Barbara Sherer learned far more about working in a pluralistic, multinational, joint military environment when she was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia, for four months in 1993 with the Fort Lewis, Wash.- based 62nd Medical Group than ever before, she said. For me to give a Jewish Sabbath service, for example, would be inappropriate. I spent a lot of time arranging for other religious services and then finding ways to get soldiers to them. Sherer, who's now assigned to the Chaplain Support Agency at the Pentagon, said the school's overall concept is to help chaplains understand the military environment and the officers they work with. Around the world, chaplains often offer comfort and instill hope where brighter tomorrows seem very far over the horizon.
Chaplains typically attend the course in the seventh or eighth year of their chaplaincy.
We studied tactics and had to plan a tactical operation. The training ended with a 5-mile road march, with the chaplains carrying regulation rucksacks. Training to become a chaplain begins in the Chaplain Officer Basic course. Classes also focus on pre-battle spiritual fitness, something soldiers need to have to feel good about themselves and what they're doing in the Army and for the nation, he added. So are issues that arise for soldiers' spouses because of the soldiers' frequent absences.