By Steve Long, slong@cbs4qc.com
A life in the military takes different people, different places. We have the story of an Army Chaplain's career in this week's edition of "Rock Island Arsenal: Inside the Gates". He's taken the Army catch phrase 'Be all you can be' :literally.
After 35 years one man's journey has covered a lot of ground. But you could say his strongest weapon has been his faith.
53 year old Scott Fluegel has been in the military since 1978. "I haven't always been a Chaplain," says Major Scott Fluegel. He is now, and how he got there reads like a road map.
Service is in his blood. His Dad was active duty Navy. His Uncle was active duty Army. Scott started wearing uniforms when he was about 2 years old. At 18, he made it official, "I started out in the United States Coast Guard out on the West Coast, I became a storekeeper 3RD Class." In the 80's he served in the Air guard, and then became an Infantry Officer in the Army. But he was never deployed. "I could have been because Dessert Shield started up 3 weeks after I was married," Fluegel says.
He became an Army Chaplain in 1995, and it was that role that proved most dangerous. In 2003 he was sent to Kabul, Afghanistan. "When I got there it was in the middle of the night for safety and security," he says. He spent about 6 months there Camp Phoenix. Chaplain Fluegel says, "We had a chapel there. I set up the first chapel, and that's pretty neat to be able to do that."
Home safely in 2003, deployed again in 2004. "One of my daughters, my youngest started crying and she was like daddy I don't want you to go," Fluegel says. This time, it was Iraq, "I lost one soldier and one interpreter during that deployment." I said, "That's gotta be tough on you?" "It is, yes sir, it very much is," he said. "Looks like it's still tough on you," I said. "Oh yeah," he replied.
As a Chaplain, his job was helping soldiers work through tough times and stay close to their faith.
In 2005 he came home, but violence raged on and 2006 to 2007 were rough years. "I lost about 15 soldiers in my battalion," he says. He wasn't there then, but the loss hit hard. Fluegel says, "A lot of them were killed in an action in what some call the Sunni Triangle or the Triangle of Death in Iraq." And the emotions are still raw, "I go back thinking what was the last thing I said to First Sergeant, what was the last word, conversation with my medic that was killed."
So when he talks to soldiers he knows where they're coming from. "Best thing you can do is listen, doesn't matter if you know what they're going through, but let us tell our stories," the Chaplain says.
Stationed at Rock Island Arsenal since 2010, he'll retire this March, with memories of a career that began nearly 35 years ago. "Those folks I worked with that have been great Coasties, Airmen, and now Soldiers. I take that with me," he says.
His career took him to Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq. But he plans to stay here in the QC after retirement, working in the area of military counseling.
