c. 1997 Religion News Service

COLUMBIA, S.C. _ In a few brief hours under the pines of a training field at the Army’s Fort Jackson, Pfc. Matt Slyder learned some of the most violent _ and some of the most pacific _ aspects of military life.

With dabs of green, black and brown paint camouflaging his face, the young man was being taught how to kill _ attacking an opposing team in an ambush using blanks in his M-16 rifle and a system of high-tech simulated combat in which a series of beeps from the chest harness of soldiers identifies who’s been shot”dead.””Who’s beeping?”the team instructor shouted as the alarm went off.”Who died on me?”Another soldier cried out:”Sorry I killed you, Rivera!” Minutes later, however, with the blast of a smoke grenade still lingering in the air, Slyder and 15 comrades learned not how to kill but how to set up makeshift altars _ one Jewish, another Christian _ on the hood of a truck as chaplain assistants at the U.S. Army’s new Chaplain Center and School.

Slyder barely shrugged at the paradoxical nature of his training.”I think it’s exciting,”said the 21-year-old from Carlisle, Pa.”I like the idea of sort of being a jack of all trades. … I’m glad to have the opportunity to be on both sides of the fence.” For most of the young soldiers on this exercise, the Army experience is just four months old _ two months of basic training, followed by seven weeks of instruction on how to be a”71-M,”the designation for the military occupational specialty of chaplain assistant.

Army chaplains _ all officers _ have had authorized enlisted assistants since 1909, but the position was given a specific designation and job description in 1965. As of July, the Army had 1,242 chaplain assistants on active duty and a comparable number in the National Guard and the Army Reserve. About 78 percent are men and 22 percent are women.

While the 1,225 active Army chaplains must have two college degrees, pastoral experience and denominational endorsement, their assistants”can walk off the street”and volunteer for the specialty if they meet the other requirements of the Army, said Sgt. Major O. Lee Crumity, the Army’s top enlisted chaplain assistant.

As chaplain assistants, these soldiers support rather than sermonize, encourage rather than preach.”We don’t have to worry about teaching and preaching,”said Slyder.”We just have to know how to set the (altar) items up.” As part of his training, Slyder learned where to place the yad, or special pointer, that helps a rabbi keep his place while reading the Torah, and the importance of remembering to turn the cross to the side showing the crucifix when preparing for a Catholic rather than Protestant service in the field.

While the chaplain carries the small kit containing the miniature supplies for an altar, it’s the assistant’s job to determine where in the field _ a tree stump, carton or vehicle tailgate _ a makeshift altar might be arranged.

Since July, the enlisted soldiers training to be chaplain assistants have attended classes in the spanking new trio of buildings that make up the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School.

The center is a welcome sight to chaplains and instructors who have watched their training post move 16 times across some dozen states. Now, a staff of 109 military and civilian personnel are housed permanently at the Army’s largest basic training installation. The school has high-tech equipment and a two-story library featuring, among other things, religious encyclopedias and videos on medical ethics in the battlefield.”After 78 years … to have something that in our view is permanent has been something that I never thought I’d have the honor and privilege to do,”said Chaplain Malcolm Roberts III, the assistant commandant of the school, who oversaw its design and construction.”Our job is to train soldiers, and to be on an installation whose primary mission is to train soldiers makes a big difference … because … of being able to go out into the field and train.” In the past, chaplain assistants in training would have to drive more than an hour to get field experience now available at the same post where they get classroom instruction.

At the school, instructors teach their students to uphold the First Amendment by respecting all religions, to provide a”ministry of presence”among their fellow soldiers and to watch the back of the chaplain to whom they are assigned. The sacristies of the applied learning lab building, which contains three rooms convertible to chapels for different faiths, are stocked with vestments, holy books and prayer rugs.

Chaplain assistants often serve as liaisons between soldiers and chaplains, building a rapport with their comrades in the barracks and in the field to learn of their struggles and give them assistance.

Other branches of the military also have assistants for chaplains. Like the Army, the assistants in the Air Force and Navy are enlisted people while the chaplains are commissioned officers and ordained clergy. The Air Force currently has about 620 chaplains and about 450 chaplain service support personnel on active duty. The Navy has 949 chaplains and 872 religious program specialists on active duty.

In all branches of the military, chaplains are noncombatants, so they rely on their assistants for their security.

Instructor Staff Sgt. Leamon Duncan, 32, reminded the soldiers in field training about the importance of protecting the chaplain.”If you are under attack, you grab that chaplain and take care of him,”said Duncan.

When Sgt. First Class Nancy Diggins, a 35-year-old Baptist, was asked if she ever had to fire a weapon to defend a chaplain during 16 years as a chaplain assistant, which included deployments in Bosnia and Africa, she replied,”No, thank God, so that’s a blessing.” But Diggins, the chief of the instruction team, quickly added,”You have to be prepared.” The more mundane aspects of being an assistant include, among other things, preparing printed programs for worship services, setting up chapels, and making sure sound systems work properly.

The assistants are assigned to work with chaplains of Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish or Muslim faiths, and they help soldiers of other faiths find civilian clergy in communities where they are stationed.

While the Bible, Torah or Koran are respected as holy books by the ministry team, another document seems to be just as sacred: the First Amendment.

Crumity, who coordinates training and doctrine for all of the Army’s chaplain assistants, challenges his recruits by discussing the beliefs of not-so-mainstream groups.”I will say, well, think about the Constitution and the First Amendment. What does it say?”he said.”And then I’ll give my pitch on how you should be able to respect each person’s belief for what it is and not take it personally.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE.)

Soldiers sign up for the spiritual specialty for a variety of reasons. Some cite religious convictions. Others see it as a way to help others.

Crumity said religious belief is not a requirement to become a chaplain assistant.”We can train an atheist just as well as we can train a Christian or a Jewish person,”he said, estimating that about 60 percent have chosen the job for religious reasons.

Crumity, 45, a former artilleryman, said he switched to the chaplain assistant position because of Christian convictions.”This was one of the jobs that I felt I could have job satisfaction and also be in touch with my God,”said Crumity, a member of the National Baptist Convention, USA, and a chaplain assistant since 1978.

Some trainees say they hope the specialty will help them grapple with personal decisions about religion.”I want to learn,”said Pvt. Will Austin, 20, of Plainfield, Vt.”That’s one part of my life I still haven’t figured out yet.”

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