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A promise to give full military honors
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PASADENA, Calif. — An untold toll has resulted from ongoing U.S. military deployment worldwide. Family members of deceased soldiers and war veterans may be the only ones who painfully see the effect. This occurs when funeral services are held without conferring final military honors.
A Pasadena university is attempting to fill a military chaplain shortage with ‘Boots on Ground.’
Lt. Gen. Allen Baumann, National Commanding General of the U.S. Volunteers Joint Services Command, is not only aware of the problem, but is also looking for a solution. Baumann has put out a call for volunteers to enter a chaplains program at Promise Christian University in Pasadena. The goal is to fill in for active duty members who normally perform the services and add to the overwhelmed volunteer force that also conducts funerals.
“Our veterans are dying at a rate of 1,600 a day. Because of the war on terrorism, our active and reserve forces are committed to preserving our democratic free society. As a result, 90 percent of America's finest are buried without final military honors,” Baumann said.
For more fortunate families, military funeral services are performed largely by volunteer groups, such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, said Dr. Stephen Kirtley, director of Chaplains Programs at Promise Christian University.
Trained chaplains from the college have a choice to join the volunteers in providing full-military honors funerals that include flag folders, a salute by a rifle squad, and an honor guard. The graduates may also serve in other community service capacities, such as chaplains in local police or fire departments.
Kirtley said he views the chaplain program, which opened in January 2007, as a way of bolstering what the active military services and other volunteer groups already do.
“We all try to add to that number,” he said.
Vision for service
Lt. Gen. Baumann—acknowledging that only 10 percent of veterans are receiving proper military honors services—helped to initiate the graveside portion of the chaplain program during a meeting with Promise university officials. During the meeting Baumann said he was looking for a college-based instructional program that would “make a difference by organizing a national retired military and civilian force, including retired military and civilian chaplains, with one mission in mind—Boots on Graves.”
The call for “boots on graves” is an extension of the U.S. troops battle cry and term for engagement: “boots on the ground,” a military tradition in which combat boots are placed at the memorial site of a fallen troop.
“It's done as a symbol of recognition for their service,” Kirtley said.
As a retired Army chaplain of 30 years, and having had a father who was also a career chaplain for the Army, Kirtley said he is happy teaching at PCU and helping clergymen and women discover whether becoming a chaplain is for them.
Diverse program
Students include church leaders at various stages of their lives, most holding degrees in theology.
“They are looking for ministry that is more diverse than just the local parish,” Kirtley said. “They are looking to help people in need from a wider range or target audience.”
Kirtley leads his students on a three-weekend, 18-hour course that includes a history of chaplaincy, both in the military and in the community.
“I have a certain amount of confidence and conviction that this is a worthy pursuit,” he said. “Students will know by the end of the first level (class) whether to look at this as a career or not.”
The five-year-old university has graduated 40 students in the chaplains program during its first year of operation, giving students a Chaplaincy Certificate. In addition to learning about the different services of chaplains, the spiritual aspect, and the duties of first responders, students view the subject of pluralism. While the separation of church and state issues surface in many areas of society, Kirtley teaches that helping people to rise above their moment of despair is the top priority.
“Chaplains need to be very aware of pluralism,” he said. “We serve and minister to people of all faiths, and we need to honor their faith. My style is not to be pushy with people in terms of my faith and their faith ... hopefully, that they have with Jesus. What is first and foremost is that we help with physical, emotional and psychological problems.”
Kirtley said that salvation issues are important, but he does not want people turned off by a chaplain's manner or approach.
“We want to respond much like Jesus did in relating to people’s needs,” he said. “You look for a response from them and if they want what you have. I'm always looking for an opening to the gospel.”
Kirtley said he is encouraged by the program at PCU, believing that students are getting the training for whatever field they choose to serve as a chaplain. Ten of the first graduates chose to be a part of the “Boots on Ground” mission of the volunteer command.
“We are the only group that has chaplains with prior service as chaplains or clergy that become military-service chaplains.”
For more information on the chaplains program at Promise Christian, visit www.qhappy.com/pcu/USVChaplains.htm or call (626) 296-7502.
Article originally published in the Christian Examiner. More articles by Alex Murashko at LA Church & State Examiner.
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