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Web posted Friday, March
8, 2002
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Col. James
Buckner (left) looks on as Col. Donald Hanchett
places his piece of glass into position in
a stained glass tribute to the men and women
lost in the Sept. 11th attacks on the Pentagon.
-Pete
Marovich/Carolina Morning News
Army Chaplins
place pieces of stained glass into position
for a memorial honoring the men and women
lost in the Sept. 11th attacks on the Pentagon.
-Pete
Marovich/Carolina Morning News
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'It's
our experience as soldiers'
Army chaplains create
stained glass window for Pentagon memorial
By Noelle Phillips
Savannah Morning
News
HILTON HEAD ISLAND - Chaplain
Timothy Mallard can't count the number of times
he forged his way through the crumbled walls of
the Pentagon last fall, praying for the dead.
Every time a team of soldiers entered the building
to remove a body, a military chaplain like Mallard
went with them. Everyone wore protective suits and
masks because of the jet fumes and decomposing bodies;
Mallard used duct tape to make a cross on his suit
so people would know he was a chaplain.
As they would place the dead body on a stretcher,
Mallard would kneel and pray the "Nunc Dimittis,"
the Latin title for a prayer found in Luke 2:29-32."What
I would do as a symbol, I would bend down and hold
out my hands over the body," Mallard said. "Nobody
ever heard me. It's what we did to bring honor and
dignity to our brothers and sisters who died."
This week, Mallard joined more than 400 other Army
chaplains on Hilton Head Island for a senior leadership
conference. It was one of the first meetings for
them since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and it
was a chance for those who helped heal spiritual
wounds to have their own healing.
To memorialize the Pentagon attack, the chaplains
assembled a stained glass window that will be placed
in a chapel, which will be included in the renovations
of the damaged building.
Mallard, a captain, was assigned to the Pentagon
as a chaplain. He wasn't at work when the airplane
hit because he was home with a sick child. But he
was called in to help recover victims and counsel
rescue workers.
"It's not just a window," Mallard said. "It's our
experience as soldiers."
To piece together the window, each chaplain attending
the conference received a numbered piece of glass.
The chaplains placed their pieces on the appropriate,
numbered section of the window frame.
Dennis Roberts, a stained glass artisan with IHS
Studios in Fredericksburg, Texas, finished the work.
Roberts donated his time and materials to help the
chaplains make the window.
"There are 184 pieces of red glass around the border
to symbolize all of those lives lost in the Pentagon,"
Roberts said.
Maj. Gen. Gaylord Gunhus, the Army's chief chaplain,
called the window a symbol of unity and hope.
"We're placing the pieces together as a ministry
team in order for the light of the message of hope
to be reflected in it," Gunhus said.
Gunhus also recalled the terrorist attacks in an
opening speech where he urged the chaplains to be
strong leaders for the Army in a time of war."The
attacks of Sept. 11 are crystallized in our memories,"
he said. "We must remember but we must not let the
memory paralyze us."
Military reporter Noelle Phillips
can be reached at 652-0366 or at mailto:phillips@savannahnow.com.
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