He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in him will I trust.
ó Psalm 91: 1-2
By Susan Shinn
sshinn@salisburypost.com
In his service as a Navy chaplain, Patrick McLaughlin and his family have lived all over the world.
Yet when his oldest daughter went to Lenoir-Rhyne University, she met a guy from Rowan County, where McLaughlin once pastored a church.
Thanks to that local connection, McLaughlin will be the preacher for homecoming tomorrow at Central United Methodist Church in Spencer.
McLaughlin is now serving as chaplain on the aircraft carrier the George H.W. Bush, which he expects will go into service by January.
He has also served two tours of duty in Iraq, from August 2005 to March 2006 and from January 2007 to February 2008. As a result of his experiences there, he’s written a book of prayers and reflections he e-mailed to friends and family back home, titled “No Atheists in Foxholes.”
So the Central congregation can expect a homecoming sermon that’s a bit different from most.
“I met President Bush shortly after his arrival for the weekend. After he found out I was the new chaplain, his first question to me was, ‘Are you any good?’ ó and he said it with a chuckle.”
McLaughlin was pastor at St. Enoch Lutheran Church in Kannapolis from 1990-91. He joined the Navy in 1993 after he and wife Leigh worked at a group home in Greenville, S.C.
Before his time overseas, he was the chaplain at Camp David from June 2002 to June 2005, preaching for President Bush when he declared war on Iraq. He deployed for the first time almost immediately.
He’s now stationed in Newport News, Va., awaiting the commissioning of the aircraft carrier. He expects to end his Naval service in 2010. He will have one more assignment, but does not expect to be deployed overseas again. Leigh McLaughlin remains in Sneads Ferry with their four other children, Janie, 17, Megan, 14, Will, 8, and Erin, 6. Daughter Mariah, 20, is a senior at Lenoir-Rhyne. She’s dated Nicholas Lentz of Spencer since her freshman year. The couple recently became engaged.
“Live for God. Live for others. Live to your fullest. There is a Marine angel watching over you. So be it. Amen.”
McLaughlin says he never really intended to write a book.
Yet his e-mails eventually reached the writer Homer Hickam, who wrote a book that became the movie “October Sky.”
Hickam encouraged McLaughlin to write a book, and put the chaplain in touch with his agent. Almost immediately, McLaughlin was offered a book contract.
“It’s all stories I was writing and sending home to family and friends,” McLaughlin says.
There are also many prayers included. McLaughlin wrote them to help process the horrific scenes he witnessed as chaplain for a Surgical Shock and Trauma Platoon (SSTP), essentially a battlefield hospital, and Mortuary Affairs (MA) , the group that prepares bodies for departure back home.His arrival in Iraq was quite different from his service at Camp David, he says.
“Camp David was this well-maintained place, and then when I got to Iraq, people were dying right there,” McLaughlin says.
At his duty station, the wounded came right from the battlefield. Sometimes they’d be stabilized through surgery and sent elsewhere; other times, they’d just need a minor wound cleaned and dressed.
The Mortuary Affairs staff catalogues each item found with bodies before preparing the bodies for transport.
“When somebody dies in battle, the cause of death is listed as homicide,” McLaughlin notes. The staff tries to find out the basic information of how a military member dies.
It’s gutwrenching work.
“They see the absolute worst of things,” McLaughlin says. His job is to minister to these staff members.
“When you see serious wounds, it takes a real big toll,” he says.
The MA staff calls the deceased troops “angels.”
“When the angels come in, the chaplains are there to support Mortuary Affairs,” McLaughlin says.
“Bless all of the children in America tonight when they pray, ‘Send my daddy home soon’ or ‘Send my mommy home soon.’ Lord, I miss my children; I love them; I commend them to your care. Amen.”While McLaughlin was taking care of others, he knew he had to take care of himself.
He sent e-mails. He prayed. He called his wife.
McLaughlin says he did have combat stress.
“It should affect you in some way,” he says. “You just make sure you talk to people.”
McLaughlin says he worried more about troops who didn’t seem to be affected by what they saw.
Many of McLaughlin’s views have changed.
“I guess for me, sometimes you get weary as politicians use the war as a football,” he says. “When you declare war, it’s a very serious thing and a lot of innocent people get killed in the crossfire.”
When he sees a 19-year-old Marine killed, he knows there’s a family somewhere with a son who’s not coming home.
“I’ve got kids that age and I think what would happen if all of a sudden, I lost them,” McLaughlin says.
“I wonder … can we live in peace? I pray that one day we will have the chance.”
So McLaughlin will tell the Central gathering that they’re a lucky bunch.
“You’re lucky to have family and friends, and to live where you live,” he says. “You can go to church and not worry.”
One of the biggest disasters his surgical platoon faced was a truck bombing at a mosque that wounded more than 70 in February 2007.
“How fortunate you are to live how you live and worship where and how you want,” McLaughlin says.
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Locally, “No Atheists in Foxholes” is available at Literary Bookpost and Queen’s Gifts. McLaughlin will have a limited number of copies on Sunday.