Frontline Service
During World War II the number of Armed Forces chaplains grew thirtyfold from pre-war years. The Army Chaplain Corps expanded to eight thousand, and the Navy to three thousand. Ministers and rabbis from more than forty denominations answered the call to serve their country. These patriotic young men were more than religious leaders. They were counselors, confidants, and friends to their fellow soldiers.
In 1942, each chaplain conducted an average of 53 personal conferences with troubled soldiers each day. Often serving as morale officers, chaplains umpired ball games, organized orchestras, showed films, taught classes and lectured on sex and morality. And of course, they prayed and conducted regular services, typically using available areas like an aircraft flight deck, an apple orchard, a hand-cut hole in a Pacific-island jungle or a makeshift tent for a church; a jeep, packing case or ammunition box for an altar, or a helmet for a yarmulke, the top of a mess kit for a paten or a canteen cup for a chalice.220
Typical of these religious leaders who answered their nation’s call was the Reverend Paschal Fowlkes, a twenty-six-year-old Episcopal minister from Washington, D.C. He enlisted in the Army and served as a chaplain to a paratrooper regiment. He felt it his duty to join “ the battle for the preservation of democracy and freedom and justice.”221 Francis Sayre became a Navy chaplain, serving for four years on the USS San Francisco . He said that he enlisted “ because the war was on. I wanted to do my part.”222
These young men earned a special place in the history of our nation and in the hearts of the men and women they served. During this time of national peril, they combined service to God with service to their nation. Today men and women of faith continue to respond to God’s call to help those in trouble, carrying this tradition forward. They include not only those who minister to our Armed Forces, but also those who go out from our churches to inner cities, schools, and third world countries. All these people doing God’s work on the “front lines” deserve our admiration, prayers, and financial support.
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
—1 Peter 4:10