Support: Armed, but not dangerous | ADM August 2012

In 1649 England’s King Charles I required his soldiers to attend divine worship twice a day and to be punished for ‘blasphemy, oaths, drunkenness, whoredom and all other scandalous actions.’ ADM asked New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) Principal Chaplain Lance Lukin what’s changed.

“Fantastic!” he grinned. “No one can be required to attend a divine service these days. But some of the things Charles I was dealing with, we are dealing with today.”

We exist purely for operational outputs, to provide pastoral care on operations, he said. “That’s the nice, politically correct, answer, but actually it is a very accurate answer.”

Lukin, appointed to his post last December, said NZDF personnel are likely to be confronted with ‘traumatic things that they want to talk about.’

“They want someone who can provide them with some answers, or at least support them through it. People in the NZDF, who may come from absolutely zero church background, quickly learn that the padre is someone they can go and talk to.”

While not a military man per se, Lukin has grown to love the role nonetheless.

“Oh glory … I hate getting wet, I hate getting dirty, I hate being cold … but it was the best decision I have ever made in my life.”

The NZDF Chaplaincy has deep roots. The first chaplain, a civilian, was appointed in Taranaki during the 1860s. Today there are 26 chaplains (and about 25 reserves, plus a number of ‘Officiating Chaplains’) spread across all three services. Technically they are all Defence Chaplains although they retain the uniform of the Service that they originally joined. And they are stationed all over the nation.

“I have a Navy chaplain at Linton Army camp, I have an Army chaplain at Devonport navy base … because we want people to have a broad experience.”

What, asked ADM, makes a good Chaplain?

“People who have incredibly good pastoral skills and some counselling training, which means they can sit with people through a whole range of very difficult issues, from a suicide, an affair, questions about sexuality and gender, through to acutely traumatic events.”

Would a Chaplain of 1912, asked ADM, recognise a Chaplain of 2012?

“Probably not. In 1912 we still had Chaplains by designation of CoE, RC and OD — Church of England, Roman Catholic and Other Denominations. Woe betide any Chaplain who dared to cross those boundaries!

“During the First World War, there was at least one instance where an NZ Chaplain picked up a pistol and led the charge. In 2012 that Chaplain would be arrested and tried as a war criminal under the Geneva Convention.”

How do NZDF chaplains, asked ADM, compare with their allied counterparts?

“The one point of difference that NZDF Chaplains appear to have with all of our Commonwealth and ABCA colleagues is the fact that we generally will carry arms on operations for self-protection … but it must be a pistol only.

“The interesting thing is this: the Americans will very clearly state that their Chaplains don’t carry firearms. But every Chaplain in the US Defense Force has an armed Chaplain’s Assistant!”

Lukin told ADM that Chaplains walk a fine line between dealing with a soldier’s anxieties while taking an advocacy role with commanding officers. What happens, asked ADM, when the officers themselves are in turmoil?

“Regardless of rank, the moment they have a crisis they are just another person who needs care and it is my responsibility to provide it.”

In Afghanistan, in 2004, Lukin was called in by an American orthopaedic surgeon to see a Taliban member who’d lost all his limbs from his own bomb.

“This was, in a true sense, the enemy who was trying to kill us. In that moment he wasn’t anything other than just another human in need of care and concern. My role is to work with our people, as they grapple with such issues themselves. The one thing everybody fights for is their life. I know it’s a glib cliché, that there are no atheists in fox holes, but if you are going to have a conversation about faith, generally it is on operations because people are faced with the reality of life and death.” Does having faith make for good soldiers? asked ADM.

“I really don’t know the answer to that. I have worked with some fairly elite individuals. One Army unit in particular has a much higher rate of people who adhere to a faith group and a much higher rate of people who subsequently go in to full-time ministry than any other unit in the New Zealand Army.”

Lukin recalled providing communion for American troops in Afghanistan about to go on a mission.

“These were young kids, many of whom would not be there the following Sunday because they would be dead. They knew it and I knew it and … it was a very surreal moment. When your life is on the line, you start to question. When someone’s shot in front of you, I have not experienced that, but I have certainly seen the results. War is not a pleasant thing.

“You can’t train people for that. We do a lot of resilience training in the Defence Force; you can’t train people for what it is like to be tortured, or shot, or come under fire. Until that actually happens you don’t know how you are going to react.”