Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel

OUR MISSION IS VITAL ... TO PROVIDE MILITARY PERSONNEL WITH A VISIBLE REMINDER OF THE HOLY IN THE MIDST OF COMBAT AND CHAOS!! PCCMP supports the worldwide communities of people in which our military personnel are serving; pastor our far-flung chaplains and support them in their ministry and touch the lives of the military soldier’s family.

CHAPLAIN PRESTON’S REPORT

The Lieutenant’s Petition

By CH(LTC)Tommy Preston

It’s one of the jobs that every commander dreads, but a needed and necessary one: paying a condolence call to the widow of a soldier killed in combat. However, this was not your usual condolence call. The widow was a soldier herself.

Major General James D. Thurman had been at the National Training Center in California watching his Third Brigade Combat team train for the Fourth Infantry Division’s fast approaching deployment to Iraq. It was there that he learned that the husband of one of his young female lieutenants had been killed in Iraq. Lieutenant Nancy Negron, a platoon leader, in the 204th Support Battalion, had received official notification that her husband, First Lieutenant Carlos J. Diaz, assigned to the Third Infantry Division had been killed in action in Iraq. When MG Thurman heard the news he knew what he must do when he returned to Fort Hood in two days.

He notified his division chaplain to meet him when his plane arrived to make a call on 2LT Negron. Upon his return they went directly from the airfield to the residence of the young lieutenant. After they rang they doorbell they were greeted by a casually dressed young woman who could be the same age as their own daughters. She was obviously tired and distressed, but she managed a smile that put them at ease.

As MG Thurman expressed his sympathy, he focused his eyes on her and said with conviction, “Nancy, if there’s anything in this world that I can do for you, all you have to do is ask and I’ll do it.” There was just a slight moment of silence as Lieutenant Negron looked at the floor, then raising her head she looked into the General’s eyes and replied with an equal amount of conviction, “Sir, I do have just one petition. My unit is thinking of leaving me behind now. I want to go to Iraq with my unit. I want to be with my platoon.”

Neither the commander nor the chaplain could speak for a moment. This young officer could have asked her division commander for extra leave time to get her affairs in order. She could have asked for an assignment nearer to her home in Puerto Rico. She could have even asked for help in getting out of the Army, but she was now petitioning, as she put it, to stay with the soldiers in her platoon who had also become her family and to go into harm’s way with them.

She went on to explain that her husband was doing what he wanted and what he thought he should do when he died. Their values and dedication to this mission were the same. To deploy to Iraq, to defeat the enemy abroad before they attack again on our own soil and to help a people know freedom was what they had committed to do many months before. She was determined to keep that commitment.

With tears welling up in his eyes, MG Thurman gave her a hug. Then pointing his finger at her, he replied with his commander’s voice, “You_ve got it! I’ll make sure of it!” Knowing that he would keep his word to honor her request, Lieutenant Negron smiled with a look of relief and hugged him back.

Where do we get such young men and women? They come from Puerto Rico; from California and Georgia and Maine. They come from every state in our union and beyond. They don’t make primetime news or the front page of the papers as some who oppose their high ideals and their commitment to duty, honor and country, but, still they come. They come to learn how to treasure freedom as only those who fight for it can.

This lieutenant’s petition was spoken confidently, privately and quietly. Its echo, however, will continue to resonate loud and clear in the hearts and minds of those who know that freedom for all is always dependent upon the commitment of some.

1LT Carlos J. Diaz

PCCMP is supported by:

the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP);

Cumberland Presbyterian (CP); Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America (CPCA);

Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA)

and the generous contributions of friends and well wishers.

PRESBYTERIAN COUNCIL FOR CHAPLAINS

AND MILITARY PERSONNEL (PCCMP)

“a ministry to those who serve our Nation”