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Chaplain

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The command chaplain helps advance EUCOM’s objectives of regional security and stability by providing advice and situational awareness on all matters related to religion, ethics and morale. Religious freedom contributes to regional stability. Where there is religious or ethnic tension, religious leaders can help mitigate these tensions, and the command chaplain engages other nations’ religious leaders to help them in those efforts. But, the command chaplain’s work starts within the command to extend to partner nations and beyond. In everything its staff does, the command chaplain advocates for justice, human dignity and religious freedom.

With more than 262 active duty chaplains, chaplain assistants and religious program specialists, the command chaplain oversees religious support to EUCOM’s service members and coordinates with all service components and any identified joint task force command chaplains to ensure they meet the religious needs of EUCOM’s constituencies. Part of the chaplain’s programs helps reunite warriors and their families, ensuring they receive appropriate care upon redeployment from combat operations.

Equally important, EUCOM’s command chaplain engages with long-established and newly emerging chaplaincies of the 51 nations within EUCOM’s area of responsibility, serving as a resource for emerging chaplaincies and actively helping establish chaplaincies within nations where they don’t yet exist. The annual EUCOM International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and NATO Chaplains Operations Course aid in this process. With chaplains of NATO and Partners for Peace nations, It builds strong relationships, increases communication, aids in resource-sharing, and provides training opportunities, including a personal visitation program.

The command chaplain’s vision includes a “whole of government” approach by forging non-military partnerships that increase religious harmony and establishing contact with faith-based institutions and NGOs to aid humanitarian assistance and other relevant programs. It also engages local national civilian and military religious leaders to promote religious cooperation and regional stability.

Contact
Director: Army Chaplain (COL) David R Beauchamp (.pdf, 393 KB)
Address: HQ USEUCOM/ECCH, Unit 30400, APO AE 09131
Comm: +49 (0)711-680-5151
DSN: 314-430-5151
Fax: +49 (0)711-680-8680
E-mail: ecch.pg@eucom.mil

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  • July 1, 2010

    Clergy converged in Carpathians

    I read about the economic and natural crises in Romania this week and I couldn't help but think about a recent trip I took to the beautiful Carpathia Mountains not far from where the flooding is happening now.
  • June 28, 2010

    NATO chaplains work to be Stronger Together

    Military chaplains from Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Italy, and the U.S. comprised the group that met at the Italian Air Force (ITAF) Headquarters for the annual NATO Air Force Chaplains Conference in Rome from June 13-18.
  • June 23, 2010

    Albania looks to EUCOM for chaplaincy advice

    I spent the week of June 7-11 in Tirana, Albania, hosted by the US Defense Attaché and Office of Defense Cooperation. They invited me to help assess the need for the Albanians to establish a military chaplaincy as they anticipate the possibility of casualties from their combat mission in Afghanistan. Currently, their law prohibits religious expression in the military even though its permitted by law in the civilian population since 1991.
  • April 7, 2010

    Military chaplains evolve with changing religious landscape

    From strategic to sensitive, the military chaplaincy prepares its clergy to advise commanders and provide spiritual counsel in time of contingency operations.
  • March 11, 2010

    Navy Chaplain talks with Orthodox Military Chaplains in Republic of Georgia

    While in port at Batumi, Georgia onboard the USS JOHN L HALL (I had a unique opportunity to meet with two Georgian Orthodox priests, Father Theodor and Father Nikos, who are both part of the growing/emerging professional chaplaincy program in Georgia.
  • April 25, 2009

    EUCOM Chaplain Nominated for Promotion to Flag

    The U.S. European Command is honored to congratulate Navy Captain Mark Tidd, the EUCOM Command Chaplain, on his nomination to promotion to Rear Admiral (lower half).  We were all excited to see the announcement in the Dept. of Defense press release last Thursday.  Chaplain Tidd has moved mountains within the Religious Programs arena and enabled EUCOM to go in some slightly non-traditional directions, especially in the area of engaging with partner nation military chaplaincies and other religious leaders in the European theater.
  • April 8, 2009

    Six Years Later…EUCOM Supports Professional NATO Chaplaincies

    In November 2008 I became the Deputy Command Chaplain at U.S. European Command at Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany. A couple of months ago I participated in a planning meeting for the annual NATO Chaplain Operations Course at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany. The meeting included some chaplains who had attended the pilot course held in February 2003, and others who had been students there more recently. Military Chaplains face challenges on the battlefield that go beyond the boundaries of pastoral needs for the troops. We work in multinational environments where synchronization with command religious programs, encounters with Civil Military Operations, and non-governmental organizations are critical to the success in combat. In war or peacekeeping missions, working in a cooperative military chaplaincy environment is a force multiplier for commanders.
  • April 6, 2009

    EUCOM Chaplain Delivers Field Kits to Republic of Georgia

    In our recent trip to Tbilisi, Georgia, on April 1, 2009, EUCOM’s senior Chaplain Assistant, Army Master Sergeant Ralph Martinez, and I presented six portable field worship kits to the leader of training and education of the joint staff of the Georgian Military, Major Lasha Beridze, and the Orthodox priest assigned to support the joint staff, Father David Londaridze. During this visit, we discussed developing training specifically for chaplains and collaborated on ideas for the way ahead for future engagements between our two organizations.

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