Day...?: The Return of the Chaplain Candidate

I have returned to CHBOLC.

Yes, after two years, a wedding, and a baby, it is time to finally finish Chaplain Basic Officer Leadership Course.

It feels surreal as I sit here in my hotel room, sipping on coffee from a Fort Jackson branded mug that I know I paid way too much for. Two years ago, I was so excited to be a Chaplain, and to an extent I still am, but in the last year or so I almost forgot I was even in the Army. How is it that after all this time I am just now back at the chaplain basic officer leadership course?

To catch you up to speed: CHBOLC consists of Direct Commission Course (DCC) and Phases 1-3. I finished DCC and Phase 1 of CHBOLC in the summer of 2019. A unique benefit of being in the chaplain branch, at least in the year 2021, is that I can complete a few phases of my training one year, and then finish the rest of the training the next year. Seeing as I was set to get married at the end of the summer in 2019, I rightly decided to “phase” my training. My plan was to finish Phase 1 in 2019, and complete phases 2 and 3 after my spring semester of seminary wrapped up in the summer of 2020.

Well…we all know what happened in 2020.

I received a message around April that my reporting time to CHBOLC was being pushed further back due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each week after that I received another notification that CHBOLC was being pushed even further back. This was concerning for I was expecting my son to be born around September 25 and with each time they pushed back the training back, it inched closer to having an end date after my son was due. I shouldn’t even have to express how much I didn’t want to miss the birth of my first-born son.

As the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to have no end in sight, and the training kept getting pushed further and further into the due date of my child, I received another email with a big change of plans for CHBOLC. They actually wouldn’t push the end date that far back. Praise! In fact, it would be a condensed training; only 9 weeks! Wow. What a change from pushing twelve weeks into the Fall. But there was a catch. Only those who would take the entire training in one sitting would be allowed to attend that class of CHBOLC.

Well, I was a phaser. So I was disqualified from attending the new condensed CHBOLC. So I reserved a class date for Summer of 2021 and prayed there wouldn’t be too many institutional changes in the chaplain corps between then and now that would prevent me from picking up where I left off. I am thankful I didn’t attend a CHBOLC with a delayed end-date. My son was born three weeks early! And I was able to be with my amazing wife through her whole pregnancy. In many ways, having that summer “free” was a blessing.

So on top of missing CHBOLC in 2020, my unit went completely virtual for an entire year. I never put on my uniform, I didn't cut my hair or shave my beard, and I might have slacked a bit in terms of PT. It really did feel like I was out of the Army. And yet, here we are, back at it.

Many things have changed since I was last at CHBOLC, and yet many things have stayed the same. Last time I was eagerly awaiting my wedding day. Now, I am married to my life partner and best friend Sophia and we have a beautiful baby boy Luca. Blogging about family will need to wait for another blog series, but I can summarize by saying those two are gifts so precious that only the sacrifice of Jesus surpasses it. Every day I spend with Sophia I grow more in love with her. Everyday I see Luca grow I am in awe of this wonderful blessing God has given me to be his father. I would greatly appreciate prayer for them (and myself for that matter) as we endure distance from each other.

The drive wasn’t too bad. I finished listening to the audiobooks of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (I highly recommend the rendition by Robert Inglis) and listened to some podcasts. I passed plenty of familiar billboards of Gordon McKernan and Morris Bart in Louisiana. I stopped in Atlanta, ate at a Cracker Barrell, and slept for the night then finished my drive yesterday morning to Fort Jackson.

It was really strange driving in to Fort Jackson. I felt like I stepped into a time warp. It feels like I was just here even though it’s been two whole years since I was last here. I was a little nervous about how things might have changed in the last two years with CHBOLC. I heard rumors that we weren’t going to be allowed to leave post which would have been depressing. It is a gift to be able to return to civilization every now and then. I also heard we would be on a battle buddy system at all times, which isn’t too different from last time, but just in case I wouldn’t be able to go off on my own around post this week I went to Clothing and Sales and ordered some sew-on patches I needed for my uniforms.

[A quick aside; I noticed the patches were a lot lighter color than they previously were. I asked the associate there if it was a mistake because I didn’t want to get in trouble with having a weird looking patch. It turns out, that’s the way they are now because of the Air Force. They decided to adopt our uniforms and then realized they didn’t like how the name tapes clashed with their unique sand-colored fonts. So they had the whole Army change the colors of their name tapes to make their names more visible….. in the Air Force. That’s crazy.]

After ordering my sew-ons I checked into the hotel and got placed in the Holiday Inn Express. Man, I thought last time I had it good. I am in the lap of luxury. Then again, my expectations when dealing with the Army aren’t that high. But this is quite a nice room. Very spacious, living room, bedroom, kitchenette and full bathroom.

I reported to USACHCS around 1645 and saw some familiar faces. There were other chaplains who were at the class in 2019 with me! It was fun to talk to them and catch up on life since the last time we saw each other. There were about six or seven of us coming in for Phase 2 and I believe all of us plan on staying for the rest of the course. We were introduced to the course by some of the cadre and I realized quickly there were a few differences between this year and 2019.

For one, there aren’t as many NCO’s (Non-Commissioned Officers) at the course. In the past there was one PSG (Platoon Sergeant) per platoon and they helped train the chaplains in their respective platoons on the basics of being in the military. I realized that wasn’t the case for whatever reason. The other thing I realized is that the overall climate of this class is very relaxed. Not that it’s changed in substance at all, but one could say the “game” has settled down a bit. There is much more of a normal BOLC environment then last time. People aren’t as on edge all the time here. But they do seem to be stricter about the battle buddy rule, where we can’t go anywhere on post without someone else. You can imagine how inconvenient that can get.

I was assigned to 1st Platoon and met some of my squad mates. Everyone I met seems like a splendid chaplain. We talked and shared our story of how we found ourselves in ministry and what led us to the Ar

my. Everyone is from a diverse background and there are many prior enlisted. I’m also excited to hang out with my chaplain from back home, Chaplain B, who is also taking the course. I hope to get to know everyone better and make some great friendships, although I know it will take some initiative seeing as the Direct Commission Course where most of the team building takes place is behind everyone here. It’s odd stepping in to a course that is halfway into their training.

COVID-19 presents some unique challenges to training. I am required to wear a mask until I reach the 14 day mark since I was vaccinated. That will be this Saturday. We also can’t have our family stay in our hotel. Originally there wasn’t going to be a public graduation, but now that many COVID restrictions are being lifted we may be able to have family here, just not staying in our hotels. Prayer is appreciated in making plans for Sophia and Luca to come visit, for finding a hotel and deciding when to come.

I was rereading my old blog posts and thinking about what things I want to accomplish while I am here and what I want from this blog. I’m still considering: what are some personal goals I have? What am I hoping to get out of this course? How do I want to develop personally as a Christian? While much of the “hooah” stuff is behind us in DCC, Phase 2 will be our first course deep-diving into the unique aspects of being a chaplain. As I finish writing this post, our first class today discussed moral-injury and the role of a chaplain in mitigating and repairing moral-injury. We discussed the Just War Theory and making sense of right and wrong reasons to go to war. We were challenged with the concept of being the moral compass of our unit, advising our command to take into account not just what is tactically efficient but what is morally just. I am still gathering my thoughts on those subjects and will post about them later, but those are just examples of some of the stuff we wi

ll be doing in the next couple of weeks. We will be talking about solution-focused counseling, honoring the fallen, conducting memorial ceremonies, and the training will finish with a capstone exercise in the field for a few days.

Some of those questions I am hoping to blog about in the near future. Unlike last time I won’t try to commit to posting every day. I will probably just post every few days my thoughts and experiences from the lessons throughout the week. I will also post my thoughts after processing through our assignments such as the ones we were assigned today, discussing the criteria of Just War Theory and Religious Accommodation.

Unlike last time, where I felt I processed most of those questions before arriving, I feel like I am processing those as I go this time. The honey-moon phase of the Army has worn off for the most part, and by the grace of God I still love what I do just as much as when I first arrived. I enjoy waking up and being a Chaplain (Candidate) and it makes me truly glad to know that God wants to use me in this way to serve Soldiers. It’s purposeful, it’s interesting and refreshing, and it feels like I am making an impact in the name of Jesus and for the good of others.

This post is taking forever for me to publish so for the sake of time I will cut it off here. I’m hoping sometime this long three day weekend I will write about what we learned in class these first two days. Until then, I am happy to have you join me on this journey.