Published: Thursday, 13th March, 2008 09:30
TA Priest returns from tour of duty in Basra
By Adam Hewitt
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A PARISH priest has left behind the bombs and rockets of Basra for the gentler pace of life in Reading.
Monsignor John Nelson completed his second tour of duty in Iraq as a Territorial Army chaplain at the end of February, and is readjusting to his full-time role at the English Martyrs Catholic Church in Liebenrood Road.
He spent the four months attached to the medical team at the British base near Basra airport, and said: “Going without showers, eating rations, sleeping under the stars – it’s fine when you’re Prince Harry or when you’re 21, but it’s not the same when you’re older.
“Aside from some of the consultant doctors, at 47 I was the oldest person out there in the medical unit.”
Constant alarms and rocket attacks meant the base was always on edge, but the 4,500 British troops there escaped injury during his stay.
He said there had been far fewer attacks since the pull-out from Basra Palace to the airport in September, but added: “It still wasn’t what you’d call safe out there.”
This was tragically confirmed recently when Royal Air Force Sergeant Duane 'Baz’ Barwood was killed in a rocket attack on the base.
Father John was the only Catholic in a team of eight chaplains, and though he was assigned to the medical unit, any Catholic could ask to see him specifically or attend his daily Mass.
As a chaplain he went unarmed, although he is trained to disable weapons, along with first aid, map-reading, and general fitness.
He was born in London and grew up in Hampshire before becoming a priest in 1984. He joined the TA in 1990 and holds a rank equivalent to Major, but chaplains sit outside the military command structure.
He said: “Most soldiers would have to salute Majors and call them 'sir’, but generally chaplains should not be called sir, it wouldn’t help us do our job. They will normally call us 'Padre’ to identify us, it’s Army-talk for 'Father’. Navy chaplains these days don’t even carry a rank.”
He added: “Some of the pastoral issues faced by TA soldiers are a bit different from the regulars. Regular regiments have highly-developed support systems, but in the TA we’re not living and working in a base full-time, when we’re demobilised we go back to work rather than back home with our regiment.”
He said he enjoyed being the spiritual and pastoral guide for soldiers no matter their role, and added: “We can be having a cup of coffee with the commanding officer, and half-an-hour later chatting to an 18-year-old soldier on guard about his worries. The younger soldiers are completely open with us, which they obviously can’t be with the higher ranks.”
He said: “The age profile of the guys out there is obviously vastly different from my parish back here in Reading. I hope I’ve helped by being there, but it’s also been an enriching experience for me, meeting fantastic people who I would otherwise never have got to spend time with.”
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