As fighting continues this week in Iraq, a group of about 200 soldiers celebrated Easter today under the religious guidance of a Cullman County native.

U.S. Army Capt. Bruce Wagner, a 1980 graduate of West Point High School, has been serving as a military chaplain in Iraq for about six months. He leads a small congregation of Southern Baptist soldiers.

The group meets in a former garage built before the war. The building, which has two-foot-thick walls, affording protection from incoming enemy fire, is now known as Warrior Chapel.

“It’s not an overwhelming presence,” Wagner said. “But those who are religious and do want to practice their faith have the ability here.”

Wagner’s congregation meets regularly for religious services, which include prayer, praise and song. They met earlier this week to celebrate Good Friday and held a sunrise Easter service today.

Wagner said there are also chaplains stationed in Iraq for soldiers who are Catholic, Muslim, Mormon, other Protestant religions, Buddhist and Wiccan.

“The Army is definitely trying to diversify and meet the spiritual needs of as many soldiers as possible,” he said.

While Wagner says the morale of most of the troops he deals with is “very, very high,” he also admits the trials of war have a profound effect on the young soldiers he deals with and impact the religious services he presents.

In a long-distance phone interview Thursday, he told The Times he often looks out over his congregation, knowing it could be the last time he sees some of them.

“At home, we don’t have to recognize, as much, the potential for loss of life and being ready to meet your creator God,” he said. “As I prepare for a sermon, it needs to be meaningful. It can’t be trite, and it needs to apply to their lives.

“We’re all away from our families, and we pull support from each other when we’re here.”

In addition to helping soldiers face the potential of their own deaths, Wagner said he also counsels those who have seen others die or perhaps taken lives themselves.

He describes killing another human being as one of the most unnatural acts that can be committed, but says it is part of his job to help them understand that they can be soldiers and Christians.

“I guess taking lives is probably one of the most difficult things a soldier does, and I don’t think they ever become so hardened to it that it becomes easy,” he said. “Soldier are very effected by every life they take.”

The grandson of a preacher and the son of an Air Force veteran, Wagner has grown up with values from both backgrounds deeply instilled in him.

“I listen to [the soldiers], and I feel that it’s my job to help them understand that what we’re doing here is ultimately protecting our country,” he said. “I know to a lot of people outside of here, it may not seem like that, but we go where our government tells us to go.”

A life-long military man, Wagner joined the Air Force when he was 19. He is currently serving a second tour in Iraq, having been deployed with the National Guard in Birmingham early in the conflict.

He said he hopes to finish his current tour sometime this year, but will stay longer if the mission requires.

“The Bible says, ‘No greater love has any man than to lay down his life for his brother,’” he said. “If nothing else, we spend a year away from our families, and give that year to the American people.”

Currently, Wagner’s home is in Killeen, Tex., near Fort Hood. He is married to the former Denise Harbison, also a graduate of West Point High School. They have three children together.

At 45-years-old, Wagner says he plans to retire in the Bethel community in Cullman County.