The 19th-century French convent in the toughest part of New Orleans has always been as sturdy and secure as a fortress...
A National Guard unit took over the convent in the days after Hurricane Katrina, when the nuns had fled and the soldiers needed a place to stay. It was the second time the convent had been occupied by soldiers; the first was during the Civil War.
"We never thought in our wildest dreams we'd ever live in a convent," said Maj. Russell Heaton of Walla Walla, Wash., who heads the unit of 150 Washington state National Guard soldiers based at Holy Angels. "But it's not bad. Our ethics, our structures are fairly similar."
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The sisters are educated: doctors, nurses and teachers, some of whom work at a Ninth Ward hospital and others who care for AIDS patients and do social work throughout the city.
The holy sisters and the Washington soldiers are growing on each other.
The soldiers have talked about getting T-shirts made, picturing the sisters in traditional habits - they wear civilian clothes nowadays - bearing Army accoutrements, under the slogan "nuns with guns."
"We're a nonviolent order," Kinberger tells them, in a warm Southern drawl. "Maybe we could get something a little more in line with our mission."
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Nuns and soldiers are two groups that can definitely get along together as long as the soldiers follow orders from the nuns then their commanders.
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