September 17, 2001
Baptist chaplain aids others after narrow miss
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___WASHINGTON, D.C.--In the hours after a hijacked jetliner crashed into the Pentagon, a former Texas Baptist chaplain moved among the injured, offering prayers and words of comfort to the hurting.
___And as he ministered, he realized that a 20-minute coffee break and God's grace were all that kept him from being one of the victims.
___Brig. Gen. Charles Baldwin, deputy chief of the United States Air Force chaplain service, was in a basement cafeteria of the Pentagon at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 11. He planned to enjoy a cup of coffee and a few minutes of peace and quiet between early morning meetings.
___"I had just paid for my latte when somebody came in and said, 'We've been bombed,'" Baldwin said. "Had it been 20 minutes later, I would have been on the fifth floor of the opposite side of the building, where the plane crashed."
___Immediately, he felt torn between his sense of calling and his duty to follow orders to evacuate.
___"My first thought was, 'Which way should I go?' I felt like I needed to go toward those who were harmed, but security wouldn't let us go. I felt a certain amount of guilt growing out of this need to be present immediately among the wounded," he said.
___Some chaplains who were in the basement near the crash site helped carry the injured on litters into ambulances.
___When doctors turned a nearby hotel into a medical receiving area, Baldwin found his place of ministry, praying with the evacuated injured.
___After comforting the wounded, he returned to the Pentagon to counsel firefighters and rescue workers.
___"They were trying to put out the fire so rescue teams could be sent in, but they never let anyone in to attempt rescue," he said. "There was a tremendous fireball and billowing smoke, and the building was too unstable.
___"The firefighters were the main ones to whom we ministered. We prayed with them and asked them if we could contact any family members, just to tell someone they were alive and OK."
___Although they were urged not to come, some family members of Pentagon personnel could not resist standing vigil at the crash site.
___"Chaplains took the family members aside. They prayed, talked, and tried to console them," Baldwin said.
___Thirty-five chaplains, representing all branches of the armed services and including several Baptists, ministered at the scene. When a family receiving area was established, the chaplains set up a rotating schedule to provide an around-the-clock presence there.
___Chaplains helped those who wrestled with questions of God's existence and involvement in human affairs in light of such unspeakable horror.
___"At a time like this, you offer assurance that God did not cause this to happen. Evil people in the world were the ones who attacked us," Baldwin said. "Where was God? God was present with those who suffered. He was in the fire with them."
___The Air Force chaplains' mission statement is to be "a visible reminder of the holy." And that incarnational ministry is perhaps the chaplains' greatest contribution, Baldwin observed.
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Baptist ministry after the terror
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