Forreston Pastor Talks About His Time As Military Chaplain At Guantanamo Bay

Forreston, Illinois- Reverend Kent Svendsen of Forreston first joined the military in 1970. He joined the Chaplain Candidate Program in 1988 and now serves in the U.S. Army Reserves. Due to a major shortage of chaplains in the U.S. Army, and with the War on Terrorism well underway, Svendsen was called again to serve his country in 2004 as a chaplain. He spent ten months at Guantanamo Bay fulfilling spiritual needs for the roughly 1,500 soldiers and staff. Svendsen said, "I would lead chapel services. I would do counseling sessions. Sometimes, I would work with the combat stress where youd have the pastoral care support in conjunction with the mental health care. It pretty well kept me busy from early in the morning until late at night." Guantanamo Bay is where the U.S. military has housed nearly 500 of the worst terrorists apprehended during the war in Afghanistan. While Svendsen wasnt allowed to talk with the detainees in the camp, he still took care of their needs. "Part of my role was to make sure that the detainees had their religious rights protected and that they were allowed to have the items," said Svendsen. "They all had a Koran, and what they needed to do their religious practices." Although he was never present during the interrogation sessions or aware of any reports of torture, Reverend Svendsen did remind all of the soldiers of their duty. Svendsen said, "What I said to them all is you are representing democracy and freedom. We need to treat these individuals, you need to treat each other and these detainees and offer them that hope of freedom and democracy that we love and so appreciate." His time spent at Guantanamo Bay taught this man of faith a lot about himself and others. "I think thats whats the most important, the memories to take away from it is learning about all those different people," said Svendsen. The reverend now resides in Forreston serving as pastor at the First United Methodist Church.