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July  5, 2002

Edition

Church News

Front-line experience transforms chaplain

Photo Courtesy of the Rev. Michael Shockley

The Rev. Michael Shockley (at podium) delivers the sermon during a worship service on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy. Shockley served on board the ship as a chaplain with the U.S. Navy reserves from 1996 to 2001. He said a chaplain serves as the commanding officer's principal staff advisor on all moral and spiritual matters.
From ministering to prisoners to ministering under fire, a local pastor who served as chaplain during Desert Storm encourages colleagues to consider military chaplaincy.

This article is the second of two written about the ministry of United Methodist military chaplains. The first article was printed in the May 24 “Florida United Methodist Review.”

By John M. De Marco

TALLAHASSEE — As the United States and its allies moved across Iraqi ground forces during the Persian Gulf War, the Rev. Michael Shockley found himself in the unique position of ministering to those declared to be the enemy.

A wounded Iraqi, one of several hundred of Saddam Hussein’s soldiers treated by the U.S. Navy after being captured, spoke a few bits of English. Shockley spoke some Arabic and was determined to communicate God’s love to the soldier.

“I wanted to know if he was married, so I pointed to my ring finger. The ring is an international symbol, and he connected to that,” Shockley recalled.

The United Methodist pastor then held up three fingers to indicate he had three children back in Florida. The Iraqi relayed that he had a child of his own, an 18-month-old daughter.

“I just asked him what he wanted,” Shockley said, “and he said in his broken way, ‘All I want to do is go back home to my baby daughter.’ All I wanted to do was go back and see my kids. I realized we were all in a situation we didn’t want to be in, and in the midst of that tragedy we had to recognize that we were all human beings.”

Shockley is senior pastor of Tallahassee Heights United Methodist Church and one of the few Florida Conference chaplains who has experience along the front lines of combat. He has 24 years of service as a U.S. Navy reservist and 17 years of service as a Florida Conference elder.

Shockley was serving as associate pastor of First United Methodist Church Gainesville when the Gulf War began in January 1991. He was called into active duty and sent to join the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Saudi Arabia. He stayed with the troops throughout the Desert Storm ground war, then ministered to U.S. Marines stationed in Kuwait.

“It was a very transforming experience for me,” Shockley said. “[As a U.S. Navy reservist] You are trained for combat operations with the Marines. You rarely get to actually find out what your training is worth. You have to focus beyond the kind of story being told about the war on CNN, and find out that there is a much deeper story.”

Shockley does not know what became of his Iraqi friend. All of the prisoners were eventually turned over to the Saudi forces. He observed that the Americans and their allies treated the prisoners well.

“All of our forces were very sensitive to keeping all of the ethics of war. There’s a document the Navy has called the Law of Armed Conflict. It’s basically a book of ethics and how to treat people. I was glad to see a high consciousness of people endeavoring to keep those ethics.”

In addition, because he served in the combat fields rather than populated areas of Saudi Arabia, Shockley was not hindered in any way in terms of resources he could use for ministry. “I saw all kinds of materials—Bibles, crosses, tapes. When I stepped off the plane in Saudi Arabia I was carrying a case of Jewish kosher wine for a rabbi I was working with, a good friend of mine. I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know how many [Islamic] rules I’m breaking.’ ”

Shockley and his companions were constantly in the range of Iraqi artillery. There was a deliberate decision made by those present to do their jobs without dwelling on the danger, he recalled.

“You never know what’s going to happen next, so you may as well do what you’ve been trained to do, regardless. To be paralyzed or be always worrying is just going to keep you from doing your job.”

Ministering to fellow American troops was an exhilarating experience, Shockley said. “The troops were like dry sponges when it came to being sensitive to receiving ministry. They were so spiritually hungry. They were looking for all kinds of advice. There was a lot of bargaining with God going on. Recognizing that, we were trying to get people to see that a relationship with Christ was not about bargaining,” he said.

The Marines used large rubber bladders that could hold up to 3,000 gallons of water. Shockley and other clergy were able to dedicate one of the bladders strictly for baptizing soldiers.

While most of the American soldiers under Shockley’s care were from Christian backgrounds, some Jewish Marines were present, as well. Military chaplains are trained to provide for their own faith groups and facilitate ministry opportunities for those of other faiths. Shockley found a real comradeship working with clergy of other beliefs as they shared common transportation while visiting the troops in various locations.

Shockley and his rabbi friend shared a laugh after their experiences during 1991’s Holy Week and Jewish Passover, which coincide on the calendar. Noting the darkness from the burning Kuwaiti oil wells and the hordes of flies that resulted from the smoke, the rabbi commented that it was his first opportunity to perform a Passover service while experiencing two of the plagues from the book of Exodus.

Shockley encourages pastors considering military chaplaincy to embrace a rich adventure of faith. “The ministry you carry with you isn’t so much your equipment and Bible, but what you carry in your heart and soul. You bring your whole self to it. Hopefully you’re always prayerfully being a vessel of the Lord,” he said.


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