U.S. Navy Lt. Haneef Mubarak, a chaplain assigned to Naval Support Activity Bah-rain, and U.S. Army Capt. Joon Lim, a chaplain assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division of Camp Buehring, Kuwait, worked with GCC military religious support leaders to test their ability to operate as a combined joint task force during the exercise.
Mubarak said the religious leaders were able to coordinate and share ideas about providing care to those impacted by natural disasters and catastrophes.
“The core capabilities for U.S. Navy chaplains is to provide, facilitate, care and ad-vise,” said Mubarak. “We all provide the same core capabilities, so everything we en-gage in is not necessarily religious.”
Mubarak added that he learned the U.S. and GCC religious leaders take care of their soldiers in very similar ways.
“It’s an honor and a great opportunity to get a chance to work with these nations,” said Lim. “It’s important to understand our allies because their culture is religious and as the Christian representative I can help give my perspective and share my experienc-es.”
Mubarak explained that he was asked to be part of the exercise as one of few Islamic chaplains in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility and he hopes to make the best of the opportunity.
The exercise has provided an opportunity for members of the chaplain team to build relationships and contribute to a “coalition” environment.
Pfc. Brooke-lynn Whetten, a chaplains assistant with 3rd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. said she appreciated being able to participate in the exercise.
“They wanted to learn things from me,” said Whetten. “They didn’t set me aside so I learned a lot from my first exercise in the Army.”
Since 1999, Eagle Resolve has been the leading engagement between the U.S. and GCC nations to collectively address the regional challenges associated with asym-metric warfare in a low-risk setting.
Date Taken: | 03.26.2017 |
Date Posted: | 04.06.2017 02:43 |
Story ID: | 229086 |
Location: | KUWAIT CITY, KW |
Web Views: | 2,279 |
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This work, US military chaplains support multi-national exercise Eagle Resolve, by SGT Marco Gutierrez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.