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A two-man traveling contact team or TCT, consisting of U.S. Army Africa chaplains Col. Jonathan McGraw and Lt. Col. Scott Hammond, conducted ethics training for 50 Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo or FARDC chaplains, a few of whom traveled from distant areas in the DRC; some flying for more than 1,400 miles to attend the seminar. (U.S. Army Africa photos)

USARAF chaplains traveling contact team work with DRC counterparts

Oct. 12, 2012 — By Rich Bartell, U.S. Army Africa Public Affairs

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KINSHASA, The Democratic Republic of the Congo – Dealing with years of continuous conflict takes its toll on Soldiers and civilians in war-torn countries around the globe.

Recently, U.S. Army Africa chaplains fulfilled a request made by the armed forces of The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s chief of chaplains during a week-long training in Kinshasa.

French is the official language in the DRC and the military is known as the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo or FARDC. The training was conducted in English and translated into French.

A two-man traveling contact team or TCT, consisting of USARAF chaplains Col. Jonathan McGraw and Lt. Col. Scott Hammond conducted ethics training for 50 FARDC chaplains, a few of whom traveled from distant areas in the DRC; some flying for more than 1,400 miles to attend the seminar.

U. S. Army Col. Lee Whiteside, a defense attaché at the Embassy in Kinshasa, was instrumental in coordinating the TCT training for the FARDC chaplains, Hammond said.

The DRC has suffered from almost constant warfare since the mid 1990s. According AlerNet, more than 5 million lives have been lost since then. The conflict is the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. A majority of deaths are non-combat related illness such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition.

The DRC occupies a large land mass in central Africa; is the second largest country on the continent in area and the 11th largest in the world. DRC geography is vast and diverse by any nation’s standards.

According to McGraw, the training had three main areas of focus: preventing sexual assault as a weapon of war; building more positive relation between civilians and FARDC soldiers and prevention of looting and pillaging of civilian property.

According to McGraw, the training had three main areas of focus: preventing sexual assault as a weapon of war; building more positive relation between civilians and FARDC soldiers and prevention of looting and pillaging of civilian property.

“We gave a week-long seminar on chaplain advising the commander, Army ethics and the ethical decision making model. Our intent is training the trainer. Chaplains will return to their units and provide commanders with advice on training soldiers in the area of respecting civilian human rights and the law and morals of land warfare,” McGraw said. “The focus of this week's training was the role of the chaplain as a staff officer and ethical decision making. Much of our training material was developed in cooperation with the Center for Army Profession and Ethic (CAPE) at West Point.”

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