Photo By Maj. Jason Sweeney | Chaplain (Capt.) Jesse Sykes holds a service at the Camp San Luis Obispo Chapel on...... read more read more
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CAMP ROBERTS, Calif. – When a Soldier is struggling in his present circumstances and unsure what to do, Chaplain (Capt.) Jesse Sykes gives the following advice: Find where your passion, your talent and a need converge.
If you have passion and talent in a field where there’s no need, Sykes says, you’ll end up spinning your wheels and going nowhere. If you have talent, but no passion, you’ll be unhappy.
“And if you’re passionate about it, and there’s a need there, but you don’t have any talent for it, that’s going to be a lot of trouble. Go where your talent, your passion and need meet.”
Sykes has taken his own advice to heart. He has a passion for helping Soldiers, a talent for counseling and ministry, and there’s a need for chaplain services on California’s Central Coast.
Sykes joined the California Army National Guard in 2013, serving as the chaplain for the 1-185 Combined Arms Battalion, based in San Bernardino. He said he’d been initially drawn toward traditional ministry and knew he was good at it, “but I had developed a sense in seminary that I had a passion for something more, but wasn’t sure what it was. It was meeting Soldiers, meeting friends who had deployed to Iraq and seeing what they had gone through and seeing what support they got or did not get, that really moved me. I found out there was this opportunity to be an Army chaplain. I wanted to serve. I never knew how my passion for pastoral ministry and for helping to support my country could meet until I saw the opportunity for being a chaplain. I thought, wow, I’m either crazy for wanting to do this or this is an amazing convergence of those three things.”
In October 2018, Sykes moved north when he took the position as the Central Coast California Army National Guard full-time support chaplain.
“Strategically, having Chaplain Sykes on the Central Coast is an advantage for us as we have very little chaplain presence on the Central Coast,” said Chaplain (Maj.) Saul Castillo, the full-time support chaplain for the California National Guard’s Joint Forces Headquarters in Sacramento. “It makes our ability to provide chaplain support that much more effective. We’re happy to have him there.”
Sykes provides chaplain support for Camp Roberts and Camp San Luis Obispo. Camp Roberts is the California Army National Guard’s largest training base. And Camp San Luis Obispo, just 50 miles south, is its oldest. Both are busy training sites that have long lacked full-time chaplains, but have a constant throughput of units cycling through for training.
“Chaplain Sykes is a tremendous asset to Camp Roberts and the Central Coast Region, and I am truly grateful to the California Army National Guard and Chaplain Corps for assigning him here,” Camp Roberts Garrison Commander Lt. Col. Robert Horvath said. “Chaplain Sykes has a genuine care and concern for the Soldiers, their families, and the employees that work here, or at other training sites in this region. He is a valuable asset, and positive effects by his presence were immediately noticeable throughout the training site.”
Sykes coordinates with Unit Ministry Teams to ensure that units training on the Central Coast have the resources they need to support their Soldiers. He sometimes draws from the local community for local resources, providing such things as a Catholic priest for Mass at Camp Roberts during the busy annual training (AT) season in the summer.
“Father Diaz over at Mission San Miguel is so graciously supporting our AT, so we’ll have Catholic Mass, which is fabulous,” Sykes said.
Sykes holds services at Camp Roberts Chapel 1 on Mondays and at the Camp San Luis Obispo Chapel on Wednesdays, both from 8:15 to 9 a.m. The services are attended by Soldiers and civilian employees. He also provides chaplain support for the bases’ tenant units, such as the Grizzly Youth Academy at Camp San Luis Obispo, and is on call to hold services and provide chaplain support for units training on the bases.
“He always has an inspirational sermon,” said Christine Lane, a civilian employee on Camp Roberts who is a frequent attendee of the Monday services. “We have a regular group that goes. It gets me off to a good start for the work week.”
Sykes also provides chaplain support for funerals and notification missions when a service member has died.
A big part of his role is providing counseling to Soldiers who need guidance or just someone to talk to. “I’m meeting with two or three Soldiers a day, confidentially over some issue they need help with. Being able to provide that is critical.”
Sykes said Soldiers often seek a chaplain “when something has proverbially hit the fan.” Army chaplains have the highest level of confidentiality, he explained, meaning a Soldier can share issues with a chaplain without fear that what is disclosed will negatively affect their career. “I can connect them to the resources they need. The chaplain is a really good safe place to begin that hand off in a way that doesn’t harm their career unnecessarily.
“While I’ve been out here thus far, it’s been wonderful because I’ve been able to meet regularly with Soldiers who are facing issues that are ongoing and really support them and actually make sure that we are effectively getting them the support they need, building their resiliency and getting them back into the fight.”
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 05.23.2019 18:21 |
| Story ID: | 323814 |
| Location: | CAMP ROBERTS, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 282 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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