Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
CNN
March 23, 2009
CNN Newsroom, 11:00 AM
T.J. HOLMES: Of course, it's tough dealing with the financial stress here at home, but can you imagine trying to fight your financial battle from the actual battlefield? Almost half of our enlisted troops say they are in debt over their heads and that is why the military has launched a new kind of war.
Here now, CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHAPLAIN MIKE JONES, 10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION: You can get $1,000. Isn't that right? We can do that. We went over how we can do that.
NIC ROBERTSON: Chaplain Mike Jones is preaching a different message to his usual sermons.
JONES: The stock market is sucking wind, brother. I mean, it is hurting. It is absolutely hurting.
ROBERTSON: From his chapel at a base just outside Baghdad, he's teaching soldiers a new fight, how to battle the global economic downturn.
JONES: If our fighting force is hobbled financially, then we're not going to be able to fight properly. And if things are not right back home, obviously the soldier's state of mind to be able to accomplish the mission is not going to be as good.
ROBERTSON: Troop commanders are so concerned soldiers learn to manage their money, they gave 80 free places on a commercial course at a cost to the Army of $7,000. Chaplain Jones volunteered to run it.
Sergeant Emily Burlogh (ph) came saddled with debt.
SGT. EMILY BURLOGH (PH), MILITARY FINANCE CLASS PARTICIPANT: I have enough to worry about being over here. My husband is deployed as well.
ROBERTSON: Others are worried about the recession back home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The economy is just awful right. And I help my mother out with finances. And my friend, she's gotten laid off.
JONES: Just because we're wearing this uniform does not mean that you'll be in the military forever.
ROBERTSON: Part of Jones' effort, to cut through the complacency that can lull soldiers into believing a military career is insulation enough against the woes of the world.
Although officers have been joking about it a little bit tongue in cheek, the financial class has been proving more popular than some of the Sunday services. Almost every seat in the chapel here has been filled.
JONES: I hate to admit it as a chaplain, but that is absolutely the truth. That in times of financial straits, people are going to seek help, you know, in any fashion that they can.
ROBERTSON: So important has been the class, when troops graduated, a general came to hand out certificates. When the same course was offered two years ago, barely five percent of the participants passed. This time, it's been 90 percent.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Camp Victory, Iraq. (END VIDEOTAPE)
March 23, 2009
CNN Newsroom, 11:00 AM
T.J. HOLMES: Of course, it's tough dealing with the financial stress here at home, but can you imagine trying to fight your financial battle from the actual battlefield? Almost half of our enlisted troops say they are in debt over their heads and that is why the military has launched a new kind of war.
Here now, CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHAPLAIN MIKE JONES, 10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION: You can get $1,000. Isn't that right? We can do that. We went over how we can do that.
NIC ROBERTSON: Chaplain Mike Jones is preaching a different message to his usual sermons.
JONES: The stock market is sucking wind, brother. I mean, it is hurting. It is absolutely hurting.
ROBERTSON: From his chapel at a base just outside Baghdad, he's teaching soldiers a new fight, how to battle the global economic downturn.
JONES: If our fighting force is hobbled financially, then we're not going to be able to fight properly. And if things are not right back home, obviously the soldier's state of mind to be able to accomplish the mission is not going to be as good.
ROBERTSON: Troop commanders are so concerned soldiers learn to manage their money, they gave 80 free places on a commercial course at a cost to the Army of $7,000. Chaplain Jones volunteered to run it.
Sergeant Emily Burlogh (ph) came saddled with debt.
SGT. EMILY BURLOGH (PH), MILITARY FINANCE CLASS PARTICIPANT: I have enough to worry about being over here. My husband is deployed as well.
ROBERTSON: Others are worried about the recession back home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The economy is just awful right. And I help my mother out with finances. And my friend, she's gotten laid off.
JONES: Just because we're wearing this uniform does not mean that you'll be in the military forever.
ROBERTSON: Part of Jones' effort, to cut through the complacency that can lull soldiers into believing a military career is insulation enough against the woes of the world.
Although officers have been joking about it a little bit tongue in cheek, the financial class has been proving more popular than some of the Sunday services. Almost every seat in the chapel here has been filled.
JONES: I hate to admit it as a chaplain, but that is absolutely the truth. That in times of financial straits, people are going to seek help, you know, in any fashion that they can.
ROBERTSON: So important has been the class, when troops graduated, a general came to hand out certificates. When the same course was offered two years ago, barely five percent of the participants passed. This time, it's been 90 percent.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Camp Victory, Iraq. (END VIDEOTAPE)