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Postcard from Chaplain School
It didn’t take long until the permanent Chaplain School that was reestablished to handle the influx of chaplains during WW2 outgrew its capacity at Fort Benjamin Harrison and moved to Harvard University where it remained until nearly the end of the war.
At least one chaplain-in-training enjoyed his time at the Chaplain School at Harvard, according to a postcard he sent to friends in West Virginia in January 1943. On the postcard he writes:
Chaplain (1st Lt) Howard Amick; Section 5-Chaplains School; Harvard- Cambridge Mass
Did the high water of a few weeks ago get up to your place? School is going fine & I am enjoying it a lot. Hope all of you are kicking around. Give my regards to the Imhoff Household.
Howard Amick
By necessity, postcards are brief, but it’s interesting to see one written by a student who in just a few weeks may be a chaplain ministering to soldiers in combat. However, at least initially Chaplain Amick was assigned to the 17th Infantry Training Battalion at Camp Wheeler, Georgia. He entered the chaplaincy after pastoring Warwood Lutheran Church in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Here’s the original postcard:
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Capstone field exercise tests skills of new chaplains
(From the official Army website)
FORT JACKSON, South Carolina — Complete with a Tactical Operations Center (TOC), media engagements and reality-based missions — along with conducting Soldier Leader Engagements with indigenous personnel — students from the Chaplain Basic Officer Leader Course experienced the challenges of caring for Soldiers in a simulated combat environment, March 27-31.
CHBOLC is an intensive, outcomes-based, entry-level, initial military training process for newly accessioned chaplains and chaplain candidates, with a mission to train students to become religious leaders who demonstrate the core competencies of nurture the living, care for the wounded and honor the fallen, while advising commanders and providing religious support to the Army Family.
“The CHBOLC Capstone FTX (Field Training Exercise) is a Decisive Action Training Environment (DATE) 2.2 scenario-driven exercise, providing students the opportunity to apply classroom training in a realistic and progressive training environment,” said Chaplain (Maj.) Andrew K. Arrington, the CHBOLC course developer.
Read the full article here …
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The Chaplain Kit 