Chaplain on R&R and a mission in Calais

CALAIS – Maine looks pretty good to Capt. David Sivret.

The temperatures are a whole lot cooler and mortar rounds aren’t going off around his head.

Sivret, an Episcopal priest, is chaplain for the Maine Army National Guard’s 2133rd Engineer Battalion, whose members are stationed in Mosul, Iraq.

Last year, Sivret traded his vestments for camouflage fatigues.

When he’s not in Iraq, he is the priest at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Calais.

Sivret is also the chaplain who earlier this year inspired a number of local quilting groups to make colorful coverlets for abandoned babies in an Iraqi orphanage.

Sivret flew into Bangor at 8:25 p.m. Saturday. He ships out on Sept. 27. “I will be going back to the same area in Mosul,” he said.

It is hot there. “The hottest it reached in the sun this past summer was 155,” he said. “We haven’t seen rain since March.”

His group is concerned with rebuilding Iraq, but that has been tough because insurgents, armed with rockets, regularly fire on them.

“Mosul has been hit quite a bit,” he said. “The [Forward Operation Bases] get mortared. Sometimes we get a day or two off, but a rarity is a week without mortar. We get quarter rounds; 107 millimeter rockets come in once in a while. Thank God a lot of them are duds and thank God they don’t really know how to fire [them].”

Although the national media show the war-torn areas, Sivret said it was only a fraction of what was going on there. “The people for the most part in my experience … are happy we are there,” he said. “They are very upset that the infrastructure is not there – the water, electricity, that stuff.”

But it has been tough on those who work with the Americans. Sivret said that the insurgents have threatened interpreters. “The anti-Iraqi forces as they call them,” he said. “The whole work force last week did not show up at all. They are afraid for a good cause, and we respect them not wanting to come in. … It is difficult for them, yet they want to see things happen. They were treated very badly by the south. For the most part they want a better life.”

His group has built three new schools and refurbished a few others in the Kurdish area. They had hoped to do more in the community. “It’s too dangerous. Originally we had planned some stuff for the Islani Village. We can’t. That’s one of the places they were launching the mortars from,” he said.

Sivret wants to take supplies back to Iraq. He needs school supplies, including pencils, paper, magic markers and colored pencils. There is a need for chalk. He also said clothing would be greatly appreciated.

While in Iraq, members of his parish as well as local quilting groups made multicolored coverlets for a local orphanage. They need clothing and other supplies. “We will take and give out anything we can get,” he said. “Even adults need clothes. We have kids running around without any shoes on their feet.”

On Sept. 25, Sivret’s church will hold Applefest. This year’s theme is “Let them know that we care.”

Parishioner Alice-Jean Robinson asked those who attend to bring a pencil, ruler, soft eraser, crayons, pencil sharpeners or any school supplies. “We have sent Father David 38 book bags and now are working on sending the supplies,” Robinson said.

The Applefest will be held from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Anne’s Church at 29 Church St. There will be a breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. Lunch will include hot dogs and fried dough. There will be a flea market, raffles, Iraq displays, apple mart, used books and games for children, and many other things.

“[Father David] has taught us a lesson 6,500 miles away that we are filled with enough love to share with children we have never met and a warm heart to show them that we care,” Robinson said.

School supplies and clothes can be sent to Chaplain (CPT) David Sivret, HSC, 133rd , ECB (H), APO- AE 09334.