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Behind the Scenes: the Command Religious Support Team at Work

  • Published
  • By Army Spc. Travis Terreo
  • Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs
AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar --  From Afghanistan to the Arabian Peninsula to Egypt, the U.S. Air Forces Central Command monitors activities and deploys their Airmen accordingly.

Every time AFCENT makes the decision to deploy Service members, the responsibility for their religious and spiritual welfare falls upon the shoulders of the command religious support team.

Chaplain (Col.) Greg Woodbury, AFCENT command chaplain, and his team, Senior Master Sgt. Sadie Chambers, AFCENT Chaplain Assistant Functional Manager, and Tech. Sgt. Shana Echevarria, AFCENT HC Operations Manager, work together to oversee all ministry efforts at Air Force bases within the AFCENT area of operation. They are charged with assessing the manning, capabilities and needs of forward-deployed RSTs, and creating solutions to any deficiencies.

“Our job is to ensure everybody has the opportunity to exercise their religious faith, and make sure their religious and spiritual needs are provided for,” said Woodbury.

In order to provide for the needs of RSTs and Service members, the team must know everything they can about the ministries their people run. In pursuit of that goal, they make regular trips to forward deployed areas.

“The battlefield circulations really drive our operations here,” said Chambers. “We get to go out to our people and make sure they are taking care of each other and taking care of the Service members.”

During their trips, the team takes every opportunity to sit down with as many Service members as they can, said Woodbury. They talk to them about life and their families, the ministry at their location and what they like and dislike. By getting to know the Service members in the field, they are able to tailor the various ministries to the needs of their own audiences, he added.

A recent trip to Afghanistan revealed a shortage of Catholic chaplains for the upcoming Christian Holy Week. In response, the team made arrangements for one of the Catholic chaplains at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, to travel there for the week. This plan will fulfill the spiritual needs of Service members in Afghanistan and also freed up the Catholic chaplain there to visit smaller forward-operating bases and tend to the needs of Service members there.

“Just because we do not have enough Catholic priests to go around doesn’t mean the Airmen, Soldiers and Marines there don’t want Catholic Mass,” said Chambers. “It just means we have to find a way to make it happen.”

The team is also responsible for caring for their subordinate RST’s needs. They are able to determine what those needs are during their battlefield circulations, but they also do it by regular teleconferences and the use of their “black book.”

The black book is an AFCENT Chaplain Corps-wide journal. It accompanies the command RST on every battlefield circulation, and everywhere it goes, Airmen write encouraging stories, jokes and sayings to help those at the next stop on the team’s itinerary.

The command RST is constantly working in the background of the AFCENT area of operations to provide Service members with all of their spiritual and religious needs. Though few ever think of it, an enormous amount of work is required to make each chapel service happen, to transport chaplains from country to country, and to ensure there are religious texts available for those who want them.

“We do all we can to provide for our ministries,” said Woodbury. “Everything we do is about the relationships we build. Our theme in this office is that it is not about us, it’s about the people we take care of.”