Pa. guard chaplain denies violating DADT - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Pa. guard chaplain denies violating DADT

LANCASTER, Pa. — Surgeons went to work on five Marines mangled by a roadside bomb.

Multiple blasts near Ramadi, west of Baghdad, had torn off the legs of one soldier. Another Marine required amputation of both legs.

Though the time for prayers would come, Army National Guard chaplain Aris Fokas saw the immediate need in the operating room was for an extra set of hands.

He offered his as doctors and nurses labored late into the night in December 2005.

Fokas got busy retrieving medical supplies, hanging intravenous drips and hand pumping blood through a warmer.

When the need for those tasks waned, Fokas slipped back into the role of chaplain. He spoke and prayed with the wounded and with their buddies, who paced and waited for news.

It was one trying night among many Fokas experienced during an 18-month deployment in Iraq.

Fokas, a United Church of Christ minister, joined the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 2003. He was 39 years old and felt called to serve his country by pastoring to soldiers on the front lines.

Fokas warmed to the challenges, and many colleagues came to admire his professionalism and humanity.

But now that he’s home, Fokas, 46, is facing a challenge that threatens his future with the military.

An officer has accused Fokas of telling him he is gay.

Although Fokas denies any such disclosure, a commander at Fort Indiantown Gap has ordered an inquiry.

“It is the policy of the United States Army ... that homosexuality is incompatible with military service,” Lt. Col. David W. Wood informed Fokas in a memorandum. “Therefore ... an investigation is in process to determine if separation action is warranted.”

Fokas, for now, remains in the Guard, but his chaplain duties are suspended pending the investigation’s findings.

Under the 1993 law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” more than 13,000 service members have been dismissed for being gay or lesbian.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for Congress to repeal the ban. Democrats have introduced a repeal bill as the Pentagon gets set to study whether lifting the ban could hurt morale and unit effectiveness.

In the meantime, because “don’t ask, don’t tell” remains the law, Fokas in an interview declined to say anything about his sexual orientation other than to acknowledge he is single and has never been married.

He noted, too, that the United Church of Christ ordains openly gay and lesbian ministers, a denomination-wide policy since 1980.

The commander of the 104th Aviation Brigade at Fort Indiantown Gap informed Fokas in January of the accusation that he had violated “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The commander told Fokas the accusation was made by Fokas’ former supervisor, a higher-ranking chaplain.

Fokas said the supervisor wrote a memo in December 2009 describing a phone conversation the previous June. In that conversation, the supervisor alleged, Fokas disclosed being gay.

Fokas denies saying any such thing. He said he had a heated phone conversation in June 2009 with the supervisor, but the memo the supervisor wrote contains “inaccuracies and fabrications.”

“It’s trumped up and it’s abusive,” Fokas said of the supervisor’s memo. He characterized the resulting investigation as “a waste of administrative time.”

“I’ve done nothing that would violate my ordination vows or compromise my position to be trusted by soldiers,” Fokas said.

Fokas’ claim is backed by a number of servicemen who vouch for the chaplain’s integrity.

Harry Delorenzo, 57, of Warrington was the command sergeant major of the 228th Forward Support Battalion, a unit in which Fokas served for five months at Camp Shelby, Miss., and for 12 months in Iraq.

Delorenzo said he saw Fokas daily and consulted with him frequently about soldiers who were coping with personal problems. He said he also went to Fokas for pastoral counseling after the death of a family member back home.

Delorenzo described Fokas as a dedicated professional who truly cared for the soldiers and who went out of his way to offer comfort and improve morale.

Not everyone appreciated Fokas’ low-key style, Delorenzo said, “but the majority did.”

And Delorenzo said that if Fokas had ever acted inappropriately, he would have heard about it. “There was nothing whatsoever,” Delorenzo said.

After Fokas’ 12-month deployment at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq, with the 228th, he extended his stay in Iraq for six months with the 372nd Military Police Battalion in Baghdad.

Jeff Cox, 41, of Salem, Mass., a clinical social worker with the Massachusetts National Guard, worked with Fokas in the same Baghdad unit in 2006.

“I was not in his chain of command,” Cox said, “but what I can speak to as a person is I have great respect for him. He has a strong ethical, moral commitment and I enjoyed working with him. ... I would serve with him again.”

Cox said he never discussed issues of sexual orientation with Fokas. “It just never came up,” he said.

Other service members wrote letters of recommendation for Fokas last year before the “don’t ask, don’t tell” accusation arose.

Fokas provided the Intelligencer Journal with copies of three letters written by a Fort Dix, N.J. chaplain, a Pennsylvania National Guard physician and a Pennsylvania National Guard major. The letters recommend Fokas highly.

“Any organization would be blessed to have him as part of their team,” one said.

An economics major, graduating from Franklin & Marshall College in 1989, Fokas had a variety of work experiences before entering the ministry.

He was, for example, a college admissions director, a marketing director for a winery and a funeral home assistant.

Fokas graduated from Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1996. As a United Church of Christ minister, he was assistant of campus ministries at F&M and the pastor or interim pastor at several churches, including Grace Alsace UCC outside Reading and Salem UCC of Columbia.

For many years, Fokas mulled becoming a military chaplain. The opportunities for adventure and personal growth appealed to him. And he felt a call to a greater purpose.

Fokas remembers the evening in 2003 when he made up his mind.

He was in his kitchen watching The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer when the program featured a story about a fallen soldier.

“I openly wept,” Fokas recalled. “I felt a very strong sense that I can help.”

Writing in his blog in April 2005, while training at Fort Shelby, Fokas noted that people sometimes ask why he became a military chaplain.

The answer “is as complex,” he wrote, “as the experiences that have made me who I am and as simple as the desire to do something with dignity and meaning.”

These days, Fokas is a Lancaster seminary student in the Doctor of Ministry program, which he plans to complete next year.

Then he’ll be at a new crossroads.

His eight-year National Guard commitment expires in 2011. Fokas thinks about seeking promotion and extending his time in the military, but he has not decided.

The military may, of course, choose to kick him out. But Fokas said he’s not going to let that happen without a fight.

He said he will defend himself against his accuser. In addition, he will stand up for an end to “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“Almost all of our military allies, notably Israel and Great Britain, have openly gay and lesbian soldiers serving without problems,” Fokas said. “There was consternation in Britain about what would happen if soldiers came out. But what happened is people went to work the next day and the world did not fall off its axis.”

Fokas said “don’t ask, don’t tell” has proven to be a dangerous policy because it gives cover to abusers.

“To frighten and intimidate someone,” he said, “all you have to say is, ‘Well, I heard you’re gay.’ ”

Fokas said he won’t be intimidated. Being a captain, chaplain and minister, Fokas said, gives him greater freedom than many in the military to speak out against a policy he views as unjust.

He said that’s why he has chosen to take a public stand.

In speaking against “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Fokas said, “I hope I can make life easier for those who don’t have the luxury of speaking their conscience.”