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380AEW Article

Stained glass windows from Iraq base chapel find new home with 380th AEW

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. J.G. Buzanowski
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Four stained glass windows that used to adorn the base chapel at Sather Air Base, Iraq, have found a new home with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing.

Tucson, Ariz., natives Pam and Roger Davidson donated the windows in 2008 when their son, now-retired Master Sgt. Brian Davidson, was deployed to Sather. As U.S. forces prepared to withdraw from Iraq, the chapel staff there sent out an email looking for a new home for the stained glass panels and the hand-made, lighted cabinets housing them.

Master Sgt. Shoshannah Cobb, the 380th AEW superintendent of chapel operations, was the first to write back, so the Sather staff sent the windows here.

"The first time I saw them after they'd been unpacked, my eyes just welled up," said Cobb, a Dayton, Ohio native deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah. "I love having the windows here so much. Before they got here, this room could have been any meeting room on base. Stained glass windows are often associated with religious areas, so this now actually feels like a holy space."

The authenticity of an area for people to spiritually refocus is vital to the mission of the chapel staff, Cobb said.

"It's important for anyone who comes here to feel like they are in a safe, sacred place," she said.

It originally took more than 100 hours to create the four windows, which depict calla lilies, a butterfly, a dove with an olive branch and a lighthouse - all religiously-neutral, yet powerful spiritual symbols, according to Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Michael Butler, an Air National Guardsman from Whiteman AFB, Mo., and the wing chaplain here.

"The chapel is meant for all people, regardless of belief, to be able to come and practice their spirituality," the St. Louis native said. "I think what these do for the room and the congregation more than anything, is when they come into this room they know they're in a sacred space. I say stained glass windows are to the eyes what perhaps music is to the ears. [They have] a way to inspire and uplift. That's what a chapel is all about."

Staff Sgt. Daniel Manning, a guardsman deployed from McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base, Tenn., agreed with the chaplain.

"When you look at the chapel on the outside it's so bland, so white," the Oakridge, Tenn., native said. "When you come inside you see the stained glass windows. That kind of livens the place up, makes it feel more like a church back home. I think it does a lot for the Airmen here because it does keep home in mind."

A feeling of home is exactly what Pam and Roger said they were going for when they donated the windows. Once the panels arrived, the chapel staff contacted Pam and Roger to let them know the windows had a new home.

"We are happy that someone is being blessed by them," Pam said. "We have been blessed ourselves in the creation process of the windows and in knowing they are able to put beauty into the lives of our troops."

For Cobb, it's important the panels continue to be housed at a deployed base chapel.

"The windows were originally donated to bring joy to deployed troops and with them here, they'll continue to do that for a long time," Cobb said. "They have a great history to them already and I'm glad we'll continue that. They'll have a nice, long life here."