By Victoria Fleurat-Smith

           Have you ever been in 125-degree weather? No real bathroom, just a porta-potty? This is how Joel Newman and thousands of navy members live every day. The suicide rate is very high in Iraq, and a United States soldier commits suicide every other day. Can you imagine living like that? Joel Newman is a chaplain for the navy because he thinks it is his calling to help the navy members with their lives. His job is to provide the religious services to the navy. Also he is like a mentor and helps the navy members with their problems and whatever you tell him will then never leave his mouth. That sounds like a really hard job to me.

            Joel enjoys his job because he gets to travel the world, though maybe not to the best places. He has gone to Iraq four times, Sudan, and Palestine. He has gotten to see places all over the world that many of us will never be able to see. In a way I see him being lucky, but his job must be hard. Joel said, “ You hear people screaming at night, while sleeping,” and that must put a deep impression on him.

            When you get up and go to get a drink of water, cold water with ice, you think nothing of it. The navy sometimes has no water. And when they do have water it is hot and not the cleanest water in the world. Also, when they go the bathroom, they have to check what color their pee is to make sure they are not dying of dehydration. And it is very gross to sit down on the toilet so the navy invented a way for girls to stand up and pee. It is called “The Sweet Pee”.

          

            Joel is a navy chaplain and the only weapon that chaplains carry around is a pocketknife. So Joel has a bodyguard who protects him. One story Joel told us was about when he went to go get water and he didn’t know if he was inside or outside the navy base. If he was outside that would be very bad and he might have been dead, but if he was inside he would be fine. Because it was night and was not allowed to use a regular light, he had to use a red light. The light safe guided him back to where he needed to be.

            Joel Newman left us with a very strong message. His message was “Always think to put others before yourself.” He left us with a story to go along with his message. He was going to be sent to Hawaii for two weeks, but he thought to himself that the marines being stationed in Iraq are in great need and great pain, so I will go to Iraq. So he went to Iraq instead. And that shows how much he really cares for others.

✬

Biography of Joel Newman

by James Hughes

Joel Newman is a military chaplain. He just came back from Afghanistan and said it was worse than living in prison He has been in the military for 19 years and is going on to 20 years. Joel keeps the military on track; he helps them through rough times. He has been all over the world with the military; where the military goes Joel goes. He has been to Iraq four times and to Somalia many times as well. His worst deployment was to Afghanistan because it was 125 degrees there and the “low” temperature 110 degrees.

Chaplain Joel Newman stated, “When it rains in Afghanistan, it is like walking in peanut butter.” That’s how thick the dirt gets when you walk in it. The dirt in Afghanistan is called moon dust because it is like when you walk on the moon; it leaves footprints. Joel is a very brave person. He was offered to go to Maui for two weeks to talk at Pearl Harbor, but instead he chose Afghanistan because he wanted to help military members who were really in need of a chaplain to help them through tough times.

Joel sat for four days waiting for a plane to take the military to Afghanistan. He took a plane over with no seats, not bathrooms, and two big trucks taking up most of the space.  He had to wear an iron suit so it could protect his body from getting shot in the helicopter. Now there are neck covers because snipers are so good they could shoot you right in the neck while flying.

At the camp in Afghanistan the conditions were very difficult. Joel ate  disgusting food, like eggs that were very watery, and he had to use chocolate or strawberry milk in his cereal (which was never tasty) or powdered milk  mixed with water. Water was EXTREMELY important because if you did not drink enough, your pee would turn dark yellow and that meant that you were dehydrated and you even risked dying. There were charts in all of urinals so that the soldiers could measure the color of their urine to see if they were in danger of dehydration.

With no portable water, no showers, scorching hot weather, and danger everywhere, Joel chose to be a true humanitarian and help those who were really in need.