Navy chaplain carries tragic memories of Ground Zero to Afghanistan

Navy chaplain carries tragic memories of Ground Zero to Afghanistan

2nd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story by Cpl. Brian Adam Jones

U.S. Navy Capt. Rondall Brown serves as the command chaplain for the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward) in Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. In 2001, the chaplain shepherded families through the carnage in Ground Zero that took the lives of their loved ones, offering a first step toward closure. Brown said it was important to him to be in Afghanistan on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, working to eradicate violence in this once terror-stricken region.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan - Though he’s spent the past 23 years in the Navy, Rondall Brown’s thick drawl, formed in the Blue Ridge Mountains, distinctly makes its presence known when one word crosses the chaplain’s lips – horror.

Brown’s introduction to horror came 10 years ago and 10,000 miles from here, it came to a lieutenant commander serving as a chaplain for a Coast Guard unit in New England. It came as thousands of innocent Americans lost their lives with a collapse and a cloud of dust.

Brown, who calls the mountains of Haysville, N.C., home spent several weeks in New York’s Ground Zero immediately following 9/11. The chaplain shepherded families through the carnage that took the lives of their loved ones, offering a first step toward closure.

“I remember one lady collapsing and just crying out, ‘Oh my God, my baby, I will never see her again.’ Her husband stood there, big guy, clenched fists, with tears streaming down his face. He never said a word,” Brown spoke with long pauses, successfully repelling waves of persistent tears.

“I apologize,” the chaplain said, running his fingers through his short crop of gray hair. “I’m not normally like this.”

Now far away from the wreckage that changed the world, Brown, a Navy captain, serves in Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, as the command chaplain for the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
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