Meeting the Troops: Episcopal Bishop Packard Visits Armed Forces in Asia and Kuwait

November 20, 2002
by Jerry Hames

Bishop George Packard, who returned from a tour of U.S. armed forces troops in Asia and Kuwait last month, said he was impressed by how well-trained, how alert and especially how young the men and women were who are serving their country overseas.

The bishop for the armed services spent three weeks touring Guam, Japan, Korea and Kuwait as part of his responsibility to maintain contact with Episcopal chaplains, support their work and conduct confirmations.

Packard, who was an infantry officer in Vietnam, said he found the situation in Korea as tense as that in Kuwait, after an incident in which one soldier was killed and two other injured in a skirmish on a nearby island.

"The visit to the men and women of the Eighth Army [in Korea] had more gravity than at other times," he said. "Everyone said that recent revelations about nuclear capability to the north was not new, but just confirmed their suspicions."

In Kuwait, U.S. Army Chaplain Maj. Robert Neske emphasized the precarious nature of that country's geography, a land carved from a British protectorate for its petroleum-producing capabilities.

"Everything is about an hour's drive away," said Packard. "Saudi Arabia to the south, Iran to the northeast, the Gulf to the east and, of course, Iraq to the west."

Neske, who joined the Army chaplaincy in 1986, is at Camp Doha, whose troop strength ebbs and flows as troops pass through, augmenting those assigned there. Eight thousand were there when he visited, Packard said. He described the camp, 45 minutes from Kuwait City, as a collection of warehouses created as a support facility after the Gulf War. When Neske arrived in June 2002, it was a routine hardship tour for the chaplain. Now, that has changed.

"Bob's responsibilities are enormous, particularly the potential amidst an unfolding drama with Iraq," explained Packard, who said that for every man and woman on active duty, four are from reserve units or the National Guard.

"There is very great need for a chaplain here," said Packard. "There are many active opportunities for ministry."

"These are kids who have never been in combat before," he added. "There's a factor of boredom, a lot of time just to think, to worry about home and to become depressed. Their presence here has drawn them from all congregations across our country."

In Kuwait, in keeping with the tradition of Muslims, Packard officiated Thursday through Friday at major chapel services that included a 30th-anniversary celebration of Neske's diaconal vows.

He also was driven to Arijan, a support-base-in-the-making closer to the front, to greet troops, including those from a National Guard's engineers' unit from Paris, Tennessee, that is responsible for heavy combat, perimeter security and mine-clearing.

Packard praised the chaplains' work. "My favorite image was of our chaplain in Kuwait stopping, taking a young soldier into the shade of a vehicle and listening intently," he said.

Episcopal Life