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VOL. 13, NO. 17

Chaplain continues chain of dignity after Sept. 11

By Linda Green, United Methodist News Service

Chaplains are prepared for all sorts of situations, but those involved in the rescue efforts following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks found themselves in circumstances beyond anything for which they had been trained.

Its really something because were trained to do a lot of things in the military, but this was nothing that matched any of our training, said the Rev. Terry Bradfield, lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, describing what Sept. 11 was like for him and three other chaplains on the mortuary detail.

Bradfield, a United Methodist chaplain based at the Pentagons Chief of Chaplains office in Washington, D.C., helped recover the remains of those on the airplane that struck the Pentagon and of the employees who perished.

Wed bring them out and put them in the mortuary while the remains were being processed for identification, he said.

The mortuary team, consisting of Bradfield and Catholic, Presbyterian and Church of God chaplains, formed a chain of dignity.

The Pentagon was a different type of battlefield, he says. It was a mass casualty operation, but it was an attack on an office building and not a battlefield, not in the traditional sense of the word. We had to kind of make things up as we went along.

Bradfield and the team applied the doctrines prescribed for battlefield operations, and we established what we came to term a chain of dignity in the recovery operation.

Once a body or body part was found, a member of the mortuary team would pray over the remains or read from Psalms. Medical personnel pronounced death, and Bradfield would pray over the remains at that time. Afterward, the remains would be sent to a temporary mortuary, where they would be held until being sent on to the militarys mortuary in Dover, Del.

The primary thing was to maintain a chain of dignity with those remains, he said. We wanted to make sure that the families could sense that there was respect in the handling of the remains of their loved ones, and that those who have faith in eternal God would know that God was present in all of the operations, from the locating to the extraction of their family members.

The operation is one that Bradfield will always remember. Since the end of the recovery efforts, he has not shared his personal story or feelings with the media. He has turned down several preaching invitations and interviews in the past year, but he has agreed to let United Methodist Communications, through its Web-based television show and United Methodist News Service, profile him as part of the agencys Sept. 11 anniversary coverage.

Bradfield also has agreed to lead the United Methodist-related Wesley Seminary community in worship on Sept. 10 as it commemorates the tragedy.

Bradfield is connected with the tragedy in a way he cannot forget. Im not sure that I ever want to shake it or will be able to shake it; its just a part of me now, he said. Its only been a year, almost. Im not sure that thats a whole lot of time to pass. I knew several people who were victims of the attack. You cant shake just off the memory of those with whom youve worked and lived.

Describing himself as a once happy-go-lucky and jovial person, he said Sept. 11 and being part of the mortuary team were sobering. He has developed a new appreciation for life in America. Im sad that were not able to enjoy it with as much abandon as we were able to before that day, he said.

Following the attacks, many people asked where God was, but they soon realized that God had nothing to do with what happened, Bradfield says. Because of the nature of this incident, it was an attack. It wasnt an accident; it wasnt an act of God, but an intentional act by somebody.

People understood God was present after the incidents, and that understanding made a difference in many lives, he said.

The chaplains offices were 40 feet to the right of where the plane struck the Pentagon. Bradfield describes the renovation work as healed skin, really, over a gash in the organism that is the Pentagon.

Seeing the day-to-day construction has been a healing balm for him and the other chaplains. I guess you should never give human attributes to an inanimate object, but the Pentagon is more than a building; it is all the folk who work in it, he says. The symbolism of rebuilding the Pentagon is significant, he says, and watching the renovation is like watching a resurrection.

Bradfield said that it is not the events of the day that hell remember so much as the people who died as a result of the attacks.

I would just like to mark it quietly, (and) remember it as a day that was unique in not just the life of the country but in my own life, he said. The nature of resurrection is more real to me now than it ever has been before. Ive seen not only a building being rebuilt, but Ive seen a community come back to life.