TLS EXCLUSIVE Interview With Chaplain Captain Berdugo US AF

my name is Rafal brugo I'm a chaplain on active duty uh station here in maguay Air Force Base I'm sitting here with the Lakewood Scoop to discuss the latest um uh catastrophe that happened in Haiti uh we are involved on Thursday we sent out a bunch of uh troops from 621st contingency response Wing their job is to be prepared to respond to any emergency catastrophe worldwide um we process them through what's known as a PDF line on that line there is a the med the Medics make sure that they're all up to date on their shots before they go I know that in this particular instance they gave each Troop that was going a a whole bottle of malaria pills because there's a big risk of malaria out there and they told them that they have to take one pill every single day while they're there and another 28 days after they come back they have to take a pill every single day they L green fields um and anybody who needs a shot who's behind on any kind of shot they give it to them right there on the PDF line there's also a Jag for people that want to to to do their wheels they can do their wheels uh right there on the spot or Powers of Attorney and things like that we Al so we make sure that they have everything that they need to deploy there's also a chaplain on the line part of what we do is uh with there if somebody freaks out or wants some some counseling before they they go we also have uh Bible tanak whatever they may need that somebody wants to take some spiritual material with them on the on the deployment so we have that ready for them so Thursday been there for 24 hours Ops I was there till 10:30 on Thursday night and then I just called a call tonight thank God for shabas I probably been there the whole shabas I got a call tonight they they that have been working nonstop now because they're not only are they sending people out but now they're bringing refugees in and they're all processing them through Maguire Air Force Base and the base commander has said that she wants a chaplain to be present at all times so um they've asked me to to come in tomorrow morning to relieve them for 12 hours so it's tomorrow morning I told them I'll be there 8:00 and uh I'll spend as much time as I can over there providing relief I don't know exactly what they want me to do over there but I guess I'll be able to give you an update when I come back uh of what I saw a lot of security forces heavily armed I did see a lot of weapons going um they are basically securing perimeters basically what's going on over there is lawlessness lot of criminal activity a lot of looting and it's not because the people are criminals it's because they are desperate they have nothing they have nothing to eat they have nothing to drink and they are really uh desperate so they they are look basically it's survival it's one of the things that the commander actually brief the troops on before they went to tell them to be tolerant to be understanding what these people are going through but what they also did tell them is that once a perimeter has been secured and if somebody tries to break that perimeter they are authorized to use deadly force so they're going there to secure the aircraft that they going in and out has to be secured um they're going there also to facilitate the distribution of of Aid food water that it shouldn't be chaotic it should as you read in the news the UN warehouses were plundered and they don't have no idea how much thousands of pounds of food was taken out of there already um so that's why we send troops in there to uh to make sure that there's not a hefkervelt you know that it's done in an orderly fashion that's what they're going for normally initially they've been set there for 30 days right they could be extended and um we wish them the best we hope that they do a good job and make us look good and come back healthy and safe encourage the OU sent out a big uh a big thing encouraging people to donate we are it's definitely something that we uh we we feel the pain of others remember the the famous uh ginski that once that once said that there was um there was a catastrophe that happened I think actually was with they heard about a catastrophe that happened on the other side of the world and he was very bothered by this so they asked him what do you care about something that happened on the other side of the world he said if hasem made me hear about it that means that there's something that we need to do that we need to fix for these things not to happen I actually was speaking with krispen Friday night was to have him here with us and I asked him chat what's what's s trying to tell us with what happened in hii so he starts telling me by the Z by the end of the times um that the whole Topography of the world is going to be is going to change in places where it's usually hot going to become cold and as you heard in Florida was 35° last week so um so we see te the the change of the of of of atmosphere he also said that he asked me is hi a poor country I said yes it's a very poor country he said to me that there's a lot of Tuma over there my son actually said to me it's known that it's the voodoo capital of the world they have a huge voodo Temple so it's it's all wrapped in one it's the center uh the M for that T I heard that that Temple was gr destroyed in this in this um earthquake so he said it's hashem's way of manifesting his his anger at uh the Tuma that's going on in that place that's what he said I'm not what he said he's a rough godle and if he said it he said it I'm just repeating what he said uh Friday night when I was walking back with him from sh and