United Methodist chaplain serves in mission of mercy
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Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy
A U.S. Navy crewman directs a SH-60B Seahawk to land on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.
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U.S. Navy crewman directs an SH-60B Seahawk to land on the flight deck
of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln following a trip to Aceh,
Sumatra, Indonesia. Helicopters are transporting supplies to
tsunami-stricken coastal regions as part of Operation Unified
Assistance. A UMNS photo courtesy of the Department of Defense by Petty
Officer 3rd class M. Jeremie Yoder, U.S. Navy. Photo number 05-008.
Accompanies UMNS story #011, 1/6/05. |
Jan. 6, 2005A UMNS Report
By Kathy L. Gilbert* In a sea of despair, Navy Chaplain Lt. Gregory J. McCrimmon sees himself as a lifeline representing God’s love. The
Rev. McCrimmon, a United Methodist, is one of four chaplains aboard the
aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, operating in the ocean near
Thailand and Indonesia. Helicopters make repeated trips to areas
devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami. Crews bring in supplies and take out
the wounded most in need of medical treatment. "There
are a lot of bodies," he says. "I would say at least 30 to 40 percent
of the dead have been washed to sea. The percentage may be higher than
that; I think that is a very conservative estimate." A
dozen countries suffered devastating losses after the Dec. 26
earthquake and tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean. Death counts are
estimated at nearly 150,000. Many survivors are struggling to get clean
water, food, shelter and medicine.
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Lt. Gregory J. McCrimmon |
The stress to pilots
and crew is tremendous, and McCrimmon is part of the team helping them
deal with the pictures of destruction they are facing. He also helps
"behind the scenes" to support the relief effort. "We have water ports
set up on flight deck where we are filling jugs and jugs of water to
make sure we push the fresh water back out to the villages," he says.He
says he has received e-mails from crew members talking about the bodies
they are seeing. "There is a lot of stress just from the sheer number
of the dead." "When
the pilots and crews come back in, we have a policy and a process of
talking with them to ensure they are not traumatized and to get them to
talk about what they have seen and how they feel," he says. "It helps
them to process all they have gone through that day so they are able to
get some good rest and then be able to get back in the game the next
day." McCrimmon
says everything is saturated with water, and the geographic landscape
has been dramatically changed. Helicopters from the Lincoln are
providing food and fresh drinking water and evacuating people to medical
facilities. However, there are areas in which even the helicopters
can’t land because of the level of saturation, he says.
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Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy
Navy officers tend to an injured Indonesian man who was evacuated from the island of Sumatra.
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Petty Officer 1st class Rebecca McClung (left) and Chief Petty Officer
Jim Jones (right) tend to an injured Indonesian man who was medically
evacuated from a coastal village on the island of Sumatra. Medical teams
from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and the
International Organization for Migration have set up a triage site on
Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force Base, in Banda Aceh, Sumatra. A UMNS
photo courtesy of the Department of Defense by Airman Jordon R. Beesley,
U.S. Navy. Photo number 05-009. Accompanies UMNS story #011, 1/6/05. |
<Rice fields,
houses and coastal businesses have been swept away. "We are not talking
about two or three miles’ distance; we are talking about thousands of
miles where it affects 11 countries on two different continents. That is
how devastating it is." It
will take many years for the people to re-establish their lives he
says. "My impression is that a lot of cleaning up will not be able to
take place until the water begins to dry out." More than 2 million
people were left homeless and will remain homeless for a long time, he
says. Field
photos of the devastation show sometimes the only structures left
standing are mosques. "Around the different mosques they are digging
mass graves to properly bury the people." McCrimmon
has been assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln since April 2004. "This is
my first sea duty," he says. He is an ordained elder from the Kansas
East Conference and previously served as a chaplain for a Veterans
Affairs hospital as well as with reserve forces. He returned to active
duty Jan. 7, 2002. He
has worked in other disaster relief efforts, including those following
the tornadoes in Oklahoma City and Wichita, Kan. He also worked in the
Balkans, where thousands died in ethnic fighting.
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Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy
A U.S. Navy aircrewman works with an interpreter to locate Indonesian citizens who need medical attention.
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U.S. Navy aircrewman works with an interpreter to locate Indonesian
citizens that need medical attention. The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln (CVN
72) Carrier Strike Group is operating in the Indian Ocean off the coasts
of Indonesia and Thailand as part of Operation Unified Assistance. The
red and white flag, held by an Indonesian citizen, is a distress signal
that alerts helicopter crewmen to possible emergencies on the ground. A
UMNS photo courtesy of the Department of Defense by Petty Officer 3rd
class Gabriel Piper, U.S. Navy. Photo number 05-010. Accompanies UMNS
story #011, 1/6/05 |
"I worked in Bosnia
and Kosovo, but those were war-torn nations, man-made destruction. That
doesn’t even measure up to how nature itself has caused such destruction
and has devastated so many people. I don’t know of any war that has
been fought over the history of mankind that has brought this kind of
destruction."In Bosnia and Kosovo, he says he saw the church at work through the United Methodist Committee on Relief. "We
are not only a connectional system in the United States, but we are a
connectional system in the global sense. I believe our faith and our
hearts reach out to all of the people of God." He
says he is happy to be part of the relief effort as a United Methodist
minister. "I am happy to represent my denomination. I think this is
where the Gospel has placed us." McCrimmon
emphasizes that he works as part of a team with the other chaplains on
board the ship. "We are four chaplains from different denominations, and
we all work together in a collective effort," he says. "It is not about
denomination; it is about getting out and doing our part to help bring
relief to those in a disaster area." *Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn. News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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