Photo By Cpl. Madisyn Paschal | U.S. Navy Capt. William Stewart, the Force Chaplain for Marine Corps Installations...... read more read more
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CAMP PENDLETON, California - Twenty-year-old William Stewart reached up to fix the glasses on his face as he walked through a snow-filled landscape on his way to work. The glasses were frigid to the touch and caked with ice. The winter of 1985 was especially cold that year at the Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois, just north of Chicago.
“I thought I had known what cold was before, but I didn’t until then,” Stewart said, his eyes glazing over as the memories of earlier days flooded his mind.
For young Stewart, that cold felt deeper than just his skin that day. Within his first year of service in the U.S. Navy, his closest friend and fellow sailor had committed suicide. The two had worked alongside one another, training to become nuclear electronic technicians.
He took a ragged breath, his stomach tightening with the dread of another workday. He entered the office with his cheeks and nose nipped red from the biting wind outside, and was stopped by his instructor, Chief Love.
Chief Love pulled Stewart aside from the other sailors and tentatively asked, “What’s going on, Stewart?”
Stewart found himself confiding in his instructor about the loss of his friend and the impact it had on him. Chief Love then offered a new idea.
“There’s a new rating they need sailors for,” Love explained. “We can send you if that’s something you’d want to do.”
The new rating, Religious Program Specialist (RP), was officially established in January of 1979 to support Navy Chaplains in developing and delivering programs that meet the spiritual and emotional needs of Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel and their families. Working together as a religious ministry team, RPs and chaplains provide spiritual care, counseling, and resilience-building support to help service members stay mission-ready.
As Love explained the new occupation, Stewart’s eyes lit up. He listened earnestly as a sense of warmth began to spread through his body.
“I wanted to help people and help prevent what happened to my friend from happening to others. I also wanted to serve God by serving those who serve,” Stewart reminisced. “There’s a saying I have, ‘It’s not odd, it’s God.’ God presented me with an opportunity that day.”
Stewart then left Illinois for Treasure Island, California, where he completed the program for RP as the honor graduate of his class, becoming one of the first RPs ever in the Navy. He would also partake in the Professional Development Training Course, an annual training that all chaplains and RPs are required to attend.
“The PDTC aims to strengthen the spiritual readiness of warfighters and their families by sharpening the competencies and connections within Religious Ministry Teams,” said Rear Admiral Carey Cash, Chaplain of the Marine Corps, Deputy Chief of Chaplains. “This training prepares chaplains and RPs by honing their leadership and mentorship skills.”
Stewart would continue to achieve notable milestones during his time as an RP, completing assignments on the USS Hunley in Holy Loch, Scotland, and at the Harold E. Holt Naval Communications Station in Exmouth, Western Australia. After five years of active duty service, he joined the Naval Reserves, where he also served with Military Sealift Command Northern Japan 211 and 111, 2nd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, Fleet Hospital 500 Combat Zone 21, Naval Reserve Region South Headquarters, and the Seabees, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 22.
While serving in the Reserves, Stewart began his formal training for ministry at Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College in Moore, Oklahoma, where he received a bachelor’s degree in theology as well as an associate degree in Christian education in 1990. He then earned his master’s degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1993, and subsequently obtained an additional master’s degree in education and linguistics from Oklahoma City University in 1996. Throughout this period, Stewart also commissioned as an officer in the Navy, becoming a chaplain after serving as an RP.
Beyond his roles in education, his civilian employment was primarily as a minister. His ministry included short-term missionary work to Brazil and Japan, as well as extensive counseling and training. He also acted as a university instructor teaching subjects such as linguistics, educational psychology, human motivation, and computer science at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City University, and Randall University.
Stewart upheld his goal of helping others by devoting his life to ministry. Having already led an extensive and successful career, Stewart would face an entirely new and unfamiliar chapter of his life in 2005, when he would have to leave his family.
“While serving as the Command Chaplain of the Seabees, I deployed with them in Operation Iraqi Freedom,” Stewart said. “This was the most challenging thing I’ve had to do in my career because I just wondered, ‘My family, are they going to be okay without me?”
The day came when Stewart had to leave his wife, Tomoko, his daughter, Marian, his son, William, and their home in Oklahoma. Tomoko stood with their children as he said his final goodbyes.
Stewart’s chest felt as if it were full of concrete as he bent down to embrace his son. The little boy, only four years old at the time, fiercely turned away and crossed his small arms. Stewart’s eyes widened with surprise as his face crumpled into a look of hurt. Still, William refused to talk to his father.
Tomoko later revealed to Stewart that William cried the whole car ride home, saying repeatedly, “I hate the Navy. I hate the Navy.”
As the unit was on-loading at Port Hueneme, California, preparing to leave for Iraq, Stewart knelt to his knees and took his troubles to prayer.
“As humans, we have a fear of the unknown,” Stewart explained, “I called on a higher power that day to restore my strength so that I could better serve the Marines around me. And although I was leaving my family, I knew I was being called to serve.”
Stewart then mobilized for nine months in the Al-Anbar Province, playing a critical role in the historical free elections of Iraq. During one of the unit’s routine supply runs, Stewart found himself engulfed in a dust storm unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Stewart reached up to wipe the sweat from above his brow as he squinted his eyes to keep out the mixture of sand, dirt, and dust whirling around him. The shouting and yelling from the Marines became muted as he gazed at the storm in a bit of awe at its magnificence. He later whipped out an ink pen and began to write from a place of compulsion.
Stewart wrote, “Who am I, but one creation of God, yet I am. Who am I not to recognize Him who has given me the life that I live, the air that I breathe, the earth that I inhabit, and the days that I spend and wake up to each morning (…) Who am I not to love, care for, and give to my brother and sister as I first was loved and given to? Who am I not to live?”
“We came back from the mission not having lost a single Marine,” Stewart reflected. “I still get calls to this day from the Marines I worked with. They say, ‘Chaps, I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t out there praying for all of us.’”
After the deployment, Stewart was asked to come back to active duty, and after much prayer and consideration, he and his wife accepted.
Since Iraq, Stewart continued to serve in various commands and locations such as Destroyer Squadron Fifteen in Japan. He also served as the director of the Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation Northwest throughout the Puget Sound area, Chaplain of Coast Guard District Thirteen out of Seattle, Command Chaplain on the Nimitz-class Aircraft Carrier, USS John C. Stennis and the Force Chaplain at Naval Airforce Atlantic over all the east coast aircraft carriers and wings.
After 41 years of devoted service, Capt. William Stewart retired on June 25, 2025, at Camp Pendleton, California, while serving as the Force Chaplain for Marine Corps Installations West. Throughout these 41 years, Chaplain Stewart received numerous awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), the Navy Commendation Medal (three awards), and the Navy Achievement Medal (three awards).
At his retirement ceremony, Stewart clutched the flag passed to him during the Old Glory Presentation and held it close to his chest. He peered down at his hand, reflecting on his many years of service. A tear fell from his eye.
Rear Admiral Cash spoke at the ceremony, saying, “Invested. That’s Bill Stewart. This is a man who devoted his life to his service.”
Today, Stewart continues to work on his website, Navychaps.org, leaving behind tools and resources for future chaplains and RPs to utilize during their service.
“Ministry is my life. I am alive today because of my faith and my family,” Stewart said, smiling cheerily. “Life is good, even in the Iraqi desert. Life is good. God is good.”
| Date Taken: | 07.03.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.03.2025 16:11 |
| Story ID: | 515692 |
| Location: | CAMP PENDLETON, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | INOLA, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 70 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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