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September 18, 2012
First-Ever Female Chaplain Assigned To Army Combat Unit
New guidelines open thousands of military jobs to women.
An all-male U.S. Army battalion known as the "Screaming Eagles" has become the first combat arms unit to have a female chaplain.
Capt. Delana Small's recent assignment to the 101st Airborne Division is part of the Department of Defense's (DOD) decision, following its recent Women in the Service Review (WSR), to open additional Army, Navy, and Marine Corps positions to "female Soldiers at the battalion level in open military occupational specialties."
“I know that some aspects of what this position entails are groundbreaking,” Small said. “But, in my mind, I’m still doing the same job."
Small is a graduate of Evangel University and a 2012 graduate of the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.
The WSR was submitted to the DOD in February and recommended that the DOD approve the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps request to open certain positions in direct combat units to women.
CT has regularly covered chaplains and the military, including the first chaplain to die in combat since Vietnam.
Comments
It is worth noting that as an Assemble of God chaplain, she is an evangelical.
Posted By: SFG | September 18, 2012 9:14 PM
This is great to have a female chaplain, it's not ease to talk to a male chaplain, sometime you just need someone to listen and not try to tell you how to fix everything. I have seen male chaplains put you down or start telling you that they are doing it so put up with it and shut up.
Posted By: David Brady | November 2, 2012 4:15 PM
This is great to have a female chaplain, it's not ease to talk to a male chaplain, sometime you just need someone to listen and not try to tell you how to fix everything. I have seen male chaplains put you down or start telling you that they are doing it so put up with it and shut up.
Posted By: David Brady | November 2, 2012 4:18 PM
Correction: Delana Small is the first female chaplain in the 101st, not the first female assigned to a combat unit. Another Assemblies of God chaplain, Priscilla Mondt, served in the 1st and 2nd Gulf Wars as a member of the 82nd Airborne and the 4th Infantry Division. And according to the Assemblies of God Chaplaincy Ministries, Chaplains Sabie Rios and Lisa Northway were also assigned to combat units. Perhaps other denominations have female chaplains assigned to combat units.
This is not to take away from Chaplain Small's honor, but only to set the record straight.
It is fresh on my mind because I am currently writing the history of the Assemblies of God military chaplaincy.
Posted By: Wayne Warner | December 8, 2012 8:42 AM
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