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CAMP FOSTER, USA, April 14, 2002: Thanks to the efforts of Chaturbhuj N. Gidwani, the Okinawa American Hindu population has formed a Hindu study group and meets twice a week on U.S. military bases at Kadena Air Base and Camp Foster, according to this report from last year. “There are many people in the military with an Indian background. I felt they were missing their cultural heritage,” said Gidwani, the chief mechanical engineer for the Marine bases Facilities Engineer Division. Gidwani, a religious lay leader, hopes one day the military will have Hindu chaplains to serve the 3,000 to 4,000 Hindu service members. Gidwani, 64, is a retired sergeant major in the Army Reserve. He grew up in Bombay, India, and immigrated to the United States when he was 28. “Back in 1997 the Pentagon agreed to give full support to a program of having Hindu lay leaders organize study groups on military bases,” he said. He was instrumental in starting a group at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., and then, three years later, at Misawa Air Base, Japan. The group at Kadena meets at 4 p.m. every Sunday at Chapel One. The Camp Foster group meets at noon Fridays in the Camp Foster Chapel Annex. Gidwani is following a study guide provided in “Self-Unfoldment,” by Swami Chinmayanda. “It is well-designed and accepts all the faiths,” Gidwani said. “I think anyone can come and sit in with us and gain knowledge from this.”

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