thedrifter
12-08-07, 08:23 AM
Navy chaplain corps helps keep Marines spiritually fit
Published Sat, Dec 8, 2007 12:00 AM
By DAN HILLIARD
dhilliard@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5531
When most Marines need air support, they dial up a jet on a satellite radio and bring it screeching overhead.
The job's a little trickier for Marine chaplains -- their support usually doesn't respond by radio from above.
The Navy chaplain corps, which celebrated its 232nd birthday Nov. 28, exists to make sure Marines can worship anywhere, anytime, said Cmdr. Charles Kessler, deputy director of religious ministries for Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.
As a department of the Navy, the Marine Corps doesn't have support personnel such as medics or chaplains, according to depot spokesman Marine Lt. Josiah Nicely.
"As the service evolved, our role became projecting power from the sea," he said. "All support functions were still carried out by the seaborne station, which would have been a
ship."
In keeping with tradition, then, a Navy chaplain is assigned to every Marine unit.
When a unit deploys overseas, it becomes the chaplain's duty to scrounge up clergy to meet the needs of every Marine in the unit, Kessler said.
"The reason we're here is the protection of Marines' constitutional rights to worship God," he said.
A former Southern Baptist pastor who headed parishes in Kentucky and Georgia, Kessler opted to join the Navy in honor of his father, who served more than 36 years in the Army
Reserves.
He's one of the approximately 300 chaplains assigned to battalions of about 1,100
Marines.
That's about one-third of the 900 chaplains employed by the Navy, which also provides chaplains for the Coast Guard and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, he said.
In the course of his 22 years with the Navy, Kessler has conducted services on the back of a Jeep in Korea and in the middle of a desert during Operation Desert Storm.
"That was all driving around the desert with a GPS and a map," he said. "I knew a quadrant where my people were located, and I went."
He also helped arrange a helicopter flight for a rabbi from Naples, Italy, to serve 15 Jewish members of his unit during an evacuation in Liberia.
Keeping recruits' souls as spiritually fit as their bodies is a challenge, he said.
About 10 to 12 services, which range from Protestant to American Indian, can be held simultaneously in the depot's ministries building.
Along with three additional depot chapels, Kessler estimates the ministry serves about 85 percent of recruits and depot personnel every Sunday.
Chaplain Lt. Arthur Wiggins, a former enlisted Marine, said the lessons recruits learn in the depot's chapels are just as important as the lessons they'll learn on the rifle range.
"We're still training when we're in chapel," he said. "We train our bodies physically, our minds mentally and our spirits spiritually."
In addition to their religious duties, chaplains serve as counselors and Red Cross messengers.
Religion can be a powerful salve down the road, should Marines receive bad news or endure a particularly stressful deployment, Wiggins said.
"We're in a very, very tough business," he said. "You have to learn how to deal with how to lose a friend, how to deal with fearing for your life, how to deal with tough assignments. It's an opportunity to say, 'You might find something in this.'
Ellie
Published Sat, Dec 8, 2007 12:00 AM
By DAN HILLIARD
dhilliard@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5531
When most Marines need air support, they dial up a jet on a satellite radio and bring it screeching overhead.
The job's a little trickier for Marine chaplains -- their support usually doesn't respond by radio from above.
The Navy chaplain corps, which celebrated its 232nd birthday Nov. 28, exists to make sure Marines can worship anywhere, anytime, said Cmdr. Charles Kessler, deputy director of religious ministries for Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.
As a department of the Navy, the Marine Corps doesn't have support personnel such as medics or chaplains, according to depot spokesman Marine Lt. Josiah Nicely.
"As the service evolved, our role became projecting power from the sea," he said. "All support functions were still carried out by the seaborne station, which would have been a
ship."
In keeping with tradition, then, a Navy chaplain is assigned to every Marine unit.
When a unit deploys overseas, it becomes the chaplain's duty to scrounge up clergy to meet the needs of every Marine in the unit, Kessler said.
"The reason we're here is the protection of Marines' constitutional rights to worship God," he said.
A former Southern Baptist pastor who headed parishes in Kentucky and Georgia, Kessler opted to join the Navy in honor of his father, who served more than 36 years in the Army
Reserves.
He's one of the approximately 300 chaplains assigned to battalions of about 1,100
Marines.
That's about one-third of the 900 chaplains employed by the Navy, which also provides chaplains for the Coast Guard and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, he said.
In the course of his 22 years with the Navy, Kessler has conducted services on the back of a Jeep in Korea and in the middle of a desert during Operation Desert Storm.
"That was all driving around the desert with a GPS and a map," he said. "I knew a quadrant where my people were located, and I went."
He also helped arrange a helicopter flight for a rabbi from Naples, Italy, to serve 15 Jewish members of his unit during an evacuation in Liberia.
Keeping recruits' souls as spiritually fit as their bodies is a challenge, he said.
About 10 to 12 services, which range from Protestant to American Indian, can be held simultaneously in the depot's ministries building.
Along with three additional depot chapels, Kessler estimates the ministry serves about 85 percent of recruits and depot personnel every Sunday.
Chaplain Lt. Arthur Wiggins, a former enlisted Marine, said the lessons recruits learn in the depot's chapels are just as important as the lessons they'll learn on the rifle range.
"We're still training when we're in chapel," he said. "We train our bodies physically, our minds mentally and our spirits spiritually."
In addition to their religious duties, chaplains serve as counselors and Red Cross messengers.
Religion can be a powerful salve down the road, should Marines receive bad news or endure a particularly stressful deployment, Wiggins said.
"We're in a very, very tough business," he said. "You have to learn how to deal with how to lose a friend, how to deal with fearing for your life, how to deal with tough assignments. It's an opportunity to say, 'You might find something in this.'
Ellie