Army family copes with mom serving in combat zone
A UMNS Feature By Kathy L. Gilbert
"Please add my wife, Capt. Melody J. Charles, to the top of your prayer list. She is now a clergy spouse in the combat zone."
Chaplain Maj. Michael D. Charles, a Holston Conference minister, made that simple e-mail request as his wife flew off to the war zone near Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Melody Charles, part of a contingency contracting unit for 18th Airborne Corps at Ft. Bragg, N.C., will be far away from her three children and husband for eight to 12 months as she "safeguards, harbors and shepherds the money" needed to conduct the war against terrorism. She is an acquisition officer who prepares the way for soldiers in the war zone by buying or contracting for goods, services and real estate.
Mike returned from Holston Annual Conference in Lake Junaluska, N.C., a few days before Melody left. Son Alex, 12, is old enough to understand why she had to go. Baby Jonah, 9 months old, is too young to understand. Jacob, 2, is having a hard time.
On June 16 before she had to leave, Melody went into Jacob's room to try and explain the unexplainable. "He ran screaming from the room crying, ÔNo, Daddy, no, Daddy!' We held him until he fell asleep."
On the morning she had to leave, Mike had to officiate at the funeral of one of his soldiers who had been killed in a motorcycle accident. He could not help Melody or go to the airport to see her off. He also had to leave the boys with their nanny.
"Jacob woke up at 6:40 a.m., Mel left at 6:30 a.m. He walked into the bathroom with his blanket and lay down on the plush rug Mel stands on when getting ready in the morning. Her smell was still in the air. He hugged the edges with his little hands and moaned. Alex came in and lay with him. They stayed there for about two hours," Mike remembers.
As an Army couple, Mike says he and his wife are used to being deployed to different locations. "We know how to be apart, but being apart in the combat zone brings a different element to it."
After growing up at Bradbury United Methodist Church in Oak Ridge District, Mike first heard about Army chaplains when he was 19 years old. He decided then that he wanted to be one. He also had always wanted to be with the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, and he served with that unit in the Persian Gulf War.
"My dream must have been planted in me by the Divine," says Charles, who served Heiskell UMC for six years before becoming an Army chaplain in 1989. "I tell people I have an ordinary ministry in extraordinary locations with extraordinary individuals."
Since he has been in the Army, he has served Holy Communion on top of Mt. Sinai, and been to places like the Persian Gulf, Thailand, Alaska and Hawaii. He met Melody in Hawaii.
"If you can't get romanced in Honolulu, you need to get back to the house," he says, laughing.
Melody joined the Army as an enlisted soldier and was a Russian linguist. She is a graduate of the Green to Gold program and was a finance officer when she was in Hawaii.
Now, Melody is in the kind of danger anyone would be in when they are in a war zone, where live rounds are being fired, Mike explains. He remembers a recent casualty in Afghanistan, a master sergeant from Ft. Bragg who was ambushed by al-Qaida forces while on the road. "He had five beautiful daughters ages 3 to 9. Loss of life tends to occur in these small actions," he says.
The terrorism attack on Sept. 11 continues to affect families. "The dominos just keep falling," Mike says. "She would not be over there if it hadn't been for Sept. 11. She would not be in the combat zone where she could get shot."
Mike points out that many good and faithful families have taken the vow to protect the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
"They are on one path and the 9-11 story is another path," he says, "and now the paths are joined."
Gilbert is a news writer in United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn., office. To read more about Army chaplains, go to "National & World News."
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