Mobilizing a Lay Program for the Guard

Pennsylvania is currently mobilizing its largest contingent of National Guard since World War II. My unit, the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, is currently at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, getting it in gear for deployment to Iraq.

A few weeks prior to mobilization, I worked feverishly to have a lay program put together. The Aleph Institute was particularly helpful with materials, especially those for the High Holidays. I had a long-running conversation with some chaplains about getting a program going for M-Day Soldiers at Fort Indiantown Gap, but lack of time and resources, as well as a steady flow of personnel that would make it worth the while.

I had a running checklist for mobilization:

Materials. Check.

Command support. Check.

Facilities. Check

Interested personnel. Notsomuch. I met a lieutenant while in the midst of some training. He was born in Israel, called himself “lapsed,” but indicated some interest in services.

It has turned more into an exercise in ecumenism, as I draw a mostly non-Jewish crowd. 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry’s chaplain and his assistant have been enormously helpful in meeting the needs of one fellow and his aspirations for a dynamic program during our unit’s mobilization. They, however, cannot control two factors that seem to detract:

1. Our particular Guard unit, both with training schedules and command climate, does not place an emphasis on *any* religious observance. This may be a result of trying to capitalize on the available weekend training days in the normal Guard schedule. Troops subsequently have no expectation of observance, and thus do not even ask. Chaplains are going to great lengths to make services available, too, so it is a shame that spirituality seems on the decline in the Guard. I would be interested if other Guard/Reserve members note similar circumstances.

2. The need for private time/personel space. For many of our soldiers, living literally right on top of one another inclines troops not to want to walk a mile to the brigade chapel. At the end of their duty day, they want to retreat to their hole and forget about things that are green for a little while. I can’t fault them.

Many of our guys coming from Benning are familiar with the lay program, even the non-Jews. In a Guard mobilization, one would hope that a regular cast of characters would develop for a program. We are less transient than a training/indoctrination post, and in cantonement, we are conveniently all together as a brigade.

If anyone has time, success or notsomuch success stories on lay-run programs would be fascinating.

From Mississippi, l’Shanah Tovah and G’mar tov,

Sergeant K