Chaplain Turner's War

By Moni Basu

An award-winning journalist portrays life and faith on the frontlines of the Iraq War through the experience of a US Army chaplain.
 
The US mission in Iraq ended Dec. 18, 2011, as the last American soldiers climbed into trucks and headed south through the desert towards Kuwait. Nearly 4,500 American troops died in the Iraq war. More than 30,000 others were physically wounded. Countless others live with scars that can’t be seen. While medics and doctors heal the physical scars of the wounded, the military employs a select few to heal the hearts, minds, and souls of soldiers—all of whom are changed forever by war. In January 2008, Atlanta Journal-Constitution international reporter Moni Basu began documenting life at war and at home with Darren Turner, a chaplain in the US Army. Chaplain Turner served as the emotional support system of U.S. soldiers more accustomed to toughing it out than opening up.
 
For the first time ever, the entire series of Ms. Basu’s articles on Chaplain Turner have been collected into one book. There have been few looks into one of this nation’s most controversial wars that have been as honest, heartbreaking, and inspiring as Chaplain Turner’s War. The experiences of the young men and women Chaplain Turner served speak with a clarity and force that is relatable to readers of any religion and of any opinion about the Iraq War. It is a story of people’s lives who are so often taken for granted as steely warriors, and so rarely appreciated as heroes returning home with a lifetime of emotional weight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781572844056

Book preview

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Copyright

Copyright © 2008 by Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Introduction copyright © 2012 by Moni Basu

Photos by Curtis Compton, copyright © by Atlanta Journal-Constitution

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the publisher.

Ebook edition 1.0 April 2012

ISBN-10 1-57284-405-1

ISBN-13 978-1-57284-405-6

Agate Digital is an imprint of Agate Publishing. Agate books are available in bulk at discount prices. For more information visit agatepublishing.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Epilogue

About the Author

Introduction

In January 2008, I began documenting life at war with Darren Turner, chaplain for the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

The unit was part of the surge of American troops in Iraq that the administration of President George W. Bush argued was necessary to defeat the insurgency raging there.

I first met Turner at a memorial service for a fallen soldier in his battalion. The weather was dreary that day at Fort Stewart and I could not differentiate between tears and rain on the faces of the soldiers and their families.

It was tradition at Fort Stewart to plant a redbud tree in a field called Warrior’s Walk in honor of every soldier who died.

Turner was home on three weeks leave but he was using part of his time to make a trip to Silver Spring, Maryland, to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Several of his wounded soldiers were recuperating there. It was important for him to go.

I traveled with Turner to Walter Reed. And the next month, I caught up with him in Iraq, where I spent many weeks reporting this story.

At first his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Ken Adgie, was not so sure a woman should be permitted to spend so much time with a male chaplain. But in the end, I was able to shadow Turner as he counseled soldiers, baptized several on Easter, and dealt with the many hardships of war.

All the soldiers in this story gave me permission to write about their interactions with the chaplain. All except one of the scenes in this book were witnessed firsthand. The one reconstructed scene, describing the events of summer 2007, appears in Chapter 3 and was pieced together through interviews with soldiers who were there. This story first appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in June 2008. It ran over eight days as Chaplain Turner’s infantry battalion was about to come home from Iraq. This revised version has been republished with permission from the newspaper.

I am indebted to my editors, Jan Winburn and Valerie Boyd, for their commitment to this story.

Chapter 1

Chaplain Darren Turner arrives at the entrance to Ward 45-C at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, fumbling in his pocket for a special coin he wants to give a soldier he has come to see. A verse from Ephesians is etched on one side: Put on the whole armor of God. Pray always.

The last time Turner saw Spc. David Battle was several months ago in Baghdad. He was not unlike any other soldier then, enduring a 15-month tour of Iraq.

But now Battle is a trophy of war. That’s how Turner describes the nation’s wounded.

Battle arrived at Walter Reed on Christmas Day 2007 without three of his limbs. His legs and right arm were blown off in a roadside bombing. Five weeks later, on this dreary day in February, doctors still are not certain he will survive.

Home on leave from Iraq, Turner did not have to visit Walter Reed. He wanted to.

The Georgia chaplain requested a few extra days off so he could travel to Washington from his home in Richmond Hill, near Savannah, to see the wounded soldiers from his unit, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, based at Fort Stewart, the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi River. He knew it would be his most important assignment to date.

Still a novice in the Army’s chaplain corps, Turner was anxious about the trip, perhaps because here, amid the landscape of suburban America and the normal rhythms of life, the ugliness of war hits hardest.

He stands in the hospital hallway, the drab linoleum floor patched with tiles that don’t quite match. He takes a breath and opens the door to