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As we mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11, I want to share with you two devotionals that I wrote about the chief of chaplains for the Air Force, Charles Baldwin. His story is in a book I co-authored called Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq and Afghanistan. We interviewed many military members in their families for this devotional book. Baldwin's 9/11 stories are miraculous and providential.
Chaplain, Major General (Retired), Charles C. Baldwin, former Chief of Chaplains, US Air Force
Excerpt from Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq and Afghanistan
“We’ve been bombed,” a guard hollered into the cafeteria where Charlie Baldwin, a longtime leader of chaplains, was sitting and drinking a latte.
The announcement didn’t make sense to Baldwin. He hadn’t heard an explosion, and after more than 30 years in the Air Force, Baldwin knew what a bomb sounded like.
Although he was a general and a senior administrative leader, going to the Pentagon was a normal part of Baldwin’s daily routine. Based at nearby Bolling Air Force base, came to the Pentagon that morning to attend his first senior staff meeting as the new deputy chief of chaplains for the Air Force. He soon realized that nothing about September 11, 2001, would be routine.
“That meeting started at 9 o’clock,” Baldwin said. Led by the Secretary of the Air Force, the meeting took place in the basement of building eight.
“We were about 20 minutes into the daily slide briefing, when someone interrupted. We watched the second plane fly into the World Trade Center Tower on TV,” Baldwin recalled.
Shocked, they immediately adjourned.
“I had a 10 o’clock meeting on other side of the Pentagon, but stopped to get a latte in a cafeteria” Baldwin said.
A guard soon ordered an evacuation.
“So we exited the building,” Baldwin said. “That’s when we saw the huge fireball on the other side of the Pentagon.”
Baldwin then realized that his 10 o’clock meeting was located at the site of the black billowing smoke. Had he proceeded to his meeting early and not stopped to get a latte, he would have been in the wedge when it was hit.
The Pentagon had turned from an office building into the burning aftermath of a battlefield. Having served as a chaplain in Desert Storm a decade earlier and as a rescue pilot in Vietnam, Baldwin knew what to do.
“I went to the hotel across from the Pentagon, the Sheraton, where they were bringing in the wounded. I just turned into a chaplain and went from couch to couch,” he explained.
Baldwin spoke words of comfort to the patients who were triaged there before going to local hospitals. After about an hour, Baldwin decided to return to Ground Zero at the Pentagon. But it wasn’t smoke or shock that drew him there. This senior administrator wanted to be with the people who were hurting the most. His life’s purpose led him in that moment to step in and simply be ready to face the tragedy head on.
“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:16).
Prayer: Almighty God, you have given my life purpose and meaning. May I embrace the service you desire for me.
More Chaplains than Usual
Chaplain, Major General (Retired), Charles C. Baldwin, former Chief of Chaplains, US Air Force
“Normally there are probably 5 or 6 chaplains in the Pentagon on an average day,” Chaplain Charlie Baldwin explained. “But that particularly day, September 11, 2001, it was really an amazing thing. There were about 35 chaplains in the building.”
These additional chaplains were at the Pentagon that morning for different meetings. After being evacuated, they gathered at the casualty collections points to minister to those in need. Unlike local pastors who also arrived, these military chaplains had clearance to the Pentagon, which enabled them to help find survivors.
With all three chiefs of chaplains out of town, Baldwin and the two other deputy chief of chaplains (Army and Navy) developed a plan.
“We realized we needed to organize this pastoral care moment, because this was not going to be short term. So we claimed some tent space and then sent many chaplains as far as they could go into the building to look for survivors. Then we developed a plan to organize the chaplains on site as the wounded came out,” Baldwin explained.
Many of these chaplains were senior officers with administrative responsibilities and no longer involved in day-to-day chaplain duties, but they all returned to their on-the-ground roots.
“We all became the chaplains who were present to help the injured. We went to the casualty collection points and just did, what any chaplain would do, what any pastor would do,” Baldwin explained. “I stepped in and out of the role of organizing the chaplain ministries and just being one.”
One gentleman came up to Baldwin, pointed to the gaping hole and said, “My wife’s in that room right there. I need to get in there.”
Baldwin talked to him throughout the day, encouraging him to not give up hope. He needed to wait for the truth. It was possible she could have been away from her office. The good news didn’t come but Baldwin knew from experience that a chaplain’s job was to not to give a magic answer but to be a hopeful presence during it.
“The ministry of the site was profound. Some might wonder if those chaplains wanted to be there. Why wouldn’t you want to be there? If you’re a military chaplain, that is where you belong, that is exactly the purpose for which we trained you—to be present with people during difficult times, not to have the magic answers, but to be present.”
The presence of more than six times the normal number of chaplains at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, was truly an amazing preparation for the immediate aftermath. For many hurting people that day, chaplains were God’s instruments of hope and peace.
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).
Prayer: You are a great God. Thank you for putting an extra number of chaplains on site at the Pentagon that day.
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