The School

The U.S. Army Chaplain School was created out of a need to adequately train chaplains to staff the large military force which the United States was creating in 1917, for service in World War I. The plan for the school was developed by Chaplain (MAJ) Aldred A. Pruden. On 9 February 1918, the War Department approved Chaplain Pruden's plan and the first session of the Chaplain School commenced on 3 March 1918, at Fort Monroe, Virginia.

Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois 1920-1921 Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky 1918-1919

Chaplain Pruden was appointed as the school's first commandant, and for this as well as his role in the development of the school, he deserves to be called the "Father of the U.S. Army Chaplain School." For the second session, the school moved to Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. This initial move, only one month after the first formal session at the school, was to be a prophetic one, since it began an odyssey of relocation. To supplement the activities of the school in World War I, a subsidiary Chaplain School was created in France during the early summer of 1918, and located near the headquarters of the A.E.F. (American Expeditionary Force) at Chaumont. In the general demobilization which followed the end of World War I, the Chaplain School suspended operations on 16 January 1919. It was reactivated on a permanent basis at Camp Grant, Illinois, in April 1920, with a staff of fifteen and student body of the same size. It finally found a more or less stable home at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in the summer of 1924, where it would remain located for the next four years. By 1928, there were only 120 chaplains on active duty in the entire Army, and the school at Fort Leavenworth that same year trained only one Regular and eleven Reserve chaplains. The next step was an obvious one. The activities of the Chaplain School were suspended (although it was never officially inactivated), and would remain so until another war would again see the nation build up its military might and demand chaplains to minister to these forces.

The Chaplain School was reactivated in 1942 at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. Shortly thereafter it was moved to Harvard University, staying there until 1944, when it was transferred to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, where it finished out the war. After World War II it was located at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, from 1945 to 1951. From 1951 to 1979 the Chaplain School was situated at four posts in the New York City area: Fort Slocum (1951-1962; Fort Hamilton (1962-1974); Fort Wadsworth (1974-1979); and Fort Monmouth, New Jersey (1979-1995).

The job continued to have no vocational integrity until after World War II. The Korean War saw the development of the MOS 7lB. After almost one hundred years of vague existence, there was a job for the chaplain assistants. Training began at Fort Dix and Fort Ord with a four-week course. All trainees were volunteers who had successfully completed the nine weeks of basic combat training and nine weeks of clerk typist AIT. In August 1965, during a major revision of AR 611-201, assistants were designated 71M, given a job description and specific skill requirements. The next year the chaplain assistant schools were merged into USACHCS at Fort Hamilton. During 1972, the 71M was implemented into the NCOES and was accorded the same degree of professionalism as other enlisted specialties. Since 1974, the chaplain assistant has joined with the chaplain forming the highly professional Unit Ministry Team in ministry to soldiers and their families worldwide. On 1 October 2001 the chaplain assistant MOS changed from 71M to 56M. Chaplain assistants now serve in a "stand alone" Career Management Field.

History

The U.S. Army Chaplain Museum was established on 14 August 1957 under General Order 1-57. Located at the United States Army Chaplain School at Fort Slocum, New York, it was dedicated by Chaplain (MG) Patrick J. Ryan, Chief of Chaplains, on 10 February 1958. In his dedication speech, Chaplain Ryan revealed his dream of a place where future chaplains, chaplain assistants and the general public could learn the history of the Chaplaincy through its records and mementos of the past. He challenged the branch to aid the historian in piecing together their story for fear it would be lost forever. After decades of collecting thousands of those records and mementos, the repository Chaplain Ryan desired became a bona fide U.S. Army Museum in 1994, receiving its certification from the U.S. Army Center of Military History.