Photo Gallery: 250 years of US military chaplaincy

By Jessi Dodge · July 28, 2025
 Photo Gallery: 250 years of U.S. Military Chaplaincy Military chaplaincy in the United States dates back to 1775, when George Washington asked for chaplains for the Continental Army. Pictured here, Minister James Caldwell at the Battle of Springfield. (Painting by Henry Alexander Ogden) John Hurt of Virginia became the first U.S. Army chaplain on March 4, 1791. He was one of 218 chaplains in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. (Painting by William A. Smith/Wikimedia Commons) The "Four Chaplains" were, from left, Methodist minister George L. Fox, Reform Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Roman Catholic priest John P. Washington and Reformed Church in America minister Clark V. Poling. (Photos courtesy of Creative Commons) Jesuit priests John McElroy, pictured here, and Anthony Rey, not pictured, became the first U.S. military Catholic chaplains during the Mexican-American War in 1846. (Photo by Leopold Grozelier via Library of Congress) Rabbi Jacob Frankel was the first rabbi to be commissioned as a chaplain in the U.S. military in 1862, and served during the Civil War at a military hospital. (Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons) The Rev. Henry McNeal Turner was the first commissioned African American U.S. military chaplain in 1862. He was a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. (Illustration courtesy Library of Congress) In 1950, Army Chaplain Emil Kapaun helped wounded soldiers to safety during the Korean War and died a year later in a prison camp. He received a Medal of Honor and is on the pathway to sainthood in the Catholic Church. (Photo by U.S. Army Col. Raymond A. Skeehan/Courtesy of the Father Kapaun Guild) Alice Henderson, pictured during a swearing-in ceremony at Fort McPherson, Georgia, was commissioned as the first woman U.S. Army chaplain in 1974. Ella Hobart is celebrated as the first woman to serve as a chaplain in 1864, but she was not recognized officially until 2002. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army Chaplain Corps Facebook) In 1993, Abdul Rasheed Muhammad was the first Muslim commissioned as a chaplain in the U.S. Army. While later working at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, pictured here. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army) The Navy commissioned Monje Malak Abd al-Muta’Ali Noel Jr., as its first Muslim chaplain three years later, in 1996. Here, Noel Jr. is pictured during his "frocking" ceremony. (Photo by Hank Buermeyer/U.S. Navy) In 2008, Thomas Dyer became the first Buddhist Army chaplain. Pictured here, Dyer leads a meditation during a celebration of Wesak, a Buddhist holiday, in May 2010, at Contingency Operating Base in Taji, Iraq. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Carden via DVIDs) In 2011, Pratima Dharm became the first Hindu U.S. military chaplain. (Photos courtesy U.S. Army Chaplain Corps. Facebook) On July 29, 2025, the U.S. military marks the 250th anniversary of its chaplaincy. Leaders and members of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps joined together in Washington, D.C., for a multi-day event the previous week in honor of the corps’ anniversary. (U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser / Arlington National Cemetery)
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