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The Unknown Soldier's Son

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Dec 27, 2009
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In Honor of Capt. John Gaffaney, Ft Hood Tx
by: Anonymous

During WWII, Army Chaplains served our military troops in multi-faceted roles including performing the last rites for the fallen, offering prayers of encouragement and inspiration - all the time while being in harm's way.
Acting also as psychiatrists, mentors, big brothers, uncle-dads and religious leaders, chaplains served soldiers on the front, in the trenches, at the military hospitals, in make-shift medical units - anywhere and everywhere soldiers were located.

Roy Z Kemp's poem entitled "Army Chaplain" pays tribute to these brave soldiers. (FYI When the tragedy at Fort Hood occurred in September, 09, 75 military chaplains - who were stationed at Fort Hood - immediately served their fellow soldiers as well as countless psychiatric nurses and doctors.)

It is fitting that we honor the brave psychiatric nurse, Capt. John Gaffaney, at Fort Hood who was gunned down on the day before he was supposed to deploy to Afghanistan. Gaffaney (56) was a supervisor for the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency assisting seniors who had financial problems or were victims of abuse. A Navy veteran who later served 15 years with the California Army National Guard before retiring as a major, he had been eager to re-join the military after Sept. 11, 2001. Aware that the Army was in dire need of mental health workers as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on, Gaffaney took the lower rank of captain to serve as a psychiatric nurse in the Army Reserve. He charged the gunman with a chair, saving many others with his ultimate sacrifice.

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