserves us through the challenges we face.

Blessings!

Chaplain Daniel Sherar