(August 2007)
Navy Chaplains at War – A Test of Faith
(The story below by a Marine Reserve Officer is about “Chaplaincy” with the Marine Corps in combat. The Church of God has 84 military chaplains serving our Armed Forces around the world, with 6 of those chaplains deployed to Iraq and 1 to Afghanistan. This is also their story, along with the more than 4,200 United States Military chaplains serving our men and women in uniform in all our Services.)
By LtCol Craig H. Covert, USMCR.
The evening was warm, virtually indistinguishable from the night before. It was the fall of 2005, just a month away from the first national elections in post-Saddam Iraq. A dozen young Marines relaxed inside the open porch of the Oasis, a crude plywood shack that served as chapel, watering hole and gathering spot for the Marines of Regimental Combat Team 8 aboard “Camp Workhorse,” a small warrior base nestled inside the larger confines of Camp Fallujah, Iraq.
Amid the haze of half-smoked cigars and cigarettes, an officer sat quietly, listening to the conversation, knowing full well the good humor belied the events experienced by the Marines of the RCT during the previous days and weeks. United States Navy Commander Dale C. White, then-chaplain for RCT-8, Second Marine Division (Forward), had become a father figure to most, a man from whom many Marines would seek guidance, comfort and encouragement. The cross on his collar made CDR White the most approachable officer in the battalion, an important aspect of his job.
From the moment he arrived in Iraq, Chaplain White knew his duties were much more involved than simply providing spiritual services. “I had probably 150 Marines from Eighth Marine Regiment when I was at Camp Lejeune [North Carolina],” recalled White, a New York native. “Now I’m the pastor for 1,200 Marines, because of all of our attachments [to include] tanks, tracs, the [artillery] batteries, CEB [combat engineer battalion]. … None of them came here with a chaplain. That was a surprise to me. I’m doing far more counseling, marriage counseling, coping with combat stress and those types of things than I had expected.”
White waved at a young Marine strolling past, a freshly filled coffee mug in hand. “We’ve got an ongoing coffee mess from 0530 on,” White said in response to the passerby. “We started brewing just one pot of coffee a day; now we’re up to about 20.”
Like many other men of the cloth, CDR White became a shoulder to lean on, a man who’d listen without interruption, an officer whom junior Marines felt comfortable approaching. “To realize someone [of such] rank is here to care for them,” said White, “is a blessing. Here, there’s no bad time to talk. Come in whenever you want. If it’s 2 in the morning, my RP [religious program specialist] will come and get me.”
Since the creation of the first Continental Navy, chaplains have served honorably in the United States naval forces. Strictly noncombatants, they carry no weapons and are virtually forbidden to engage hostile forces. They include Roman Catholics and Protestants, as well as those of the Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim faiths. Normally accompanied by an enlisted religious program specialist, they serve in every major Marine Corps unit at home and overseas.
Chaplains have died in action, sometimes in significant numbers. The U.S. Army and Marines had 100 chaplains killed in action during WW II, a casualty rate greater per capita than any other branch of the services except the infantry and the Army Air Corps. Many chaplains have been decorated for bravery in action. The chaplain’s Medal for Heroism is a special U.S. military decoration awarded once to military chaplains killed in the line of duty. To date, it has been awarded only to the famous “Four Chaplains,” who died after giving their life jackets to others in the sinking of USAT Dorchester in 1943.
Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom have offered no exception to the dangers facing today’s Navy chaplains. Captain Bryan Weaver, former division chaplain for the 2dMarDiv (Fwd), Camp Fallujah in 2006, commented on the effects of combat on Marines and sailors who have served in Iraq. “Men who come out to a combat zone either find their faith, or they lose their faith. Most Marines who come to a combat zone will use the opportunity to do a lot of soul-searching. Even I do that. It’s a great opportunity for reflection … and for honing our spiritual disciplines and spiritual direction. That’s what I bring to the table as division chaplain – I provide spiritual direction to the regimental chaplains, who in turn do so for the battalions.”
Reflecting upon his own experience in Iraq, Weaver continued, “When a chaplain goes out to a forward firm base or the front lines, the morale increases. We bring a sense of hope and stability to the Marines. It really encourages the Marines. … It provides a sense of home [to them]. It’s important to be seen, not holed up behind a desk somewhere.”
CAPT Weaver paused, searching for an appropriate explanation. “It’s leadership by example. I subscribe to MBWA -ministry by walking about. Men need encouragement. They feed off that. Life out here is hard. A chaplain brings intangibles to the table – enthusiasm, attitude, spirituality. You can’t put your hand on it, but you know when it’s present.”
Weaver’s view of chaplains at war echoed the sentiments of The New York Times’ best-selling author Stephen Mansfield, who commented on the state of the military chaplains during a 2005 interview with the National Review Online. Remarking on the progress they have made in the last three decades, Mansfield stated, “Military chaplains are not chosen according to a denominational quota system as they were during the Vietnam era. They are chosen according to a ‘best qualified’ standard. This means that the chaplains serving today are deeply committed to ministering to the fighting man and woman and have met very high standards for entrance into the [chaplain] corps. Some of them are even decorated warriors themselves who left the military and then returned as chaplains. They are doing a hard job, gloriously.”
Doing a hard job gloriously came easily to LT William Stewart. Assigned to the II Marine Expeditionary Force (Fwd) in 2005-06, LT Stewart found himself ministering primarily to U.S. Navy Seabees assigned to the tactical movement teams (TMT) of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 22. Originally enlisting in the Navy in 1984, Chaplain Stewart served as a religious program specialist for five years on active duty before entering the Navy Reserve in 1989.
Following the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Stewart applied for the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps and was assigned as chaplain to his former unit, NMCB-22.
“A lot of the duties are typical of what you think a chaplain would be doing. I provide services, Bible studies, prayer meetings and counseling. [In Iraq], I also do a lot of what I call movement prayers for TMTs, basically convoy escorts. You never know when there’s going to be a convoy leaving the wire. I try to do a prayer before each of these if I’m available. It doesn’t matter what time they leave, day or night, because I found that it really comforts folks to have that prayer.”
LT Stewart smiled, recalling the reactions of his sailors. “Goodness, the stories of people coming up to me, saying, ‘Chaps, I know that prayer saved us today,’ are very humbling to me, because I don’t feel like I have that much power. But I guess that person I’m praying to upstairs – hopefully, he did see them through – they believe in that, they trust in that; it gives them confidence.”
Despite their commonalities in faith, the chaplains of OIF hail from a variety of backgrounds. LT Brian Crittendon was a Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter pilot in the early 1980s.
Resigning his commission in 1985 to become a civilian chaplain, he spent 13 years as a civilian pastor before deciding to return to the military. In 2004, LT Crittendon reported to the 2dMarDiv at Camp Lejeune, only this time in the uniform of a sailor, not a Marine.
Deploying to Iraq in 2005, LT Crittendon set up shop inside a derelict railcar at the abandoned Al Qa’im train station, commonly referred to as “The Soul Train” by resident Marines. Ministering to the men of 3d Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment, Chaplain Crittendon faced one of his toughest days in November 2005 when an insurgent ambush wounded 12 Marines and killed four of their comrades from 2d Bn, 1st Marines.
Rushing to the forward resuscitative surgical suite (FRSS), Chaplain Crittendon prayed for the dead and wounded. “I had two primary roles while I was down there. One was to minister to those who were hurt … to make contact with them, pray with them, encourage them and to bring them as much comfort as I [could]. The other [was] to keep an eye on the staff and to be a presence there [for] the spiritual encouragement of the staff.”
Crittendon continued. “There were points where I was putting my arms around surgeons and nurses and technicians who were having a long day. We stopped, and I held prayer for everybody who was involved.”
Crittendon recalled the moment the regimental commander walked into the FRSS, encouraging his wounded Marines as surgeons struggled to save a fellow Marine who ultimately died from his wounds. “I view these men as being, in a sense, ministers to their country,” said Crittendon of the Marines with whom he serves.
“They have a mission. … They’ve been called as much to their job as a warrior as I’ve been called to be a minister.” Crittendon quickly changed the topic with a lighter comment. “The good-news story for me, especially as a minister, [was when] a young man found his faith and asked me to baptize him a few hundred yards from the Syrian border, with his company. … It will always be a highlight [for me] as a Christian minister.”
Every chaplain who experiences combat ministry comes away with a greater appreciation for the men and women they serve. “There’s no doubt that being in combat, with rounds coming and IEDs [improvised explosive devices] going off, that those Marines have a very different life than sailors [in] a ship,” explained Chaplain White of RCT-8.
“It’s life or death [here]. Whereas I can go on a cruise and come back with everyone alive, that’s not the case here. There is definitely a level of commitment and a level of risk that far exceeds anything we’ve had on a carrier. Even though you could lose your life on a flight deck very easily, the rubber meets the road here.”
(To learn more about the Church of God Chaplains Commission chaplaincy programs, visit the Chaplains Commission website at: www.cogchaplains.com [1] ).