Air Force to Make Cuts in Chaplain Corps
A recent Air Force Times story discusses the service’s intent to significantly cut the number of active duty chaplains.
By the end of [the] fiscal year… the Air Force will have no more than 480 active-duty chaplains – the total stands at 528 today – and the number could dip to 470, according to the Office of the Chief of Chaplains. A PowerPoint slide obtained by Air Force Times puts the number at 465.
Chaplains of all denominations will be involuntarily separated through a selective early retirement board and reduction-in-force process. Roman Catholic priests, in shortest supply across the military, are eligible to leave only through early retirement.
While the article mentions that all denominations will be affected, it seems hard to imagine that the Air Force would begin involuntarily separating Jewish chaplains. I also find it hard to believe their quote that Roman Catholic priests are in shortest supply. The statistic is most likely referring to chaplains among the Christian faith. Even if this doesn’t directly affect Jewish chaplains, it is disheartening to see cuts like this made to the Chaplain corps. Regardless of their personal faith, chaplains serve all faith groups and as hard as it is to find a Jewish chaplain we are more likely to make initial contact with a chaplain of a different faith.
All of this comes at a time when chaplains are in particular demand:
Chaplains … recorded almost 180,000 visits in 2009, a 37 percent increase in just two years. The 2007 number was more than 130,000 visits, according to the Chief of Chaplains Office.
Combat-stress related sessions jumped 350 percent, suicide interventions rose by almost a third. Deployment-related visits increased by 25 percent, and workplace issues were up 35 percent.
Those numbers include visits from soldiers, sailors and Marines – often at deployed locations, Gosselin said.
I’d be curious to hear from some of the chaplains that are members/readers of JIG. How will this affect you, and what kind of effect do you think this will have on us Jewish servicemembers?
Capt Rubin, Glad to see you back on JIG “net.” Welcome back! As you are the founder, it’s an honor to have you with us again. We missed you, but we know you’ve been extremely busy! Thanks for sharing that article and insight with us. I beg to differ with you on your point regarding Catholic Chaplains though. Catholic priests are in critically short supply even in the civilian community (so much so that many Catholic churches must be led by lay pesonnel) so it makes sense that the military would be critically short on Catholic priests as well. Thanks again for contributing that article – you’re right, it’s amazing that they would even think of doing that, especially in a time of war when chaplains are needed the most. By the way, I think we are still critically short of Rabbis, expecially Reform and Conservative, which we need the most (as the vast majority of our Jewish servicemen are not Orthodox).
From the perspective of a long tenure as a Lay Leader at Fort Benning, I can attest to the reality of the fact that Catholic chaplains are indeed in short supply, as are Reform and Conservative Jewish chaplains in the army (military) in general.
Neil Block
Capt, USN, Ret
I stand corrected then. I was judging from my own personal experience where the base chaplain at Cherry Point was a Catholic priest and we had one on both boats I deployed on recently.
It’s also about percentages and relative importance.
About 25% of the military is Catholic. Somewhere around 15% of the Chaplaincy is Catholic. About 1-2% of the military is Jewish and about 1-2% (it varies by service) of the military is Jewish (unfortunately they’re not concentrated at 1-2% of the bases). You’re gonna need a lot more Catholic Priests than Rabbis.
There’s nothing a Rabbi can do that a lay leader can’t. There’s nothing in Jewish law that says you need a Rabbi for services, funerals, weddings, classes…etc.
On the other hand, you need a Catholic priest for just about everything. Mass, confession, baptisms, weddings, funerals, confirmation, etc.
The lack of a Catholic Priest is a much more critical blow to a Catholic program than the lack of a Rabbi.
The proof is that there are many many very strong Jewish programs run by lay leaders and virtually no Catholic programs run by lay leaders.
I’d love to see more Rabbis (I’m not picky about which movement they come from) in the military. We need to encourage them to join.