11/02/08 — HATTIESBURG, Miss. — The chaplain attending to the spiritual needs of local National Guardsmen now and when they enter the combat zone has deployed to Iraq twice before.
Capt. Aris Fokas signed up for the National Guard and keeps going back because “it was clear to me that somebody with my skills was needed and I wanted to be somewhere where I was really, really needed.” He was sent to Iraq once and volunteered to extend that stay.
Now training at Champ Shelby along with the troops of the Cambridge Springs-based 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry and the rest of the 56th Stryker Division, Fokas said a new dimension is coming to his work with this particular group. As the troops’ January deployment nears, some soldiers are approaching him to discuss their own mortality and the possibility that they may be called on to take a life.
“We don’t project ourselves as therapists. I portray myself as a friend and listener,” said Fokas, who provides “gentle shepherding to get to the core” of a soldier’s concerns.
The troops’ discussions with Fokas are completely confidential. If a chaplain feels a soldier would benefit from counseling or other intervention, the chaplain suggests such to the soldier, but he or she can’t force the issue. Taking action is entirely up to the soldier.
In his role serving the men of the division, Fokas is on call 24/7 and must be ready to go wherever needed, even into a firefight. “I’m fully accessible. Every day is Sunday,” he said.
He will provide regular services if requested. Although Fokas’ denomination is United Church of Christ, such services are ecumenical and open to everyone. If a particular ceremony is needed that he can’t perform, he must arrange to bring in another chaplain or send the troops to that chaplain. “Our mantra is perform or provide,” he explained.
Fokas “brings rich experience — he has been there (Iraq) and has dealt with those issues (that arise from serving in a combat zone),” said State Chaplain Col. John Trout, who oversees all the chaplains in the Pennsylvania National Guard.
The troops are particularly fortunate to have an Iraq-experienced clergyman with them as it is getting harder to find men and women to fill National Guard and other reserve chaplain posts.
“In today’s society where it seems attendance is dropping, it seems that churches are less willing to give up their chaplain on a part-time basis,” Trout said.
While most chaplains do get Sundays off when they are not on active duty in order to take care of their home-parish responsibilities, like the rest of the troops they must train a minimum of a weekend each month and attend a 15-day continuous training session each year. Then there are special training sessions and, in these times, active duty deployment. In an effort to attract more candidates there is an incentive package — a $10,000 sign-up bonus and tuition reimbursement.
Those kinds of benefits are not Fokas’ main motivation, however. “I was born to do this,” he said. “It’s in my temperament.”
A native of Lancaster and a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, Fokas served as the college’s assistant chaplain for six years. That, he said, also gave him critical experience with the age range of most of the soldiers he now attends to. Just as he responds to their needs, the interaction provides him with support and comfort.
Chaplains are “well taken care of and valued” in the Guard, Fokas said, and in return he continues striving to provide “a little bit of humanity in the midst of the machinery.”
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