csmonitor.com - The Christian Science Monitor Online

They carry no guns, yet US military chaplains are considered a force multiplier in the war theater. Today, in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military expects chaplains to meet the spiritual needs of troops. But it also recognizes their importance in everything from counseling the young soldier crying in his bunk over a Dear John letter to being a leveling moral presence among troops trained to fight and kill. Reporter Lee Lawrence spent three months with dozens of military chaplains in Iraq and Afghanistan. She profiles six of them in a weekly series.
PART 6: National Guard Chaplain Kurt Bishop
12.03.07

National Guard First Lt. Kurt Bishop listens to medics let off steam, nurses come to terms with death, and doctors showing stress in a combat hospital in Afghanistan.
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Video interview and photos by
Andy Nelson - staff
Reporters on the job: How we got our stories
A rocket attack while taking a shower, a mouse befriended by troops in a guard tower, a view of Iraq and Afghanistan through a dirty Humvee window - that quotidian experience helped Lee Lawrence create a bond of trust and depth of understanding in her interviews with military chaplains. Her reporter's notebook details daily life with the chaplains. And, in a video chat with Terry Nickelson - her partner in the production of a documentary from which her Monitor series derives - she discusses the mental context in which chaplains work.
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PART 1: US Navy Chaplain Michael Baker
10.29.07

From a buddy's suicide to a religious ritual, young troops count on Lt. Michael Baker to untangle complexities for them.
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PART 2: US Army Chaplain Pinkie Fischer
11.05.07

The divide between home front and front line is bridged by a chaplain's good ear and ever-present video camera.
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PART 3: US Army Chaplain Shmuel Felzenberg
11.12.07

Army Capt. Shmuel Felzenberg juggles outreach to local Muslims, interfaith counseling, and the kosher quest.
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PART 4: US Navy Chaplain James Fisher
11.19.07

Navy Capt. James Fisher aims to be a cog of conscience in the military killing machine.
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PART 5: US Army Chaplain Ron Eastes
11.26.07

Capt. Ron Eastes, carries a big responsibility - but no weapon - in his "ministry of presence" with the airborne infantry in Iraq.
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