I am working (albeit slowly) on my mission chaplain rating. I am wondering how often you have used a chaplain in your ES mission experience? How were they helpful? How were they not helpful?
We have used Chaplains in actual missions. They came in very handy when family members
of the victims were present at Mission Base Hq.
They can be an important part of the Mission Base Staff !
Not unlike Father Mulcahy from M.A.S.H., Mission Chaplains can be essential. A few words from a Chaplain/Priest can be comforting to not only the families, but the emergency workers as well, regardless of religious faith or lack thereof.
Inthe "Old Days" before CISM, my cadets secured a downed aircraft in which a 13 year old girl was killed. Her body was removed just prior to our arrival, but the blood, personal effects, and fragments of clothing were still visible.
I would have given anything for a chaplain that night. As commander, I had to do the chaplain job.
Chaplain: you will be a valued member at any mission base that I am running. I have seen Chaplains be of critical importance when family members are present, when CAP professionals get down at the mouth over not finding the missing aircraft, when a crash is found, etc.
I have a very dear friend who is a retired Navy Chaplain and has now retired after 25 years in CAP. His presence at unit meetings was always very important to me and to others in the unit: he was always first on the list of staff to have the floor after the flag salute in my unit. He flew with us, laughed with us, cried with us and, in general, was a fantastic addition to the unit.
Just be yourself, offer your services and make your presence known. In my humble opinion, we have too few Chaplains in CAP and we should make the most of their services.
It's encouraging to hear that there is indeed a need for mission chaplains. Like I said, I will be continuing working on achieving my mission chaplain status.
Just as encouraging as these posts have been, I am not naive enough to think that every chaplains' presence on a mission has been universally well received. I'm hoping to collect some of that information as well with the hope of creating a learning "edge" that would be helpful to me and other chaplains. If you wish not to respond "publically" please feel free to PM me.
At the missing persons search in Ames IA, this past week, we had a chaplain there. Not sure if he is rated Mission Chaplain, but glad he was there anyway. I never left mission base, but even hearing what the teams found was not pretty. We had a quick CISM brefing at the end of yesterday fronm the Chaplain. It helped.
Quote from: DogCollar on April 03, 2007, 05:53:00 PM
It's encouraging to hear that there is indeed a need for mission chaplains. Like I said, I will be continuing working on achieving my mission chaplain status.
Captain Boldin,
I really wish we had someone like you in our organization. If you have any recruiting ideas, I'd love to hear them...
TSgt Kruml