Lyle W. Dorsett

Recently someone petulantly asked me why the military even bothers to have chaplains? After all, pretty much all of our bases have plenty of churches around them and why couldn't the local churches take care of the spiritual needs of anyone that wanted to attend?

To give a short answer, military folks have to be ready to deploy to the other side of the world (if need be) and the military stands ready to send spiritual encouragers with them that know the military and get what serving is like. This book gives an overview of the different theaters of war and tells the stories of many of the chaplains deployed along with the US forces. Many of them did more than preach sermons. They wrote notification letters to the families of all member's who died in combat. They crawled along the front lines rescuing wounded and taking them to the medical help. Many of them were wounded and even killed. One Naval chaplain was awarded the Medal of Honor. Several were given Silver Stars or distinguished service crosses.

This book is an overview of what serving as a chaplain was like, the challenges it entailed, and shares a trove of anecdotes from servicemen who experienced the ministrations of a chaplain or were chaplains.… (més)