{"id":6758,"date":"2006-11-10T22:02:07","date_gmt":"2006-11-11T03:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=6758"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:36:06","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:36:06","slug":"5257","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2006\/11\/10\/5257\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq: How War Changed One Young Man\u2019s Life Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Stan Friedman<\/p>\n

CHICAGO, IL (November 10, 2006) \u2013 On June 23, 2006, U.S. Army Chaplain Assistant Tim Dunkin emailed this message home about Operation Helping Hands:
\n
\nOn early Wednesday morning, myself and about 65 other soldiers rallied up for a 6.5-hour convoy out to the northern-most point in Iraq. The purpose of this mission, was to bring 7,500 Beanie Babies, 81 soccer balls, and 101 soccer uniforms to the children of Iraq. We went to three villages, two schools, and an orphanage on the mission. The entire mission lasted about 20.5 hours and was a very fun, exciting and tiring day. The people of Northern Iraq (Kurdistan) are very good people and are the closest thing to an ally that we have out here; it only makes sense that we help them as best as possible. <\/em><\/p>\n

Within months, the 25-year-old emailed this:<\/p>\n

I have spent the last day coming to grasps with the fact that I am a changed
\nman. Since I knew I was deploying, I fought internally, not believing that this
\nenvironment, this place of death could make me different. The words “change”
\nand “different” speak only of betrayal and is very painful for me to come to
\ngrips with. But, I know this has happened. I remember coming here and feeling
\nempathy, remorse, sorrow, sadness and compassion. I remember the first soldier
\nI saw dead from combat, the first person to die in front of me, and the first
\ntime I saw death knocking on my own door. What scares me most is that I do not
\nremember when I lost myself . . . when I betrayed my heart for my fellow man, for
\nemotional silence – a silence I fear will be permanently etched into my soul. I
\nsaw myself before this change yesterday in SPC Bentley, a new chaplain assistant
\nwho for his first time witnessed a man take his last breath. For me, it was
\nnothing as I’ve seen this before, but for him it was a life-altering event. I want to feel his pain and sorrow. I’m tired of watching my life through dead eyes and seeing my friends here as if they, too, were unborn. I want the smell of blood wiped from my memory. I know it’s not around me, but that is what I smell. I don’t smell the trees or
\ncigarette smoke or even food, just blood. I see no living, just people biding
\ntheir time until they too are gone, and this brings me no discomfort. I believe
\nthis war has cost me my humanity.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dunkin, who has attended Kent Covenant Church in Kent, Washington, arrived in Iraq on Nov. 7, 2005.\u00a0 He served at a first-stop hospital in Mosul, one of the deadliest areas in the country.<\/p>\n

Chaplain assistants carry weapons and protect the chaplains, who do not carry firearms. Where chaplains go, chaplain assistants go. They do so much more, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cI helped clean the bodies so they could be viewed by their fellow soldiers, talk with their friends who were there when they got injured.\u201d Dunkin says. \u201cI prayed and talked with the soldiers that came in. I\u2019d also be there for the staff of the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

The staff was in frequent need. \u201cA lot of time kids were injured or killed. That would weigh heavily on their hearts. I would just be their listening ear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Combat, he says, can either \u201cvastly strengthen someone\u2019s faith or cause it to degenerate,\u201d contrary to the clich\u00e9, \u201cThere are a lot of atheists in foxholes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunkin now is working to deal with what he experienced in Iraq. \u201cThe first two or three days, I was on a real adrenaline rush,\u201d Dunkin says. That was followed by \u201ca funk,\u201d which he adds he is now over.<\/p>\n

He says the Army has been doing a good job to help with the process. Two weeks before leaving Iraq, the soldiers go through about two weeks of classes that deal mostly with the family issues that are sure to arise as well as suicide awareness. \u201cThen you go to Kuwait and do the same thing.\u201d A 10-day re-integration process follows at Ft. Lewis that includes classes for half a day and the rest of the time spent with family.<\/p>\n

Dunkin joined the military because \u201cI wanted to be patriotic\u201d and desired to be a chaplain\u2019s assistant because he believed that would help him with his plans to be a family counselor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dunkin says he still holds to his faith to help him even if it has been shaken. The biggest struggle he faces is wondering why he is back, while others will never make it home. \u201cI\u2019m not even a real good person compared to people I know (who died).\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning to feel again also is part of the process, he says. \u201cI sit here and know I\u2019m supposed to love my family, my girlfriend, and it\u2019s like I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s supposed to feel like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civilians can best help returning troops \u201cby being a listening ear,\u201d Dunkin says. \u201cDon\u2019t ask a lot of questions. The normal things are what we want to talk about. We\u2019ve been living in Iraq for a year. We don\u2019t always want to be talking about Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t want to answer the \u201cstupid questions\u201d he already has been asked several times: \u201cHave you ever killed anybody? Have you ever seen anyone dead?\u201d He adds, \u201cThat gets old and gets annoying and I\u2019m not tactful about it.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Editor’s note: the accompanying photos show Dunkin interacting with Iraqi children.<\/em><\/div>\n
\n
Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stan Friedman CHICAGO, IL (November 10, 2006) \u2013 On June 23, 2006, U.S. Army Chaplain Assistant Tim Dunkin emailed this message home about Operation Helping Hands: Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIraq: How War Changed One Young Man\u2019s Life Forever - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2006\/11\/10\/5257\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iraq: How War Changed One Young Man\u2019s Life Forever - 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