Within 72 hours of the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, elements of the New York Army National Guard (NYNG) were at Ground Zero with, of course, their chaplains with them. One of the battalion chaplains on site was responsible for making rounds around his section of the city to provide support and, when appropriate, communion, to NYNG Soldiers and other personnel in support of recovery operations in Manhattan.

A chaplain kit identical to the one carried by the NYNG chaplain on his rounds around Ground Zero.

When this author was entering the Army Chaplaincy in January 2003, this NYNG chaplain was in the process of getting out of the NG and sold much of his uniforms and equipment to the author to include his issued chaplain kit. As it turned out, this was the kit that he carried on his route around Ground Zero just after 9/11. Inside the kit was found a list of sites where Soldiers were posted, a portion of a Manhattan map and another map with the locations and route marked for the chaplain visits.

After carrying it on deployment to Qatar and Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), in 2010 the author donated the chaplain kit to the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps Museum at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson, SC, along with the paper contents. Below are pictures of the list and maps that were in the chaplain kit from the days following the 9/11 attacks on the WTC.

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The route map, with locations marked, the NYNG chaplain used to visit his troops around Ground Zero.

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The list of locations where the NYNG chaplain’s troops and other support personnel were located.

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A portion of a Manhattan map the NYNG chaplain used to get around Ground Zero.

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