The Good Shepherd
For five weeks in Iraq, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Moni Basu and photographer Curtis Compton shadowed Chaplain Darren Turner as he counseled battle-fatigued soldiers. Their 8-part narrative, "Chaplain Turner's War," is a finely crafted package that offers profound insights into how soldiers react to the horrors of war. Here Chaplain Turner discovers that he will have to plan yet another memorial service.
Spc. Charles Jankowski, 24, was hunting for makeshift bombs hidden along the roads when one ripped through his Husky mine-detection vehicle. His death is the 15th for the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment. Turner despises this moment for all the obvious reasons, and for one that is not so obvious.
Why should he know of a young man's death before those who loved him most? A mother has lost her son, and she does not know what will surely be the most devastating news of her life.
Turner dislikes being privy to "sacred" information.
He may never meet Jankowski's family. But he must tend to the men who loved him here in Iraq.
He marches down to the motor pool to see the damaged vehicle. He lifts the tarp, gazes at the pock-marked steel; the flattened tire; the shattered glass. He tries to imagine.
To see it, touch it, smell it — the experience will help him when he speaks with his soldiers.
A shepherd needs to smell like his sheep.
http://www.ajc.com/chaplain