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The Role of Chaplains in the Operational Army

Chapter 11

THE ROLE OF CHAPLAINS IN THE 

OPERATIONAL ARMY

PETER FREDERICH, MDiv*; THOMAS C. WAYNICK, MDiv†; JASON E. DUCKWORTH, DMin, MDiv‡; and

JEFF VOYLES, MDiv§

INTRODUCTION

THE CHAPLAIN AS PASTORAL COUNSELOR

Pastoral Care and Counseling in the Chaplain Corps

Chaplains and Confidentiality

The Chaplain as Facilitator of Religious Strength

Dynamics of Faith in Soldier Resilience and Recovery

CHAPLAINS AS PARTNERS IN OPERATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

SUMMARY

*Lieutenant Colonel, Chaplain Corps, US Army; Family Ministries Officer, Directorate of Ministry Initiatives, US Army Chief of Chaplains Office, 1421 

Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 10600, Arlington, Virginia 22202; formerly, Director, US Army Family Life Chaplain Training Center, Fort Benning, 

Georgia 

†

Lieutenant Colonel, Chaplain Corps, US Army; Command Chaplain, Family, Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Command, 4700 King Street, Alexandria, 

Virginia 22301; formerly, Director and Clinical Supervisor, US Army Family Life Chaplains’ Training Program, Fort Benning, Georgia 31905

‡

Lieutenant Colonel, Chaplain Corps, US Army; Garrison Chaplain, Religious Support Office, US Army Garrison, Heidelberg, Germany, CMR 419 

Box 1876, APO AE 09102; formerly, Training Developer, Chaplain Basic Officer Leader Course, US Army Chaplain Center and School, Fort Jackson, 

South Carolina 29207

§

Lieutenant Colonel, Chaplain Corps, US Army; Director and Clinical Supervisor, Chaplain Family Life Training Program, Building 2606 Collins Loop, 

Fort Benning, Georgia 31905
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Combat and Operational Behavioral Health

INTRODUCTION

In the US Army’s current care structure, chaplains are frequently first responders to the personal 

and psychological problems of soldiers. This is a 

long tradition. Long before mental health providers existed in the ranks, chaplains were available 

to soldiers as pastors, lending a listening ear and 

wise counsel. Today, maintenance of the soul of 

the soldier is the primary mission of the military 

chaplaincy. Wherever faith and life intersect, the 

chaplain is present. Chaplains, like their civilian 

counterparts, play a defined role in rites and rituals celebrating the meaningful passages of life from 

birth to the grave. Their calling is to the development and growth of the soul, both temporally and 

eternally. These activities inherently support the 

mental health of soldiers and their family members, 

and make the chaplain a natural partner to military 

psychiatric caregivers.

THE CHAPLAIN AS PASTORAL COUNSELOR

Vignette 11-1: Private Sam Jones doesn’t really know 

what to do or think. Four months into his first Iraq deployment, 

he’s afraid his marriage is falling apart—he feels helpless and 

desperate. Married just over a year to Sarah, his high-school 

girlfriend, he thought they were the picture of a great young 

Army couple. Sarah had written him faithfully while he was in 

basic and advanced individual training, and when he proposed 

during the Christmas break she’d said yes. They had a wonderful holiday, showing family and friends her engagement ring 

and making plans for the future. There wasn’t a lot of time or 

money, no big wedding or a honeymoon, but by summer they 

had moved into a small apartment outside Fort Bragg, North 

Carolina. Sarah started taking classes at the local community 

college, got pregnant, and made some friends. 

And then came Iraq. They both put on a brave face, but 

both were scared. The baby would be born while he was in 

Iraq. She had friends, but not necessarily the kind to help 

when a baby comes, so they decided she would move back 

home until he returned. And so, a month before his departure, 

Sam took a week’s leave, loaded up a rented trailer, and 

drove Sarah home. As he watched her waving goodbye, he 

knew this was going to be a long haul. But he was confident 

they’d get through this, raise kids, and grow old together. 

They were so in love.

But things didn’t go as planned. With perverse precision, 

Sarah miscarried the baby on the last day of the first trimester 

while Sam was actually in the air, flying to the Middle East. 

It was 4 days before he got the news, and even though his 

commander found him a phone and a quiet place to call right 

away, it was days late for Sarah. The call didn’t go well. To 

Sam, it seemed like Sarah blamed him for the miscarriage, 

and couldn’t understand why Sam’s unit didn’t send him 

home. What was supposed to be a loving call of support 

turned into a frustrating exchange that was mercifully cut off 

by a break in the lines.

Somehow the phone just didn’t work for them. Calls were 

characterized more by silences and anger than by love and 

affection. E-mail, while better, couldn’t patch it up. Then, it 

seemed like he could never find her at home. He’d wait in line 

an hour for a phone, only to leave a message on an answering 

machine. Worse, e-mails stopped being regularly answered. 

Before long, weeks passed with no contact between them. 

Now Sam is sitting staring at his computer screen in despair. A well-intentioned friend just sent an e-mail telling Sam 

he’d seen Sarah at a movie with her old boyfriend, a week 

after he saw the pair sitting in a car outside the Denny’s she 

and Sam used to frequent as a couple. He’s telling Sam this 

because he “doesn’t want to see you get hurt.”

Suddenly it all makes sense to Sam and it seems hopeless 

and more than he can bear. In his mind he sees some really 

ugly pictures of Sarah with her new friend. And it seems like 

there’s nothing he can do—how can he win her back when 

she doesn’t even answer his calls? Sam doesn’t know what 

to think, but he knows this: he doesn’t want to live if he can’t 

be with Sarah. Looking over his shoulder, Sam sees his M4 

rifle: clean, loaded, and ready for action. Just three steps, 

pick it up, pull the charging handle, rotate, and fire. All this 

pain would be over, and Sarah would be so sorry . . .

In the future Sam would always look back to that moment 

and wonder if it was just coincidence, or the hand of God. 

But as the thoughts of suicide came through his mind, so 

did the sound of a knock at the door of the squad “hooch” 

where Sam was sitting. A moment later Chaplain Watson 

walked through the door. Strange thing. The chaplain didn’t 

come every day, but more than once a week he’d come 

through, handing out candy, care packages, or something 

else. Sometimes he seemed out of his element in the rough 

atmosphere of the forward operating base, but he came by 

anyway. And whether it was his jump shot (he’d played NCAA 

Division-III basketball in college and was a solid addition to 

any platoon’s pick-up team) or his insistence on regularly, 

voluntarily joining squads on patrols, he was a respected 

member of the battalion, even among soldiers who couldn’t 

find the chapel. 

It didn’t take the chaplain long to pick up the cues from 

Sam’s feeble answers to his standard “How’s it going?” questions. He sat down on the bed next to the computer desk, 

and asked for more information. Before he knew it, Sam was 

roughing out the details of his situation and finding someone 

who’d heard it before, cared, had hope, and had a plan. “Let’s 

go find out what’s happening and figure out what to do.” The 

chaplain invited Sam back to the chapel, where there was 

a class-A line (a line that connects to phones outside the 

military installation) and plenty of privacy to start the process 

of pulling things back together.

With only simple changes to the details, Sam’s story 

could be retold tens of thousands of times every decade. In the Western world soldiers for centuries have 
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The Role of Chaplains in the Operational Army

looked to clergy to help them sort through problems 

and answer the deeper existential questions of the soul. 

The US Army’s Chaplain Corps was established at the 

Army’s inception by General George Washington.

Pastoral Care and Counseling in the Chaplain 

Corps

Chaplains draw from a centuries-old tradition of 

pastoral care. Historically, and throughout the first 

centuries of American colonial and national history, 

pastors of various denominations lived or sometimes 

“circuit rode” between tiny, agrarian communities, 

leading worship, caring for the sick, and often burying the dead. With college and frequently seminary 

degrees, these clergymen were often the most highly 

educated and widely experienced in their communities, and were called on to perform many helping tasks, 

sometimes even including medical care, for their isolated charges. “Pastoral care” developed a very wide 

range of activities during this period.1

Following this historic pattern, today’s clergy often see the role of pastoral counseling as part of their 

scriptural injunction to take oversight of the flock by 

caring for one another’s burdens.2 Chaplains do their 

trade well when they follow recognized principles of 

spiritual leadership regarding the care of another’s 

soul—personal concern, faith in the value and meaning of life, and hope.3

 These values are typically shared 

by most counseling modalities—pastoral or not.

Although chaplains collectively represent many 

faiths, each individually comes from one particular 

faith group.4 Each chaplain is endorsed by a specific 

denomination, but the task is to minister to every soldier in the command. Consequently, chaplains have 

diverse responsibilities. Besides conducting the rituals, 

rites, and sacraments (referred to above) and public 

worship services (their most common responsibility), 

chaplains also provide pastoral care and counseling. It 

is in the pastoral relationship that the work of chaplains overlaps most closely with military psychiatry. 

As a result, military mental health workers commonly 

find that they are partnered with chaplains in areas 

such as resiliency in preparation for combat, stress 

control in combat, suicide prevention, wounded soldier recovery, soldier reintegration, trauma recovery, 

family issues, and care for the caregiver.

All chaplains have rudimentary training in care 

and counseling. However, skill and education levels 

cover a broad range. Actual training in counseling may 

vary from a couple of seminary courses to a doctorate 

in clinical psychology. Recognizing this range, and 

attempting to ensure that every chaplain has a basic 

workable skill set, the Chaplain Corps has been proactive in raising the standard of care in pastoral counseling. The heart of this effort is focused on the family life 

chaplain and hospital chaplain programs.

For over 30 years, the Chief of Chaplains has 

sponsored an advanced civilian schooling program 

for midcareer chaplains. Chaplains selected for this 

program attend a 15-month masters degree course 

in pastoral counseling and, upon graduation, are assigned to Family Life Centers spread throughout the 

Army in garrisons and divisions. Many graduates from 

this program become licensed as marriage and family 

therapists or professional counselors.

The chaplaincy has also continued to raise the level 

of pastoral care through its clinical pastoral education 

programs. Located in major medical centers, these 

programs train chaplains to do ministry in the hospital environment where the basic skills of listening 

and self-awareness are tantamount to quality care. 

Once in positions in Family Life Centers or military 

hospitals, these chaplains provide care as well as 

training in pastoral counseling for unit chaplains. 

Under a new initiative, both family life and hospital 

chaplains will be used to mentor young chaplains in 

“battlefield pastoral education”—a program designed 

to raise the quality of care and counseling across the 

Chaplain Corps. 

The ministry of care and counseling to the greater 

community begins with the chaplain and chaplain assistant. They make up the unit ministry team (UMT) 

in the Army and the religious support team in joint 

environments. UMTs are assigned down to battalion 

level, so there is typically one UMT for every 600 soldiers. Because the UMTs are assigned to the unit, there 

is generally a very close relationship between the team 

and the unit. That close relationship makes chaplains 

and their assistants ideal “first responders.” Because 

soldiers trust the UMT, they are likely to respond 

positively when its members advise them to talk to 

someone else in the helping professions, such as mental 

health providers. Additionally, because chaplains and 

assistants live and work closely with soldiers, they 

make ideal follow-on caregivers for soldiers and family 

members who are in parallel treatment with military 

medical providers. A time-honored best practice is for 

UMTs and military mental health practitioners to build 

and maintain robust relationships in order to facilitate 

early recognition and integrated treatment for military 

constituents.

Chaplains and Confidentiality

One unique aspect of the chaplain–penitent relationship is the nature and extent of confidentiality. In 

order to best partner with chaplains, mental health 
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providers must become comfortable with this unique 

aspect of the chaplain–soldier–family-member relationship. Society has long recognized the need for 

certain relationships, such as marriage, to be protected 

by confidential communication. The main reason for 

protecting communication within a marriage is to 

promote absolute trust in the marital bond. Society 

has decided that a husband and wife should be able 

to communicate freely about even the most sensitive 

issues without the threat of that communication being 

used against them in a legal setting. 

Similarly, the communication between an attorney 

and a client has also traditionally been protected by 

confidential communication so that the client can receive accurate legal advice. The conversations between 

patients and their healthcare providers have also been 

protected, most recently in the 1996 Health Insurance 

Portability and Accountability Act. Patients need to 

know their conversations with healthcare providers 

are protected so they can make a full disclosure of their 

history and symptoms without fearing that others will 

have access to this information.

As for these other relationships, long tradition has 

held that conversations between a member of the 

clergy and a parishioner or penitent have also been 

protected so that the matters of soul and conscience 

can be fully and freely discussed without fear of these 

conversations becoming public. The concept of the 

privilege of confidential communication between a 

member of the clergy and a penitent has been around 

for almost two centuries. It was first introduced in the 

United States in New York in the early 19th century. 

Every state and the District of Columbia have enacted 

laws that protect this relationship.5

 On the federal 

level, in Trammel v US (1980),6 the US Supreme Court 

recognized “the human need to disclose to a spiritual counsel, in total and absolute confidence, what are 

believed to be flawed acts or thoughts and to receive 

priestly consolation and guidance in return.” In a case 

5 years later, the court stated that 

[t]he privilege regarding communications with a 

clergyman reflects an accommodation between the 

public’s right to evidence and the individual’s need to be 

able to speak with a spiritual counselor, in absolute 

confidence, and disclose the wrongs done or evils 

thought and receive spiritual absolution, consolation, 

or guidance in return.7

The US military also has regulations that govern 

confidential communications. Military rule of evidence 

(MRE) 503 covers confidential communications to 

members of the clergy.8

 The general rule of privilege 

in MRE 503 states:

A person has a privilege to refuse to disclose and 

to prevent another from disclosing a confidential 

communication by the person to a clergyman or a 

clergyman’s assistant, if such communication is made 

either as a formal act of religion or as a matter of 

conscience.8(pIII-23)

It is significant that the privilege belongs to the 

declarant. The chaplain is bound by this privilege, 

and is not free to waive it. It also states that a chaplain 

assistant is bound by the privilege. Thus, if an individual is speaking to a chaplain or chaplain assistant, 

and believes the conversation is in confidence, it is 

a protected communication. As used in this rule, a 

“clergyman” is a minister, priest, rabbi, chaplain, or 

other similar functionary of a religious organization, 

or an individual reasonably believed to be so by the 

person consulting the clergyman. MRE 503 also states 

that a communication is “confidential” if made to a 

clergyman in the clergyman’s capacity as a spiritual 

advisor or to a clergyman’s assistant in the assistant’s 

official capacity. MRE 503 makes all communications 

to a chaplain in this role privileged. As such, they 

are not admissible in court. Further policies interpret 

this privilege broadly, making chaplain–parishioner 

privilege “nearly absolute.” As a result, the chaplain 

is often viewed as a safe place to go by both soldiers 

and the command. Soldiers can go to the chaplain to 

have their problems addressed without the matter 

being made known to their units. 

This relationship has been repeatedly tested in 

court, and as recently as 2007 was clarified by the 

chief of chaplains. The term that has typically been 

connected to this relationship is “absolute confidentiality.” The bottom line guidance given to chaplains 

and their assistants is this: the privilege that soldiers 

and family members own as a result of the relationship is absolute. It cannot be waived for any reason 

(to include threat of harm) unless the soldier or family 

member waives it.

Although this absolute privilege has been viewed 

with angst by many professionals, in practice the 

safety that soldiers thereby attach to the relationship 

is virtually always positive. The hypothetical situations of danger (eg, a chaplain remaining quiet in the 

case of child abuse or some other heinous situation) 

are grist for interesting legal discussions, but virtually 

never come to reality. In fact, a multiyear search done 

by the chiefs of chaplains across the Department of 

Defense did not find a single instance where harm 

ensued as a result of a chaplain or assistant holding 

confidence. However, the search uncovered many instances where the perceived safety of the relationship 

enabled chaplains and assistants to gain early access 
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The Role of Chaplains in the Operational Army

to dangerous situations and prevent harm. The bottom 

line for mental health professionals is this: the privilege 

attached to the soldier–chaplain relationship makes 

the chaplains and chaplain assistants in the military 

extremely valuable partners in the care of soldiers and 

their family members.

The Chaplain as Facilitator of Religious Strength

The free exercise of religion has been the source 

of the chaplain’s ability to be a facilitator of religious 

strength. This has 

corresponded well with the intent of the Founding 

Fathers and the Constitution of the United States. . . 

. Long before the Constitution was framed, a distinct 

tradition of free exercise of religion developed within 

the army by necessity. The pattern for chaplain ministry to soldiers of different religious backgrounds was 

set in the seventeeth century, from the time of the first 

militia units drilled at Jamestown, Plymouth, Boston, 

and New York.9

Today’s Army maintains a Chaplain Corps for the 

primary reason of ensuring a soldier’s free exercise of 

religion. However, the motivation at the operational 

level may be different. In the Army, everything must 

support the soldier on the front line. Logisticians ensure that the infantry on the front have beans and bullets. The Signal Corps supports the fight by providing 

clear means of communication. The Medical Command 

attends to the health of the soldier. The chaplain is seen 

as a force health contributor by supporting the spirit 

of the individual soldier, enabling the soldier to be 

resilient in the fight. 

But how does religion support the soldier? The 

answer to that question is threefold. It has to do with 

the nature of belief systems, which bring meaning to 

life. First, belief systems support soldiers throughout 

combat. Before the battle, belief systems aid the process 

of convictions in just and right causes. In the midst of 

the chaos and horror of combat a belief system can 

sustain an individual. After the battle the application 

of meaning to the traumatic event can help restore 

not only a sense of order and meaning, but also a 

renewed calling to life. Secondly, belief systems offer 

rites, rituals, and sacraments that provide healing, 

cleansing, and restoration that can be very important 

to the wounded soul of the warrior. Thirdly, chaplains 

perform a symbolic role, referred to by the Chaplain 

Corps as the “ministry of presence.” The chaplain is 

perceived by some as the embodiment of God’s presence in the midst of soldiers. 

Some commanders feel that a chaplain accompanying troops during the mission is more important than 

the current doctrine of locating chaplains at the aid 

station. These commanders believe that a chaplain’s 

presence, a symbol of God’s closeness with the troops, 

is an encouragement to soldiers in the field. These officers are not alone in their convictions that belief in 

God sustains a person in combat. In an address at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1941, General 

George C Marshall said these words: 

The soldier’s heart, the soldier’s spirit, the soldier’s 

soul, are everything. Unless the soldier’s soul sustains 

him he cannot be relied on and will fail himself and 

his commander and his country in the end. . . . It is 

morale that wins the victory. . . . The French never 

found an adequate “dictionary” definition for the 

word. . . . It is more than a word—more than any one 

word, or several words, can measure. Morale is a state 

of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It 

is confidence and zeal and loyalty. . . . It is élan, esprit 

de corps and determination. It is staying power, the 

spirit which endures to the end—the will to win. With 

it all things are possible, without it everything else, 

planning, preparation, production, count for naught. 

I have just said it is the spirit which endures to the 

end. And so it is.10

Dynamics of Faith in Soldier Resilience and Recovery 

The chaplain may or may not be a symbol of God’s 

presence to the individual soldier. The greater question is how does individual belief, religion, or faith 

promoted and supported by the chaplain enable 

soldiers first to stay in the fight and then return to the 

fight after being wounded in body or spirit? Anecdotal 

accounts and folk wisdom have supported the belief 

that religious faith adds a profound dimension to the 

emotional resilience and recovery capabilities of people 

under stress. One example comes from World War II 

in this report of the country’s response to the invasion 

of Normandy:

The whole country knew on June 6 that something 

dire, something that might fail, was taking place . . . 

in a Brooklyn shipyard, welders knelt on the decks of 

their Liberty ships and recited the Lord ’s Prayer. At the 

opening, the New York Stock Exchange observed two 

minutes of silent prayer. All over America church bells 

tolled, and the Liberty Bell was rung in Philadelphia. 

In Columbus, Ohio, at 7:30 in the evening, all traffic 

stopped for five minutes while people prayed in the 

streets.11(p37)

Another example is the nation’s spiritual reaction to 

the attacks of September 11, 2001. In the days after the 
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Combat and Operational Behavioral Health

fall of the World Trade Center, church prayer services 

were well attended, crosses and other religious symbols were erected, and memorial events such as Oprah 

Winfrey’s grand prayer service at Yankee Stadium to 

commemorate the victims were celebrated. Even years 

later it is not uncommon for a soldier to tell a chaplain 

that God called him or her into the military in response 

to September 11.

A growing amount of empirical research supports 

the concept that for many individuals faith is a resource 

for resiliency and recovery. Pargament’s seminal work, 

The Psychology of Religion and Coping, encapsulates 

much of the research on religion and resiliency of the 

previous decade. He writes: 

A number of studies have compared the frequencies of 

religious and nonreligious forms of coping and found 

that religion looms large. For example, McCrae (1984) 

studied the coping mechanisms reportedly used by 

a community sample of men and women faced with 

events categorized as losses, threats, or challenges. 

Of the 28 coping mechanisms, “faith” was the second 

most frequently used for dealing with threats (72%), 

and the third most frequently used for dealing with 

losses (75%). Faith was less frequently used in coping 

with challenges (43%). Conway (1885–1986) interviewed black and white urban elderly women who 

had experienced stressful medical problems in the past 

year. Asked how they coped with their medical problems, prayer was selected by 91% of the sample; it was 

the most frequently reported of all coping mechanisms 

including seeking information, resting, treatment, prescription drugs, and going to a doctor.12(pp137–138)

In a more recent work, Learning from Resilient People: 

Lessons We Can Apply to Counseling and Psychotherapy, 

Glicken refers to the following studies:

Gartner, Larson, and Allen reviewed over 200 psychiatric and psychological studies and concluded 

that religious involvement has a positive impact on 

both health and mental health, while Ellison and colleagues indicate that “there is at least some evidence 

of mental health benefits of religion among men and 

women, persons of different ages and racial and ethnic 

groups, and individuals from various socioeconomic 

classes and geographical locations. Further, these 

salutary effects often persist even with an array of 

social, demographic, and health-related statistical 

controls.”13(p23)

If there is, as the research and recent history indicate, 

a connection between faith resources and a soldier’s 

ability to be resilient and recover from the traumas of 

military life, then the role of the chaplain as pastoral 

counselor is an important resource to be accessed by 

those involved with operational psychology. (For 

further discussion, see Waynick and colleagues, “Human Spirituality, Resilience, and the Role of Military 

Chaplains.”14)

CHAPLAINS AS PARTNERS IN OPERATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chaplains are partners with other military helping 

personnel in the overall psychological well-being of 

soldiers. Because they are typically assigned at battalion level, chaplains often handle the day-to-day bulk 

of basic issues faced by soldiers. This often consists of 

straightforward “problem solving” related to professional issues, relationships, life choices, and spirituality. Chaplains provide proximity, immediacy, and 

expectancy in their basic counseling services—they 

have the ability to work with soldiers within the unit 

and meet their needs quickly. This is an important 

operational concept because when soldiers are sent 

away for help, there is a reduced expectancy of their 

return. 

Because chaplains are an integral part of their units, 

they are often familiar with the home situations of the 

soldiers. Chaplains can provide a “reach-back” capability to soldiers, contacting other chaplains who are 

collocated with family members. Thus the deployed 

chaplain often bridges the gap on issues caused by 

family separations. Rear detachment chaplains often 

find themselves tasked by command to react to family 

crises and provide crisis intervention counseling.

It is important to reiterate that chaplains are not 

mental health professionals (the exception being 

licensed family life chaplains); their primary role is 

that of pastor. As such they do pastoral counseling, 

which includes serving as first responders to crisis 

events as well as making good and timely referrals to 

mental health and other agencies for the well-being 

of the soldier. After some initial counseling a chaplain 

may decide that the combat stress control team (CSCT) 

or other professionals may be better suited to help a 

particular individual. At this point the chaplain will 

often refer the person to the CSCT. Depending on the 

nature of the issue, the chaplain may personally escort 

the person, have a noncommissioned officer escort the 

person, or suggest the person seek additional help 

from the CSCT unaccompanied. It is important for 

the mental health team to know that chaplains do not 

perceive this as a “hand off.” Chaplains are typically 

eager to continue the pastoral relationship and play 

an adjunct role in the healing of the soldier. Some past 

tension between mental health professionals and the 

chaplaincy resulted from a perceived message that 

once the soldier is in the medical chain there is no 
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The Role of Chaplains in the Operational Army

need for the pastoral role, as if mental health somehow 

trumped all other care giving. Chaplains as a whole 

come from theological communities that believe human beings function best when they have multiple 

supportive resources.

A prime example of chaplains partnering with 

mental health personnel is occurring during critical incidents in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike chaplains, 

the CSCT is usually assigned at brigade level, although 

sometimes at forward operating bases controlled by 

a single battalion. Typically both the CSCT and the 

chaplain respond to the same client during the same 

events, such as a significant amount of combat loss, 

but each in their own role. Chaplains often respond 

immediately to a critical incident with a pastoral 

presence on the scene. The CSCT often follows up by 

triaging those involved and treating the emotional aftermath of the traumatic experience. Chaplains trained 

in crisis processing often perform critical incident 

stress ministry shortly after the event. Mental health 

professionals respond in similar fashion. Chaplains 

then continue follow-up care by checking in with the 

soldiers while living and working with them on a daily 

basis. Chaplain assistants can also participate in the 

contacting, assessing, and referral process. Unit leaders 

recognizing the teamwork of UMTs and CSCTs often 

advise or direct soldiers to talk with personnel in one 

or the other group.

Another area where mental health practitioners and 

chaplains work hand in hand is in suicide prevention. The 

Army suicide prevention program has four elements: (1) 

primary prevention through life and relationship skills 

training, (2) awareness training, (3) intervention training, and (4) treatment for suicidal soldiers.15 Whereas 

mental health providers have the task of diagnosis and 

treatment, chaplains are the primary vehicle for prevention and awareness education. UMTs are often the first 

to identify a soldier in need of psychological evaluation 

for suicidal or homicidal ideations. This is particularly 

important downrange, where perceptive chaplains can 

expedite, on the basis of their position, a soldier being 

taken to receive mental healthcare.

In March 2007, the US Army Center for Health 

Promotion and Preventative Medicine released a new 

suicide awareness program for soldiers and Army 

leaders. Urging soldiers to “get help” if needed and 

“protect your buddy,” this training emphasizes practical protective steps. This program is now the Army 

standard for suicide awareness training.16 UMTs train 

their units in suicide awareness under the Deployment 

Cycle Support program, as well as providing periodic 

retraining of soldiers and leaders. 

A less talked about role chaplains play in operational psychology is serving as a personal resource 

for mental health providers. Being connected, but not 

in the same professional community, many mental 

health providers find chaplains to be safe friends and 

confidants to process their own experiences. Mental 

health providers also play this role for chaplains. Both 

professions speak a similar language and have similar 

goals in ensuring the well-being of soldiers. Mental 

health providers enjoy the same “absolute privilege” 

as chaplains, which can be very advantageous in the 

close quarters of deployments.

Chaplains and CSCTs should work together and 

be aware of the workloads each is carrying. Equitable distribution of work is part of taking care of the 

caregiver. Chaplains have been, and will continue to 

be, available as a resource to all those who work in 

operational psychology. Chaplains also must take care 

of themselves and each other if they are going to take 

care of the soldier. Consequently, for many chaplains 

and CSCTs, it has become a best practice to maintain 

mutually supportive relationships in which each tracks 

the physical and emotional fitness and workload of the 

other, and which provide informal support and care. 

The nuanced nature of both spiritual and psychiatric 

care requires providers to remain emotionally sound. 

For many deployed chaplains and mental health professionals, the personal relationships they share and 

the supportive interactions they sustain in the midst 

of the struggle have become a keystone of their ability 

to stay healthy and effective through the trials of long 

deployments.

SUMMARY 

Today’s military Chaplain Corps is an expression 

of millenia-long traditions of pastoral practice that include the practice of worship and sacramental rites as 

well as a tradition of personal soul care. Responding 

to this tradition, US military chaplains are ubiquitous 

among soldiers and their family members, leading 

worship and prayer, and listening, comforting, and 

providing guidance. In support of this tradition, 

military chaplains receive extensive training in supportive counseling, personal resilience, and family 

health promotion. Consequently, chaplains support 

the mission of military healthcare providers and are 

natural partners in pursuit of soldier and family 

mental health. Additionally, as a caring professional 

functioning outside normal medical channels, the 

chaplain is a “safe resource” for mental health providers and a good fit for providers seeking a means 

to support their own personal emotional health. As 
170

Combat and Operational Behavioral Health

a result of this alignment and shared mission, many 

mental health providers find it a best practice to 

build and maintain rich, supportive relationships 

with chaplains in their area of action. This partnership has for many been a source of increased effectiveness, durability, and, ultimately, better health 

for the soldiers and family members whose welfare 

they support.

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