Praise for GTMO Chaplains

Photo By Spc. Erica Isaacson | Air Force chaplains Col. Conrado Navarro, left, representing the Pentagon's Chief of Chaplains Office, and Col. Jeffry Dull, command chaplain for the U.S. Southern Command, are briefed during a tour of Joint Task Force Guantanamo's Camp Delta, July 18, 2008. The senior chaplains visited the JTF to gauge the needs of the local chaplain staff. JTF Guantanamo conducts safe and humane care and custody of detained enemy combatants. The JTF conducts interrogation operations to collect strategic intelligence in support of the Global War on Terror and supports law enforcement and war crimes investigations. JTF Guantanamo is committed to the safety and security of American service members and civilians working inside its detention facilities.  

07.25.2008

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Vaughn Larson 

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

By Spc. Vaughn Larson
Joint Task Force - Guantanamo

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba – Navy Lt. Cmdr. Clinton Pickett, the command chaplain for both the Navy Expeditionary Guard Battalion and Joint Task Force Guantanamo, had been on the job for barely a week when he played host to visitors from on high.

Or higher headquarters, anyway – Air Force Col. Jeffry Dull, command chaplain for Southern Command, and Air Force Col. Conrado Navarro, chief of personnel, readiness and budget division with the Pentagon's Chief of Chaplains office.

Dull and Navarro spent most of last week – Monday through Saturday – on a fact-finding mission to determine what resources might be available at their respective commands to meet any needs here. Dull said the visit was routine.

"My job is to visit chaplains in all JTF forward operations" as well as in the 32 nations in Southern Command, Dull explained. Those visits allow him to examine ministry team manning strength and programs for Troopers, and also to gauge the need for "specialty" chaplains, such as Muslim or Orthodox Jewish, for religious festivals.

"We don't come here to tell [chaplains] how many people they need or what programs to have," Navarro added. "They tell us what they need."

For example, Dull said, Southern Command would provide additional chaplains or religious support teams to support migrant operations, should that program commence here. Navarro said the Pentagon had identified several Spanish-speaking chaplains in response to the last boat lift.

If conditions change in mainland Cuba, Dull said Southern Command would be ready to provide chaplain support there, if invited.

Both chaplains were impressed with the JTF mission here and how the local chaplains support the needs of the Troopers.

"They're well-woven into the JTF fabric," Dull observed. "I think I'll tell [SOUTHCOM Commander] Adm. [James G.] Stavridis the fine job Chaplain Pickett and his staff are doing here, as far as programs for troops. All of the line officers have given glowing reports about chaplain services here."

"It's not that [troopers] know the chaplains," Navarro added, "it's that they know the chaplains by name."

• Date Taken: 07.25.2008
• Date Posted: 07.29.2008 09:04
• Story ID: 21942