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| CBF-endorsed chaplain Maj. Shane Gaster led chapel services during his recent deployment to Iraq. |
ATLANTA – The phone rang about 9 p.m. in the chapel tent on June 18. U.S. Air Force chaplain Maj. Shane Gaster, 48, answered. It was U.S. Army mortuary affairs. A U.S. war casualty would soon be arriving at Baghdad International Airport. It was the 40th call like this in Gaster’s then first month of deployment.
As always, Gaster and his chaplain assistant, Airman 1st Class Marco Avecilla, went to the flight line, where a C-130 Hercules aircraft waited to take the soldier’s body back home. When the U.S. Army truck carrying the body arrived, a sergeant called all present to attention. Gaster and his assistant led the pallbearers and Honor Guard into the cargo hold.
"There we were under dim lights looking at the flag-draped casket and thinking about the young soldier beneath it, lying in rest at our feet," said Gaster, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-endorsed chaplain. He urged the troops to come closer and then shared with them. "I suspected he had slept in a tent last night with his friends and comrades, ate breakfast with them that morning and didn’t plan to end his day like this," he said.
Moments later, "Hear the word of the Lord," Gaster said. Airman Avecilla read Psalm 23. A moment of silence was held, and then Chaplain Gaster offered a prayer for the soldier’s family, hometown and the nation. Then he prayed for the soldier’s comrades. "When you see your friend shot or killed in front of you, it’s stark reality. You had breakfast with them, but they are not back for supper. They won’t answer at roll call anymore. Their cot will be empty that night," he said.
Gaster prayed for the aircrew flying the soldier home and for the U.S. Army mortuary affairs team that dealt with death constantly. "They do what few would want to do and even fewer want to talk about. God bless them," he said.
The prayer ended. The military detail went out of the aircraft and back into formation. The troops offered a final salute with right arms slowly lowered. With the formation dismissed, the aircrew made final preparations then taxied out and flew into the desert night. The whole ceremony takes about five minutes. "It is some of the most honorable five minutes I can think of," Gaster said.
In 111 days from May to September, the length of Gaster’s deployment with the 447th Air Expeditionary Group in Baghdad, 106 memorial ceremonies were conducted by Gaster and the other Air Force chaplains. Gaster said the June 18 ceremony needed special reflection. "I might have written it in my journal that night just because I was talking to myself about it, and sometimes you need to talk to yourself. We all do," Gaster said.
In addition to memorial ceremonies, Gaster met with injured troops, led worship services and Bible studies, counseled with troops about marital and family issues, and operated "The Oasis," a ministry that provided snacks and drinks for more than 500 troops a day.
Gaster said morale was still high among the Air Force personnel in the 447th at Baghdad. "Their endurance was inspirational. For a military career that began in 1973, I’ve never seen less complaining in such austere circumstances," he said.
Prayer is essential to keeping morale high, Gaster added. He also suggested that churches pool resources and send care packages to deployed military personnel or the families left behind. Churches located near military installations could also volunteer child care for mothers or fathers left as a single parent because of a deployed spouse.
Gaster is the senior Protestant chaplain for the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
"The military chaplains are the presence of Christ in the most tragic and dramatic circumstances where no one else can be an official minister," said George Pickle, the Fellowship’s associate coordinator for chaplaincy and pastoral counseling.
U.S. armed forces chaplains must be endorsed by a faith group of their choice. Of the Fellowship’s 442 endorsed chaplains, 98 are military personnel.
CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfi