Maj. Byron Denman has experienced Army life as an enlisted man and an officer.
Recently arrived at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) from Fort Polk, Louisiana, Denman, his wife, and their three younger children are adapting well to the new community.
“My family and I are excited to be here. This is a broadening experience for me and I will grow a lot, but this is also a good move for our family.”
An Army brat who was born in Germany, he graduated from high school in Oklahoma after Fort Sill was his father’s final duty station before retirement. He went to college in Florida and joined the Army in 2004.
“My father, my uncles, and both of my grandfathers served in the military,” he said. “I was raised not with an expectation of joining the military, but with the idea that there is a lot of honor there and that is how we provide the support for our country that does so much to support us.”
Denman’s original Military Occupational Specialty was cryptologic linguist specializing in Arabic and his first 10 years in uniform were as an enlisted Soldier.
“I loved that job. I love languages anyway, but learning new languages is something that I’ve always enjoyed.”
He served multiple deployments in Iraq, and while assigned to an aviation battalion then-Spec. Denman came to YPG in the summer of 2006 for a multi-week training course on unmanned aerial support on YPG’s remote ranges.
“I had no idea that a chaplain position was here,” he recalled with a laugh.
His calling to serve as a minister dated back to a visit to a rural church in England during a semester studying there before he joined the Army.
“I immediately started consulting with some of the wise men from my faith background. It was pretty intimidating because it felt very clear to me.”
He tried to become a chaplain when he first enlisted in the Army, but at the time lacked the necessary educational and experience requirements. Eight years into his Army career, his wife reminded him of his calling.
“I got pulled into this idea that I was still serving how I could and that maybe I would be a pastor later. I got that little nudge from my wife and it called back to mind where I was supposed to be.”
He was a chaplain in an engineering battalion at Fort Carson, then an armored brigade before his last duty station at Fort Polk’s Joint Readiness Training Center before coming to YPG.
“Those 10 years and seven days that I spent on the enlisted side informed how I relate to Soldiers. It gives me a perspective I wouldn’t have had if I had just come straight into the Army just to be a chaplain. I wouldn’t have grasped what it felt like to go from junior enlisted to NCO or felt some of that struggle of going through the Iraq campaigns and watching friends suffer.”
One of his first orders of business after arriving at YPG was to extensively tour the post’s test ranges.
“As much as I understand that some ministry can be done the exact same way no matter where you are, effective ministry needs to understand the audience where you are. My hope is to understand the YPG mission and make sure that I’m still covering all our tenant units. Gaining that understanding is the first step to getting to a balanced philosophy of ministry over the next few years.”
Denman encourages YPG personnel to attend services and look to the chapel as a place for personal and spiritual guidance, regardless of their denominational background.
“If we do it well, then everyone will feel supported even if they know where our differences lie. It’s okay to have different beliefs. We don’t have to come from the same community to find a way to join in harmony.”