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EL PASO, Texas ? With word that as many as 12 soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss are missing following an ambush by Iraqi forces on March 23, Southern Baptists and other Christians near the Army post stand ready to minister to the families of those affected.
Pastor Rix W. Tillman of Exciting Immanuel Baptist Church in El Paso called his congregation to prayer at
During fierce fighting near the southern Iraqi town of An Nasiriyah, the Iraqi militia captured the Fort Bliss soldiers. “We’ve just been praying all day and listening to the news,” Maria Cervantes said Sunday night in an interview with the El Paso Times. Families were called to the post Sunday afternoon where they were told that an officer and chaplain would come to the homes if death notifications had to be made.
Members of the group are a part of the 5th Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade that was deployed to Kuwait just over a month ago. Fort Bliss officials reported that the company was “involved in an incident while engaged in maneuvers with the 3rd Infantry Division.”
U.S. congressmen from the west Texas and eastern New Mexico region, both with military experience in Vietnam, praised the family support group at Fort Bliss for the manner in which they are addressing a difficult situation. The U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center, in conjunction with the Army Family Liaison Office, established a toll-free family assistance hotline at 1-800-833-6622 to give Army families information, resources and referrals. It is available only to family members of soldiers on active duty and those in the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve who are on active duty.
Iraq war commander Gen. Tommy Franks described the Fort Bliss logistics support troops who were captured as “highly trained” and “highly motivated” following a report on an Arabic television station showing the captured soldiers under interrogation.
The names and faces of some of those captured were broadcast Sunday through interviews with Iraqi television. Major U.S. networks refused to play additional footage of the captured soldiers, showing only still images of prisoners and obscured angles of four bodies.
Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt admitted that morale is low at the post. “The mood of course is very tragic. We regret this,” she was quoted as saying to the El Paso newspaper. Another soldier stationed there described the reaction as “shock and disbelief” while adding that he is certain the post “will band together.”
A volunteer youth worker at Exciting Immanuel Baptist Church is currently stationed at Fort Bliss and has been assisting families dealing with the anxiety surrounding such events. Tillman said the youth team led the church in worship Sunday as they contemplated the anxiety many are facing and prayed specifically for those needs.
“They’ve got a lot going on at the base with the chaplains,” Tillman added, explaining, however, that a heightened alert status now prevented his participation in such ministries. The chaplain ministry teams of Fort Bliss offer a comprehensive program in support of commanders, unit ministry teams and the total Army community at the base through worship, pastoral care and community outreach. Chaplains emphasize the “ministry of presence” that is particularly crucial in such a time as this, according to officials at the base.
A volunteer staff member who coordinates the church’s prayer ministry has a son deployed with an infantry unit, Tillman said. Another member of the church’s praise team was recently deployed as part of a judge advocate general’s office. Many relatives of church members are serving with the Patriot anti-missile defense system in the Mideast.
When Tillman began his ministry in El Paso eight years ago, the church had 12 retired colonels. “There’s a higher level of awareness,” he said, prompting an increased focus on ministry to the military. As the church begins a “Forty Days of Purpose” emphasis, he said, “A lot of the small groups we are beginning will have military men and women and we’re going to be reaching out to them.”
Mountain View Baptist Pastor Gib Allen of El Paso broke the news of the capture of locally based troops to many in his congregation Sunday morning. Fort Bliss is only a 10-minute drive from the church, and two-thirds of the congregation are retired military, Allen told Baptist Press.
“There is a lot of fear, especially yesterday morning in our services in sharing that one of the Fort Bliss maintenance batteries had been captured and assaulted. People were really upset about the whole thing. Some
