{"id":1145,"date":"2009-01-27T00:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-27T00:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html"},"modified":"2009-01-27T00:10:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-27T00:10:00","slug":"from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html","title":{"rendered":"From habit to helmet: the sister soldier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here’s a remarkable tale<\/a> of a nun who is also serving in the U.S. Army:<\/p>\n

She’s an Army captain, a Catholic sister and a doctor.<\/p>\n

Deirdre Byrne wears many hats \u2014 quite literally: a scrub hat when she’s doing surgery and a habit as part of her everyday attire.<\/p>\n

The statuesque, graying 52-year-old recently exchanged her habit for a helmet and uniform: She spent three months in southern Afghanistan, serving as a doctor (while treating patients, though, she wears scrubs) and reservist in the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n

“We were there to support our U.S. soldiers, coalition forces and civilians,” Sister Dede says. Turned out that most of her and the other medical staffs’ effort and time were devoted to mending civilian lives and limbs.<\/p>\n

“The Taliban is out there every day trying to wreak havoc,” she says. “One day, the Taliban bombed a village, and we had 17 patients \u2014 flown in by helicopter \u2014 in our 10-bed hospital.”<\/p>\n

While gruesome and heart-wrenching, she says of the experience in Afghanistan: “I was happy to be at the healing end of things.”<\/p>\n

Which is what she does whether serving as a nun and doctor for the poor in the District or Kakuma, Kenya, through Catholic Charities, or as a U.S. Army doctor in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

She’s a healer, and in her unique position as a nun and general surgeon (she also is board certified in family medicine) she’s concerned with life here on Earth \u2014 and the hereafter.<\/p>\n

“I’m not just a pro-life doctor, I’m pro-eternal life,” she says. “God makes it very clear that he is working through me. \u2026 God gave me the opportunity to be a physician, and he creates the miracles.”<\/p>\n

But how exactly did she get to this triad of professions and callings?<\/p>\n

As one might expect, it was not a straight path but just the kind of winding, long road that seems a prerequisite for the type of person Sister Dede is \u2014 someone who seems to easily move in any circle but whose ideals and faith never waver. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Visit the Washington Times link<\/a> for more, plus an impressive slide show of her life. <\/p>\n

Photo: by Astrid Riecken\/The Washington Times<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a remarkable tale of a nun who is also serving in the U.S. Army: She’s an Army captain, a Catholic sister and a doctor. Deirdre Byrne wears many hats \u2014 quite literally: a scrub hat when she’s doing surgery and a habit as part of her everyday attire. The statuesque, graying 52-year-old recently exchanged…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-links-r-us","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom habit to helmet: the sister soldier - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From habit to helmet: the sister soldier - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here’s a remarkable tale of a nun who is also serving in the U.S. Army: She’s an Army captain, a Catholic sister and a doctor. Deirdre Byrne wears many hats \u2014 quite literally: a scrub hat when she’s doing surgery and a habit as part of her everyday attire. The statuesque, graying 52-year-old recently exchanged…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-27T00:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SX52OFH7Q9I\/AAAAAAAAFAU\/C7529Z_Ete0\/s400\/20090123-215928-pic-892681286.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From habit to helmet: the sister soldier - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From habit to helmet: the sister soldier - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"Here’s a remarkable tale of a nun who is also serving in the U.S. Army: She’s an Army captain, a Catholic sister and a doctor. Deirdre Byrne wears many hats \u2014 quite literally: a scrub hat when she’s doing surgery and a habit as part of her everyday attire. The statuesque, graying 52-year-old recently exchanged…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2009-01-27T00:10:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SX52OFH7Q9I\/AAAAAAAAFAU\/C7529Z_Ete0\/s400\/20090123-215928-pic-892681286.jpg"}],"author":"deacon greg kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html","name":"From habit to helmet: the sister soldier - The Deacon's Bench","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SX52OFH7Q9I\/AAAAAAAAFAU\/C7529Z_Ete0\/s400\/20090123-215928-pic-892681286.jpg","datePublished":"2009-01-27T00:10:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-01-27T00:10:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/052b8cd86cc713feaccdc8282b03cf10"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SX52OFH7Q9I\/AAAAAAAAFAU\/C7529Z_Ete0\/s400\/20090123-215928-pic-892681286.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SX52OFH7Q9I\/AAAAAAAAFAU\/C7529Z_Ete0\/s400\/20090123-215928-pic-892681286.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/01\/from-habit-to-helmet-the-sister-soldier.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From habit to helmet: the sister soldier"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/052b8cd86cc713feaccdc8282b03cf10","name":"deacon greg kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a4e\/a4e07ce6fde3f10d4d9753243fd48d45x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a4e\/a4e07ce6fde3f10d4d9753243fd48d45x96.jpg","caption":"deacon greg kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}