Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Anywhere you can imagine a Navy or
Marine Corps unit out in the field or at a
shore billet there's usually a chaplain
with them or very close by.
I'm Lieutenant John Miahara
and I'm a Navy chaplain.
Currently I'm part of Navy District
Washington, D.C., and my specific job
is I'm a Senior Navy Chaplain at
Arlington National Cemetery.
A lot of people think what I do at Arlington
is very sad. And it can be at times,
it's the way that our country
promises to take care and honor these
service members for all that they gave.
When I looked at what the different military
branches do, the Air Force, the Army, the Navy,
and they're all very good,
the Navy really appealed to me. I like the
fact that Navy chaplains serve in so many
different arenas. Not kind of a typical parish
or base chaplain kind of thing. Running around
in the field with them; serving on ships;
doing a lot of deck-plate ministry;
in all different kinds of places and spaces.
Navy chaplains start their basic course at
Navy Chaplain School. It's a nine-week course
where you learn all the things, what it means
to be a Naval officer, a Naval chaplain,
you do a lot of physical training, I had no
sea experience or anything so I went in
and nine weeks later I knew most of the
basic things that Naval officers need to do,
etiquette, customs things like that, and it was great.
I was mobilized to Northern Florida and New Orleans
right after Katrina for about a year.
And what really hit me in that time was
multiple things. Just dealing with all the
physical devastation, and thinking how do
you help people rebuild their lives?
Another part of that was working with
several Navy agencies and helping families
get resettled. And then doing a lot of
counseling with families who had been -
lost their homes, lost service members.
They need a caring voice, someone who is present,
someone who can give them an ear.
One of the greatest things about a Navy chaplain
is you get to work in a really diverse field
with different kinds of clergy, with different
kinds of sailors but different kinds of
religious needs and very different from
anything you do probably in most parishes.
People from other Christian denominations
as well as people from other religious
denominations who I now count not only as
my colleagues but also as some of my
closest friends. They've really helped me
grow in my own faith journey which I
appreciate a lot.
The Navy chaplain corps motto is,
"We provide for our own,
we facilitate for others,
and we care for all."