JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. -- It's a match made in heaven: Army chaplains-in-training and the future officer leadership of the U.S. Army.
The Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps is partnering with the Army Chaplaincy to connect young officers on their way to becoming chaplains -- known as chaplain candidates -- with ROTC cadets involved in the annual Leader Development and Assessment Course, the seminal evaluation that produces 70 percent of the Army's second lieutenants.
The marriage of these two entities, under way the past two years, is designed to give practical experience to chaplains-in-training while providing a ministry of presence to the cadet regiments at the course -- 14 in all this summer -- made up of nearly 6,400 college students who are vying to become Army officers.
"Chaplains have long been known for their spiritual support during times of conflict," said Col. Paul Wood, commander of LDAC. "We know chaplains as those responsible for religious services, pastoral care, and answering the difficult, solitary questions we all sometimes ask."
"The Army Chaplaincy is breaking new ground here at LDAC," Wood said, "giving its candidates a place to train while assisting Army ROTC with the leadership development process. Through religious support, counseling and their ministry of presence, they play a crucial role in the making of lieutenants."
By being alongside cadets for 29 days embedded in each regiment, sleeping in tents and under the stars, navigating the same terrain, and overcoming the same obstacles, these young candidates carry a kind of credibility that other cadre and leaders here can't match, Wood said.
The chaplaincy at LDAC has for years facilitated the religious expression of cadets through religious services, and provided spiritual and emotional nurturing through counseling. This was done by assigning to each cadet regiment a Reserve chaplain, and sometimes a chaplain candidate.
But the assigning of chaplain candidates to each cadet regiment has put the right ear in the right place at the right time. The result has given these 14 candidates the opportunity to speak into the lives of cadets at LDAC -- during the most important tests they'll ever take.
"The relationship built here between the chaplain candidate and his regiment plays a vital role in cadets overcoming adversity and failure," Wood said. "This is a critical step for cadets who are here learning to lead and who are being assessed for their fitness as Army officers."
The experiences of chaplain candidate Ivory Meminger, assigned to LDAC's 5th Regiment, lines up with Wood's conclusion.
"I went through LDAC in 2006," said Meminger, a South Carolina State University graduate who teaches school and attends Central Baptist Seminary in Virginia Beach, Va., when he's not pulling Reserve duty. "A lot of the experiences these cadets have, a lot of the challenges, the discomforts, the anxieties, fears of failure - I know about those. I'm able to relate to them in such a way that a lot of them have opened up to me.
"When cadets open up to me and I understand what they're going through, I can actually help them with the problem at hand and help them keep their perspective looking forward. It's a great opportunity for ministry," Meminger explained.
First Lt. Rob Rayburn, a chaplain candidate assigned to LDAC's 2nd Regiment, is a Tacoma, Wash., native who has watched his father pastor for three decades and currently attends Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Mo. He's a 25 year-old Reserve officer, and has been married for two years.
One aspect of Rayburn's presence here at LDAC, he said, is being uniquely in training while being part of the cadre.
"I am here to learn. This is an educational environment for me as I see reinforced what an Army unit should be like," Rayburn said. "At the same time, I'm not a cadet in training status."
Rayburn may not be a cadet in training status, but he does eat when his cadets eat, sleep when his cadets sleep, and tackles the same obstacles his cadets are here at LDAC to overcome.
Perhaps it's that proximity to training that makes Rayburn and the 13 other candidates here relevant to the cadets they're serving, and adds empathy to his diversity of pastoral skills.
Rayburn and Meminger represent both the ROTC and college demographics well. Both are in their mid-twenties, physically fit, and have hopes for a long career stretching out in front of them.
"These candidates fit in well with the Cadets," said Chaplain (Col.) John Johnston, the LDAC command chaplain who has been working with ROTC training since 1996. "When a Cadet walks alongside his chaplain candidate, he is more likely to see someone he can relate to than if he's sitting in the office of a chaplain who might have 25 years of Army and ministry under his belt."
The LDAC chaplain staff consists of six chaplain candidate trainers. If a serious counseling situation arises, a trainer is brought in. Johnston said there is a tremendous amount of informal counseling a candidate can do in his capacity as regimental chaplain, even within emotionally difficult circumstances.
"But more than anything he's a listening ear who has recent experience with the challenges of learning to become an Army officer."
The chaplaincy's involvement with LDAC looks clearly like a success. During last year's exit interview, a feedback loop that allows cadets and cadre alike to share their thoughts on the quality of training at the course, the presence of chaplain candidates in the cadet regiments was notably considered excellent, Johnston said.
"That's exciting," Johnston said. "This is a robust program. We're carrying out the directives of the Army chief of chaplains, ensuring the proper supervision of the chaplain candidates, helping cadets hone their response to adversity - and we have an excellent reputation."
Wood agrees.
"Chaplain candidates are needed at LDAC," Wood said. "Their participation in our training is invaluable to Army ROTC and to LDAC."
While the chaplain candidates assigned to the cadet regiments here are providing a singularly important service to Army ROTC's making of lieutenants, the candidates are also growing spiritually and learning to serve among Soldiers.
"The practicum provided by the chaplain candidate program gives the candidates the opportunity to serve within the officer training construct, and this is as irreplaceable as the chaplain candidate himself among our cadets," said Wood. "This is a success story from both ends. One that we hope to continue living out each year as we develop - mentally, physically, and spiritually -- the Army's future officers."
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