The Fort Bragg exercises were the first time in more than 20 years that U.S. Army chaplains, and personnel dedicated to religious affairs in the military, received training in how to contribute to temporary gravedigging on the battlefield, the Army said.
Edit: I read what you said better, and these aren’t actually in conflict. Why was the army asking chaplains to do it? Terrifying.
That doesn’t contradict them. Your quote is clearly saying it’s happened before, but this is the first time Army chaplains have been involved. It’s a change of procedure, but not a new activity.
Ah, ok. Well why they would ask chaplains to participate (they’re not taking over) is that they’re basically the ones in charge of burials and religious ceremonies. It makes sense to have them involved to make sure it’s all being done as humanely as possible.
Uh, idk. There is a world where a countries armed forces determining a safe procedure to deal with an extremely large mass casualty event is proper planning with chaplains. It’s a really bad look though for the US.
How does adding chaplains to the loop make things worse? That’s the thing that changed here. The mass grave training was already being done.
Also, as much as it sucks, it’s probably good to train this if you want people to receive “proper” burials. It’s not training expecting it will happen, but training in case it happens. It’s similar to all service members training to fight and shoot, even though the majority will never fire their rifle off the range. Preparation is good so if you need it you can do it without totally fucking things up.
That’s not what the article says:
Edit: I read what you said better, and these aren’t actually in conflict. Why was the army asking chaplains to do it? Terrifying.
That doesn’t contradict them. Your quote is clearly saying it’s happened before, but this is the first time Army chaplains have been involved. It’s a change of procedure, but not a new activity.
See my edit from three minutes after I posted
Ah, ok. Well why they would ask chaplains to participate (they’re not taking over) is that they’re basically the ones in charge of burials and religious ceremonies. It makes sense to have them involved to make sure it’s all being done as humanely as possible.
Chaplins are officers, if an officer can dodge going into the field and get dirty they will.
/s
To be fair Chaplins are pretty busy, lots consoling, helping families, then worship prep each week.
This is just a full run thru, I bet we see this with all the brigades following. Some General/Coronel wants to see it done completely.
Tbh, I was picturing the chaplains digging, but overseeing and advising makes wayyyy more sense. Why have they never participated before?
Chaplins are officers, officers don’t do manual labor :)
They’ve probably done their training separately. You can learn how to give funeral rites in a classroom.
Uh, idk. There is a world where a countries armed forces determining a safe procedure to deal with an extremely large mass casualty event is proper planning with chaplains. It’s a really bad look though for the US.
How does adding chaplains to the loop make things worse? That’s the thing that changed here. The mass grave training was already being done.
Also, as much as it sucks, it’s probably good to train this if you want people to receive “proper” burials. It’s not training expecting it will happen, but training in case it happens. It’s similar to all service members training to fight and shoot, even though the majority will never fire their rifle off the range. Preparation is good so if you need it you can do it without totally fucking things up.