Introduction

DESPITE the long history of American military chaplaincy, World War II marked its emergence as the paramount provider of religious and pastoral care for the US Army and the US Navy. Prior to this, army chaplains in particular had faced strong and persistent competition from comparatively well-resourced civilian agencies, most notably the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). Even if this competition could be ostensibly supportive and well-intentioned, only on the Western Front during the last year of World War I was a working system hammered out that placed chaplains at the centre of religious provision for the American soldier. Although in place for only a few months, the model of chaplaincy that emerged in France in 1918 was bequeathed to the post-war army, helping to ensure that army chaplains enjoyed an unchallenged pre-eminence in the religious care of the GI in World War II. In broader terms, American military chaplaincy stood as a powerful vindication of the unity of America's growing ‘Judeo-Christian’ identity, a working model of religious cooperation that seemed to transcend the raw divisions of American religious life in the service of a higher religious and national cause. However, the success of military chaplaincy was more than symbolic, for the combined efforts of twelve thousand commissioned army and navy chaplains also overrode strong pre-war objections to military chaplaincy in many American churches; kept constitutional challenges to chaplaincy in abeyance; made an incalculable contribution to the welfare and morale of more than sixteen million service men and women, and, finally, greatly enhanced the image of chaplaincy – and, by extension, that of the clergy – among Americans at large. This chapter examines the origins, causes and effects of this manifold wartime achievement, showing its underlying realities, its uneven quality and its long-term implications for religion in post-war American society.

Military chaplaincy prior to World War II

US military chaplaincy was well established by the 1940s, but its organisation in World War II was of relatively recent origin. Dozens of clergymen had served in the wars of the colonial era, and more than two hundred had served the patriot cause as army chaplains in the Revolutionary War (not always happily; one chap lain of the Continental Army had committed suicide after despairing of his life's ‘disappointments’). Other chaplains had served in the Continental Navy, on ships of the various state navies and aboard privateers.