FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- A fine mist fell Sunday morning at Fort Campbell's Memorial Chapel as chaplain assistant Staff Sgt. Eric Esposito unlocked the door to welcome parishioners to the early worship service.
As part of his weekend chaplain duty, Esposito turned on the sanctuary lights, hooked up and tested the sound system and set up candles on the altar before churchgoers arrived. The tasks were not difficult to complete, but essential to provide a pleasant worship experience for the chaplain and congregation.
"I'll take six hours of chapel duty over staff duty any day," the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101stAirborne Division Soldier said, smiling.
Chapel duty a few weekends out of the year is just one of the responsibilities of installation chaplain assistants. The chaplain assistant, as a member of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps, is a Soldier that provides expertise in religious support and religious support operations, according to the Army.
The position was created on Dec. 28, 1909, viaGeneral Order No. 253, issued by the War Department, Washington, D.C., "for the purpose of assisting the chaplain in the performance of his official duties." Army chaplain assistants support the religious mission of the commander in responding to the needs of Soldiers, Family members and other authorized personnel.
It's a job and mission that Esposito embraces. In addition to completing administrative paperwork, helping with religious programming and being the 3rd BCT chaplain's right-hand man, Esposito said the joy of the job for him is "just helping Soldiers out."
"As a chaplain assistant you get to help Soldiers out on a different level than you would just as an NCO," he said. "I've always enjoyed being an NCO. I've always enjoyed being a leader, but as a chaplain assistant people come to you with their problems. So, the opportunity to help Soldiers out like that is just phenomenal. For me, that's probably the best thing I do."
New direction
Growing up in New Jersey, Esposito recalls losing direction in his life as a teenager.
A high school dropout, he worked in odd jobs and construction until 1999, when he turned 21.
"I reached a point where I had to do something to better my life," he said. "So I decided to join the Army."
During his early years in the military, Esposito served in the Signal Corps, working as a network technician. He married his wife Nicci, who had two young children from a previous relationship. In 2003, their daughter Victoria -- Tori -- was born.
Soon thereafter, Esposito deployed to Iraq with his Fort Lewis, Washington, unit. While he was overseas, his infant daughter started having seizures. Doctors diagnosed her with a degenerative neurological disorder.
"When I got back from deployment, I was spending a lot of time in the hospital with her," Esposito said. "I had a chaplain that got involved with our Family. He really got the chain of command behind us and helped us out a whole lot.
"The chaplain really did wonders for my Family," he added. "He was there for us all the time."
In 2006, Tori died. The loss was tough for Esposito and his Family.
"We went through some of the hardest things, I think, a couple has to go through. Losing a child is probably the hardest thing ever and I've been through a lot … I can understand why most marriages do not recover from that situation," he said. "Me and my wife told each other … that we were just going to fight through it and work together. And, here we are. I think we'll fight together forever."
A year later, Esposito said he started to get his life back together -- personally and professionally. His Army Military Occupation Specialty or MOS had changed and he decided to change his life, too.
"When [the Army] asked me to reclass, I asked to become a chaplain assistant to kind of give back to the chaplain corps," he said. "I was a staff sergeant already. The chaplain assistant corps is very small. The higher you go, it's really tight. Promotions are hard.
"They told me it would never happen. Like God does always, He wanted me here, so that's what happened."
After completing chaplain assistant school, Esposito served three years in Korea before PCSing to Fort Campbell in August 2011.
The Rakkasans
Serving as the 3rd BCT chaplain assistant, Esposito said, requires long hours and a deeper understanding of the Rakkasans' job to better help Soldiers in need.
"Rakkasans are great," he said. "They do what they do well. And what they do well is combat operations. This is by far the fastest, up-tempo unit I've ever been in. We are always on the go. There doesn't seem to be any down time … They just do not stop. That does cause some issues with Soldiers who are not used to that."
Esposito said his deployment with the Rakkasans to Afghanistan in 2013 helped bridge any gap between him and his fellow brothers-in-arms. He worked side-by-side with his brigade chaplain making daily trips to 22 Forward Operating Bases ministering to 3rd BCT Soldiers in many remote, isolated areas.
"Our main job was to do coverage of the whole area, so we did a lot of traveling," he said. "Some of the pilots would joke that I had more flight time than they did. We were flying almost every day we were in Afghanistan."
Although the deployment was exhausting, Esposito said it was personally and spiritually rewarding.
"When we first got there, [there was a] flight in the morning, flight in the evening. No time to rest. No time to recuperate. But, it was a good opportunity because I got to go out and talk to Soldiers who run these little FOBs in the middle of nowhere," he said.
The deployment built a foundation of trust with the Rakkasan Soldiers, who now reach out to him for assistance well past the end of the duty day.
"I can't tell you how many times in the evenings I'm getting calls from Soldiers that just want to talk to somebody and just need that reassurance," he said.
As a chaplain assistant, Esposito said he strives to be a "squared away" Soldier that other Rakkasans can respect. To accomplish this, he makes spiritual fitness a high priority in his life.
"Spiritual fitness is huge. It's a part of you. Without it, it just like if you don't do PT, you can't do your mission," he said. "Well, if you're not spiritually fit, you still can't do your mission. Your mind degrades. You fail at so many things if you're not right."
When he's not working, Esposito is studying for his college degree. He is enrolled at the University of Maryland where he hopes to earn his bachelor's degree in computer science -- a nod to his days in the Signal Corps.
Esposito has given 15 years of his life to the military and insists "there's no reason to stop now," he said. "I'll put in my 20 and I'll retire happy."
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