Is There a Rabbi on the Base? The Life of a Jewish Army Chaplain

In 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, Chaplain (Colonel) Sanford Dresin, having just received semichah from Yeshivas Chasam Sofer in Brooklyn, New York, became an Army chaplain. After serving two years on a United States Army base in Fort Meade, Maryland, he knew that if he remained on active duty, the next stop would be Vietnam. He chose active duty.

In Vietnam, the self-described “traveling rabbi” went from base to base, from Saigon to the Central Highlands, flying helicopters in and out of hostile areas in order to offer Jewish soldiers moral support and divrei chizuk, words of inspiration. They eagerly welcomed his visits. “Some would actually risk driving down a road amid [enemy] fire to come to a class,” says Rabbi Dresin. “One night, down in the Mekong Delta, in the middle of singing Lechah Dodi during Kabbalat Shabbat, we started getting rocketed. Everyone just continued singing. I told them this was a case of pikuach nefesh and we better head for the bunkers.”

Continue reading here. This article offers a minor glimpse into how the military and a chevra kadisha interact at Dover AFB to perform taharah to the extent the military can accommodate, thanks to Rabbi Dresin.