THE CHAPLAIN'S ROLE

It's true: Many men facing battle find religion quickly.

And so do their tanks.

Army Capt. Ronald E. Cooper Jr., on leave at his parents' Jonesfield Township home after 11 months in Iraq, blessed tanks and baptized soldiers in desert holes.

"Everybody was talking to God the closer we got to war," said Cooper, a chaplain. "The men were getting prepared -- mentally, physically and spiritually.

"I baptized eight men in Iraq. The engineers dug a hole and I used a baptismal liner from my chaplain's kit. The top was held in place with sandbags."

As war got closer, men pressed Cooper to bless their tanks, their equipment and themselves.

Later, after some of the thickest fighting, Cooper found himself holding a memorial service for those who died -- in a palm grove right off Highway 8, the main thoroughfare between Basra in the south and Baghdad.

"There were many times I asked myself what I was doing there," but after giving spiritual relief to the men "those were the moments I realized why I was there."