c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Like everyone else, I remember significant dates in my life: family birthdays, graduations, weddings, the deaths of relatives and friends.

But there’s an important date of another variety: 9 Aug. That is the unique “militaryspeak” the U.S. Air Force used when it ordered me to report for active duty years ago as a chaplain, just two months after my rabbinic ordination.

Although my tour of duty in Japan and Korea is long over, 9 Aug remains etched in my memory. Indeed, each year on that date Rabbi Philip Schechter of Stamford, Conn., and I _ seminary classmates and fellow Air Force chaplains _ join our wives at a dinner for four. The women graciously permit us to reminisce about the day when we, freshly minted rabbis, became part of America’s military.

Each summer as 9 Aug draws near, I recall the imperishable lessons I learned as a chaplain that could never be learned in civilian life.

Because the draft was in effect during the 1960s, I acquired an intimate knowledge of the many diverse religious, racial and ethnic groups that make up the American population. Although I was a Jewish chaplain, my work brought me into contact with an extraordinary variety of people.

The armed forces “regulars” had chosen Air Force service as a career. I met graduates of our military academies and collegiate ROTC programs. However, most service personnel were draftees or reservists deployed to Asia to confront America’s triple set of enemies: North Korea, China and the former Soviet Union.

Unlike today, with its all-volunteer military, in those years members of every demographic and socioeconomic stratum wore the uniform: Physicians, dentists, nurses, accountants, lawyers and many other professionals were drafted along with code breakers, intelligence agents, air traffic controllers and jet plane mechanics. And then there were the young Army draftees _ infantry soldiers dug in along the dangerous demilitarized zone in Korea.

Another lesson was to fully respect members of America’s military for their courage, talent and commitment to our nation’s security. But I also learned never to be swayed or unduly influenced by their opinions or assertions simply because they wear ribbons on their chests or have bars, oak leaves, eagles or stars on their shoulders. An informed civilian citizen is ultimately America’s greatest source of wisdom and strength. Georges Clemenceau, France’s prime minister during World War I, had it exactly right: “War is too serious a business to be left to the generals.”

A final lesson learned: In Japan and Korea, Christian chaplains and I shared the same chapel buildings and support staff. I gained firsthand experience in how authentic interreligious relations can work, and have never forgotten our sense of shared mission.

My work with priests, ministers and pastors made a deep impression. I believed such interreligious cooperation was a model to emulate in civilian life.

While I served in Asia, Phil was stationed at the Strategic Air Command base in Roswell, N.M. As Jewish chaplains, we spent many hours flying from one military base to another conducting religious services and life-cycle events, teaching classes, counseling families in crisis, and delivering lectures (“Dynamics of Moral Leadership”) to thousands of uniformed men and women who were required to listen dutifully to our words of wisdom.

In addition to military bases, I visited two other places whose names will always haunt me: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the U.S. Public Health Service operated the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in those cities, I conducted worship services for staff members and their families. The words of the Jewish prayer book jumped off the page: “Sim Shalom, grant us peace, O God, Your most precious gift … Shalom Alaychem, Peace unto all humanity.”

On 9 Aug Phil and I will tell the usual lies to one another about our years in the Air Force, and we will also speak with pride about Eve Rudin and Sara Schechter, our rabbinic daughters.

However, this year is different.

That’s because Sara is a career Air Force chaplain who recently concluded a hazardous tour of duty in Iraq, the modern name for ancient Babylonia.

Clearly, the next generation of rabbis continues the vital work of the Jewish military chaplaincy. The “spirit of 9 Aug” lives on.

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

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