“Happy New Year” to everyone and welcome to our annual Armed Forces Chaplains Board Endorsers Conference for 2009. It is always a great joy to meet with you and to see so many familiar faces again. Thank you for coming and thank you for all that you do for our Chaplain Corps, our Army, and for our Nation as the ecclesiastical endorsing agency representatives to the military.

In the brief time I have this morning I would like to share some of my impressions gained over the last year on the state of the Army Chaplaincy as our Army continues to fight a war on several fronts whose endpoint still cannot be clearly identified.

I want to tell you a little about some of the Soldiers who are fighting this war and the chaplains and chaplain assistants who are providing the spiritual leadership and the outstanding ministry that is helping to sustain these Soldiers and their Families through some really tough times.

And then I want to outline briefly what I believe is the top priority for the future as we continue to support both the war effort and the Army’s ongoing transformation from a Cold War legacy force to the modular, expeditionary force required for the strategic environment of our 21^st century world.

First, I’d like to talk about the ministry setting an Army chaplain is faced with in today’s Army.

READ MORE from Chapnet

Suicides among soldiers in 2008 rose for the fourth year in a row, reaching the highest level in nearly three decades Army officials said Thursday.

At least 128 soldiers killed themselves last year, and the Army suicide rate surpassed that for civilians for the first time since the Vietnam War, according to Army statistics. The suicide count, which includes soldiers in the Army Reserve and the National Guard, is expected to grow; 15 deaths are still being investigated, and the vast majority of them are expected to be ruled suicides, Army officials said.

Including the deaths being investigated, roughly 20.2 of every 100,000 soldiers killed themselves. The civilian rate for 2006, the most recent figure available, was 19.2 when adjusted to match the demographics.

READ MORE from The New York Times

In an article from the Professional Journal of the U.S. Army Chaplaincy, Dr. John W. Brinsfield wrote,

“Since 1775, commanders have looked to their chaplains as ethical leaders to reinforce Soldiers’ spiritual strength, commitment, cohesion, morale, and moral discipline. The roles chaplains assumed were legion [numerous]: as pastors, preachers, professors, advisors to the commander, participants with their Soldiers in combat, defense counsels, senior leaders, administrators and stewards of resources, clinical team ethicists in hospitals, and since 1973, as ethics instructors in Army service schools.”

The roles of the U.S. Army chaplains listed above could be all true and often portrayed as caregivers and providers of Soldiers’ spiritual needs. Though it is normal for chaplains to be a caregiver of others, the thought of who cares for their needs when they have problems is often neglected or unseen.

“As a chaplain, we sometimes wonder who cares about the chaplain,” said Lt. Col. Wilbert Harrison, a Belleglade, Fla., native and 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) chaplain. “Sometimes there’s an issue to where we need to be cared for and we’re not always good at receiving that care because we’re so used to giving. We are often the healer; but there are times when we need to be healed.”

READ MORE from The Military Family Network