Chaplain Mendy Coën, USCC’s Director-General was the featured guest speaker at the final monthly Zoom meetup of the Women’s Division.
Coën joined the meeting at 3:00 a.m. local time from Acre (Akko), Israel, where he was taking part in a rescue drill enacted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Also taking part in the drill led by Colonel Golan Vach and scores of Israeli military personnel were delegations from the U.S. including Federal Emergency Management Institute (FEMA), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). International governments represented included Panama, Germany, Mexico and Brazil.
The drill recreated the devastation of the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida in June 2021, where 99 people lost their lives. An event that Coën said “helped change the rescue culture in America.” At that point, the U.S. government requested help from the state of Israel. Those efforts were led by Colonel Golan Vach.
The drill operation cost over $10 million dollars and took place on two sites, one in Akko and the other near Jerusalem. Over 600 IDF soldiers rotated between the spaces to keep the rubble and locations monitored throughout.
Coën emotionally described the scene, and compared it to his time as a chaplain in the aftermath of the Surfside disaster. He said the IDF had even recreated the smell of the collapsed buildings and also had actors representing family members. But even in the aftermath of such a tragedy, Coën said the scene was treated with the utmost care and dignity. He said Zaka, Israel’s volunteer search and rescue team members didn’t use any tools to dig for survivors, but rather used their hands instead in the hopes of not damaging any remains.
In very exciting news, Coën said the USCC would be assembling two teams of USCC chaplains for a total of 20-30 people to fly to Israel to train with IDF first responders, recognized internationally as the top in the world.
To close out the meeting, Coën reminded all attendees that as chaplains, our missions are not based on religion, but rather on spiritual care.
Coën’s message to the Women’s Division applies to all USCC chaplains.
“You have tremendous power. A responsibility. A power to change the world.
I wish we were out of business. I wish there was no need for chaplainS. We were busy in 2022, and God knows what will happen in 2023.
“I have 100% faith in our chaplain.
One more action and one more act of kindness is what is requested of us,
One more phone call to someone in pain,
One more good deed,
And we balance the world into positivity,” concluded Coën.