Chief of chaplains pays visit to deployed troops

Published Aug. 13, 2008
By Staff Sgt. Vincent Borden
386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- The self-proclaimed "cheerleader for the chaplains and chaplain's assistants," Chap.(Maj. Gen.) Cecil Richardson, visited Airmen and chaplain staff here on Aug. 8-10 during a three-day tour to personally extend a warm message of faith, duty and encouragement.

Chaplain Richardson has made numerous trips to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility during his tenure as U.S. CENTCOM command chaplain, but this was his first visit since taking on the role of chief of chaplains in June. Despite the numerous hats he's worn throughout his time as a chaplain, his mission remains the same: to ensure Airmen are getting the spiritual guidance they need, and that they have the freedom to freely practice their religion.

The Air Force's top chaplain also shared a message of endurance and steadfastness to chaplains deployed to areas around the globe.

"I feel like we're under, in some ways, an even greater stress than the rest of our force, said Chaplain Richardson. "Chaplains are right in the heart of all the bad things that happen. We're always counseling ... anything that happens we're right in the heart of it, and we want to be, but chaplains bear a very heavy load."

That load includes extended deployments and things that come with the environment, including increased counseling with Airmen due to the stresses of the deployed environment. Part of Chaplain Richardson's trip concerned discussing the stresses of the career field, and ways to combat their effect on chaplains in the long term.

"Chaplains are really a stressed career field," said Chaplain Richardson. "I want to focus on care for the caregivers. I want to make sure that we have some programs to take care of our chaplains and chaplain's assistants, especially when they return from difficult assignments ... to make sure they come back mentally and spiritually healthy and are able to reintegrate back with their families and get back going on their ministries."

With visits that included meetings with U.S. and coalition religious support teams and appearances at various chapel services, Chaplain Richardson also expressed his desire for all chaplains assigned to bases in the U.S. CENTCOM AOR to remember their calling as they perform their duties of pasturing and counseling to deployed Airmen. He also laid out his vision for the Air Force chaplaincy, one that involves mirroring the core values of the Air Force as tenants for chaplain service.

"I feel our military people are spiritually hungry," Chaplain Richardson said. "Because of the environment we're in, the things we're constantly facing, the stresses that we have, we have time to think about what's important in life.

"Our new vision for the chaplain service lines up with the Air Force core values," said Chaplain Richardson. "Our new vision is glorifying God [integrity first], serving Airmen [service before self] and pursuing excellence.

"With that, I want chaplains to focus on marriages, on family relationships ... to focus on helping people build a foundation of faith to stand on so that when they deploy into the most difficult circumstances they can imagine, they'll have something solid that they can rest on."

Chaplain Richardson, who's been in the Air Force for 37 years, has experienced many elements and nuances of the military experience. With his beginnings as an enlisted linguist, Chaplain Richardson's view on faith and service reflects not only in the freedom he feels Airmen should enjoy as members of the force, but also the encompassing mission of all chaplains in the military. His personal philosophy reflects that.

"I'm Protestant, but the interesting thing about chaplains is we're interested in the free exercise of religion for everyone," Chaplain Richardson said. "The cross on my uniform says I'm a pastor to Christians, but I'm a chaplain to everybody. If that person wears a uniform, I want to make sure he or she can freely practice their religion. That's not just a job, that's a passion ... that's why [chaplains] exist and what we do. That's where we get the bounce in our step and the joy in our heart."

Chaplain Richardson will visit other places and Airmen in the AOR, including bases in Afghanistan, before returning to Washington, D.C.