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Alabama National Guard short on chaplains

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — It undoubtedly takes faith to be a chaplain in the Alabama National Guard. They are overworked — too few of them and too many to minister to.

Today, the Alabama National Guard is short 11 clergy members. And the 21 who are in service are comforting both those on the battlefield and on the home front.

Active-duty assignments have left Alabama Guard units critically understaffed, and recruiters aren’t having much luck filling the open positions.

Every battalion-sized Guard unit (400 to 600 soldiers) from the state that deploys to Iraq or Afghanistan takes a chaplain. The chaplains don’t carry weapons, but they are on the battlefields ministering to those who do.

The 21 chaplains in the Alabama National Guard have to minister to more than 11,200 soldiers. The work is gut-wrenching and rewarding. But the hidden toll on the chaplain ranks isn’t talked about often enough.

Religious services for Guard units typically are held on Sunday during monthly drill weekends.

“You could be a chaplain for a battalion, but your unit might have a company in Mobile, a company in Anniston and a company in west Alabama,” said the Rev. (Capt.) Wylly Collins, full-time Guard support chaplain. “So there’s a lot of traveling involved.”

Companies and other smaller units without chaplains must depend on enlisted members to lead their services, with guidance from the battalion chaplain and with a unit commander’s consent.

“We’re providing area coverage. We’re helping one another. We’re going where the need is,” said the Rev. (Col.) Jim Reece, state chaplain for the Army National Guard.

The needs are many, particularly for members who are not Protestant. None of the Guard chaplains is Catholic or Jewish. A national shortage of Catholic priests has made Guard recruiting more difficult.

Other factors are contributing to the shortage.

“It seems that we went through a period where there were retirements that took, where we had guys leaving and not enough coming in,” said Reece. “It’s either age got them or their personal responsibilities are such that they don’t need another deployment, so they say goodbye.”

Many chaplains are full-time pastors in their communities. When their boards or councils transfer them to another church in other parts of the country, the ranks of the chaplains in Alabama are depleted even more.

And, interestingly enough, age is a big factor.

The oldest an incoming chaplain without prior military service can be in the Army is 40, said Capt. Michelle Alexander, who recruits chaplains for the Guard. Age waivers are allowed for those who have prior military service.

The average age of most seminary students is 39. So getting them into the military in time to serve as chaplains and meet the age requirement is a tough task, Collins said.

Things are a little better in the Alabama Air National Guard, said the Rev. (Col.) Robert Hicks, chaplain for Montgomery’s 187th Fighter Wing.

The Alabama Air Guard has 13 chaplains to minister to its 2,250 airmen — two more than authorized.

But with several Air Guard chaplains approaching retirement and church transfers always a possibility, it could be just a matter of time before the Air Guard also will face a shortage, said Hicks, the Air Guard’s most senior chaplain with 28 years service.

The Army National Guard is offering incentives to get more chaplains to join — a $10,000 signing bonus, up to $4,500 for seminary school, or student loan repayments up to $20,000.

Those who serve say the blessings outnumber all the problems — both on the battlefront and at home.

“For chaplains, it’s good news, bad news,” said Hicks, who ministered to wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany in 2004. “There are less of us to do a huge task, but for those who do it, it’s rewarding.”

“The troops need [chaplains],” said Alexander. “When you come back from overseas, there’s so much that’s going on when you get back. Sometimes, you just need someone to talk to.”

“We are there to take care of the casualties,” Hicks said, “not only the physical casualties, but the emotional and spiritual casualties of war.”