Army Chaplain Overview

U.S. Army Chaplains serve both God and country by bringing their unique gifts with which they are endowed by God, to the Soldiers of our nation in the broad, challenging, diverse, and ever changing environment of the Army.

While the benefits and pay of an Army Chaplain are often much better than what a minister normally receives, the requirements and stakes are much higher! Army Chaplains are our nation's Soldiers who minister to our nation's sons and daughters, and their families.

Like any Soldier, they must endure the hardships, separations, and deprivations of those whom they serve. Like any Minister, they must provide dynamic and genuine ministry with a shepherd's heart.

Our nation's sons and daughters need qualified, committed, and called men and women to serve as spiritual leaders to them in the fulfillment of their duty. Will you consider the call? The need has never been greater, the experience never so rich.

Qualified and sent by their religious bodies, trained by the U.S. Army, and led by the God that they serve, Army Chaplains are expected to exercise dynamic and influential spiritual leadership, without violating their faith or conscience. Army Chaplains are the 'soul and conscience' of our nation's Army.

Whether leading worship, patrolling the motor pool, or visiting the hospital, Army Chaplains are always at the frontline of the Soldiers' life. Additionally, Army Chaplains serve on a Commander's special staff in order to ensure that their spiritual gifts and leadership are integrated in the daily exercise of command decisions. All Army Chaplains are Commissioned Army Reserve officers.

The Army has a place for you if you have a place in your heart for Soldiers. We have both full-time and part-time positions. Many of these positions are right in your own backyard. We even have a place for you if you're a ministerial student.

Talk with an Army Chaplain. Your nation needs you. Consider the Call!
Explore the Chaplain site at: http://www.goarmy.com/chaplain/

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Exclusive to The Army Federal Reservist E-edition,
A publication of the Army Reserve Association.

Chaplain's Corner

Ulysses S. Grant was the commander of the Union Army in the Civil War, and two-term president of the United States.  His Secretary of State, E. B. Washburne, gives this testimony to Grant's simplicity of life.  "When Grant left his headquarters to enter on a vital campaign, he did not take with him the trappings and paraphernalia so common among military men.

All depended upon the quickness of movement.  It was important that he should be encumbered with as little baggage as possible.
 
He took with him no orderly, no horse, no servant, no overcoat, not even a clean shirt.  His entire baggage for the six days -- I was with him at the time -- was a toothbrush.  He fared like the commonest soldier in the command, partaking of his rations and sleeping on the ground with no covering save the canopy of heaven."  General Grant traveled light and so did Jesus and his disciples.  In the Good News he sent them out telling them to take no food, no traveling bag, no money, not even an extra outer garment.

What does this have to do with us?  As God's people, we are called to spread the message of God's peace and love by word and action and we can do better if we are not weighed down with a lot of unimportant things that take our time, our attention, and our money.  Some of these things contribute to our comfort and convenience and help us to do our work
more efficiently and quickly.  Many however are extra baggage, taking our time and our mind from spiritual and intellectual effort.

Now, I am not suggesting that we become beggars like Gandhi or Saint Francis, but the Spirit of God is that we free ourselves of the superfluous, the unnecessary, the piles of extra things that weigh us down.  For example, let's not be like a young girl who had so many sweaters if she lived to be 100 she could never wear each sweater once, or Imelda Marcos who
allegedly had over a thousand pair of shoes.  And what about the fact that over 65% of the food ordered in restaurants is wasted.  How wrong, considering the many hungry people in our country. Of course, doing without must be relative. A doctor needs her/ his medical equipment; lawyers need law books to plead their cases correctly.  But all of us can find many material possessions we can do without, things that keep us from thinking, speaking and acting rightly.

When Jane and I moved to our condo in Rhode Island from a church rectory, we packed up many boxes for the Salvation Army and Good Will. But when we got here, the van driver said, "I don't think we can fit everything in there."  We had to give a lot more away, and there are still unopened boxes in the basement.

Friends, we are on a journey to heaven.  The less baggage we carry, the more we can concentrate on the essentials, the more time we can give to the spiritual.  Travel light like Grant; like Jesus and his followers. Your life will be better for it.

COL (CH) Richard L. Schweinsburg, USAR

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