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Religious Assistants Play Supporting Role in Caring for Troops

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS081204-04
Release Date: 12/4/2008 6:53:00 AM

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Vaughn Larson, Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (NNS) -- Chaplain's assistants (CA) and religious program specialists (RP) play an important role in allowing chaplains to focus on his or her three main missions – counsel, teach and preach.

"An RP or CA are the eyes for the chaplain," explained Religious Programs Specialist 3rd Class Jason Lail, an RP for Joint Task Force (JTF) Guantanamo's Navy Expeditionary Guard Battalion. "I get a sense of the morale. Sometimes it's easier for an enlisted [Sailor] to come up to another enlisted rather than the chaplain."

Army Pfc. Alecia Stevenson, a CA for the 525th Military Police Battalion, agreed.

"I find I can relate," said Stevenson. "If you want to sit down and talk, we're always here."

In addition to a friendly ear, these assistants can offer Sailors religious literature. If the discussion warrants, the chaplain can be consulted.

Army Staff Sgt. Dilfred Pascual, a CA from the Puerto Rico Army National Guard, oversees Lail and Stevenson in their duties.

One of the most important duties for a CA or RP is to provide security for the chaplains, who do not carry or use weapons. That is more a concern for the battlefield than at the JTF, according to Lail. He escorts chaplains through the "pods" inside the detainee camps.

Assistants also help set up the chapel for worship services and other religious offerings.

"I'm not Catholic, but I know how to set up for a small mass and an extremely large mass," Lail said. "As a religious program specialist, you can hold onto your faith, but you have to work with all faiths. You could work for a Jewish chaplain or a Mormon chaplain. You have to know about those faiths."

Lail has another duty – distributing religious items such as prayer caps, prayer beads and prayer rugs to enemy combatants detained by the JTF.

"Those items are not necessarily sacred in any way," Lail explained. "It assists them with their practice. It's also good for one person to know about why these items are important to [the detainees] – the guards have other duties to be concerned with."

Lail is mindful of his behavior because his actions reflect on the chaplain section.

Assistants are also involved in morale efforts, such as cookouts for personnel.

This is the first deployment for both Lail and Stevenson. While not quite what they expected, both said they have grown into their roles here.

"It's a good job," Stevenson said. "It's good to be here for the Soldiers."

"I like what I do – I like it a lot," Lail said. "I'm helping people, maybe indirectly. It really is all about the troops."

For more news from Joint Task Force Guantanamo, visit www.navy.mil/local/jtfgtmo/.