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FORT MCCOY, Wis. – Approximately 50 U.S. Army Reserve chaplains, chaplain candidates, and religious affairs specialists attended the Army Reserve Chaplain - Battle Focused Training (ARC-BFT) April 8-10 at Ft. McCoy.
This second iteration of a pilot training program, created by the 88th Readiness Division (RD) chaplain directorate and co-hosted by the 807th Theater Medical Command (TMC) chaplain section, revamped the norm of annual chaplain training events being almost entirely classroom-based and focused on specific topics with practical exercises. The revised training used only two days of classroom instruction to prepare for a culminating field event.
“We built in more realistic training that gets us out of the classroom and away from all the resources we’re used to having at our disposal. That helps participants learn to provide religious support in an austere environment, which is what we expect in a large scale conflict,” said Chaplain (Col.) Russ Boyd, 807th TMC Command Chaplain.
Army Reserve chaplains and religious affairs personnel undergo chaplain-specific field training at AIT (Advanced Individual Training) and the Chaplain Basic Officer Leader Course, but there are few opportunities afterward. During annual training, chaplains are often fully engaged with providing religious support rather than developing their tactical skills.
After talking with First Army and understanding how they were evaluating Unit Ministry Teams (UMTs) at collective training events, Chaplain (Col.) Brian Seidel, who was serving as the U.S. Army Reserve Command (USARC) Plans, Training, and Mobilization Chaplain in 2019, realized UMTs received a subjective GO/NO-GO evaluation that was not based on objective standards from Army Training and Evaluation Outlines (T&EO).
Seidel’s team took every UMT requirement and Chaplain Corps’ capability and translated them into task training, determining how each collective and individual task contributed to capability in a large scale combat operation (LSCO) environment.
“We understood what needed to be trained, and we then had to figure out how to deliver that training. We had to critically and strategically look at what we’re doing,” said Seidel, now USARC’s Command Chaplain.
The Chaplain Corps just received its official critical task list in 2024, and the 88th RD was given the green light to pilot the new ARC-BFT beginning in March 2025. The 807th TMC and 88th RD chaplain teams worked together to create the training lanes, and chaplain Observer Coach/Trainers (OC/Ts) from the 84th Training Command and First Army provided feedback and an informal evaluation at each lane.
The training audience was broken down into UMTs and divided into four groups to rotate through the training lanes, each with an entirely different focus on Chaplain Corps competencies based on notional theater and mission briefs for a European large scale combat operation.
Lane 1 focused on religious support planning and operations in a miniature STAFFEX (staff exercise) where UMTs received a situation update in Phase 3 of an operation.
UMTs had to “look at an operations order, extract information to be able to provide religious support effectively, figure out where to position themselves, understand the commander's intent so they can ensure religious support is nested within the overall picture, and provide field chapel services,” said Boyd.
After focusing on staff planning and working through battlefield problems, UMTs then adjusted their TAB D, the religious support plan for an operations order, and briefed role player commanders or supervisory chaplains.
Feedback from the Army Combat Training Centers drove the design of Lane 2 - Force Protection, as their data showed that 60% of UMTs become casualties in exercises because of React to Contact and CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives) injects, said Seidel.
Lane 2 focused on how the UMT survives in large scale combat operations, training on individual movement techniques and integration within a tactical formation as the chaplain and religious affairs specialist should not find themselves moving on the battlefield alone, said Chaplain (Maj.) Peter Moseman, 88th RD Training and Resource Management Chaplain.
As Army chaplains are non-combatants and do not carry weapons, “the 56M (religious affairs specialist) must cultivate the sense of being the force protection subject matter expert for the team, advising their chaplain on the tactical situation” and practice their lethality skills in a LSCO field environment, said Moseman.
UMTs rehearsed ‘shoot, move, and communicate,’ practicing movement in a tactical environment first as a buddy team and then a squad size element reacting to contact and indirect fire, and providing Tactical Combat Casualty Care.
“From a lethality standpoint, I think it’s one of our biggest struggles as a corps, so getting after those basic 10-level lethal warrior tasks and incorporating that into ARC-BFT in this field environment has been great,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jesse Bleed, 88th RD Chaplain Section Operations Sergeant and NCOIC (noncommissioned officer in charge) for the Force Protection Lane.
In Lane 3, chaplains interacted with live role players at a Casualty Collection Point and mannequins simulating a mass casualty event. The role player or mannequin held a casualty card listing their injuries, ranging in severity from minimal to expectant, and chaplains determined how to best provide religious support for that casualty.
There is a need for “that real-world experience of figuring out how to provide the right care for the right person, because there is a religious and spiritual dimension to care that needs to be provided in addition to the medical care that is taking place,” said Boyd.
In Lane 4, UMTs were challenged to reexamine how they would conduct memorials due to the situational update and time constraints in the notional conflict.
“A core capability of the chaplaincy is honoring the fallen, and in LSCO, it’s expected that there will be mass casualties, loss of life, pain and suffering, and that is when chaplains will step in and provide valuable services to the formation,” said Moseman.
In past counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, chaplains had time to plan, prepare, and rehearse, but looking at LSCO, chaplains must prepare for a hasty memorial, if that.
“The idea is preparing the mindset for a hasty memorial where you may have a group of Soldiers who come in with someone who has expired and now, they’re getting ready to head back to the front and you may have five minutes or only a moment. You must be prepared to do whatever you can to comfort them and encourage them before they go back to the line,” said Seidel.
Each RD conducts four ARC-BFT iterations per year, for a total of 16 across the U.S. Army Reserve, with the intent that if a chaplain or religious affairs specialist is not attending professional military education (PME) or a collective training event with their unit for that year’s annual training, they will attend ARC-BFT. Currently, only the 88th RD conducts the field training lanes at their ARC-BFT.
The 88th RD chaplain team ensured training was at the ‘crawl’ stage where UMTs could familiarize themselves with the tasks, get the repetitions in, receive productive feedback, and confidently return to their units.
For Chaplain (1st Lt.) Daniel Bay, from the 352nd Field Hospital in Dublin, California, the training was essential to better function as an effective UMT for his units in the LSCO environment.
“Training exceeded my expectations. I did not expect it to be at the level it was provided, but I’m very grateful for the expertise, exposure, and instructors,” said Bay.
The goal is to incorporate “some measure of what is being done at the 88th at all RDs and emphasize the sobriety and seriousness of what it’s going to mean for chaplains and religious affairs specialists to first, not become a casualty themselves, and second, to support Soldiers, their resiliency, and their mental, emotional, and spiritual health in a large scale combat operation,” said Seidel.
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2025 12:24 |
| Story ID: | 496837 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 55 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Army Reserve Chaplains Train Corps’ Capabilities for LSCO, by LTC Kristin Porter, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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