Military chaplains are sometimes forgotten or regarded as oddities within a rigid structure that comes with its own set of customs and mores.

But they are a vital part of military life — in peacetime and in war.

“Civilian pastors don’t have to deal with issues of being in combat and a war zone and those factors,” Chaplain Henry Beaulieu said. “That’s unique to the military chaplain to go into that environment and be there right along with the soldiers.”

Beaulieu, a pastor at Eastwood Presbyterian Church in Montgomery, spent a year in Baghdad with an Alabama Army National Guard unit.

As a military chaplain in a combat zone, Beaulieu saw soldiers coping with grief, trauma and stress. Some handled it well; others were incapacitated by fear or reacted in unhealthy ways, he said.

It’s all ministry — but a combat zone makes the job more intense.

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