Modernizing the Air Force Chaplain Corps for Agile Combat Employment Published Oct. 17, 2024 By Chaplain, Captain Nathaniel Cantu Wild Blue Yonder--Maxwell AFB -- The Air Force Chaplain Corps is not ready for peer conflict. While the rest of the Air Force is modernizing and re-optimizing for great power competition and conflict, the Chaplain Corps remains stuck in a model of operations best suited for low-intensity conflict in the War on Terror.[1] The Chaplain Corps is not currently organized, trained, or equipped for great power competition and conflict, nor is it able to support the contemporary Air Force doctrine of Agile Combat Employment (ACE).[2] As such, to meet the challenges of peer combat, the Chaplain Corps must shift how it organizes, trains, and equips company-chaplains. Background ACE demands small teams of mission ready Airmen able to operate independently, however, the Chaplain Corps is focused primarily on chapel-centric programs and operations.[3] The main Chaplain Corps readiness document, AFTTP 3-4.52, Contingency Religious Support Operations, reflects a bias towards chaplains operating at large, built-up main operating bases.[4] This is drawn from the realities of the War on Terror, where chaplains could operate “inside the wire” from forward operating bases close to the point of spiritual injury without exposing themselves to substantial risk. Current Chaplain Corps Unit Type Codes (UTCs) further demonstrate a lack of readiness to support ACE, as the four Chaplain Corps UTCs available to combatant commanders are religious support teams (combinations of chaplains and religious affairs Airmen of various ranks) and a chaplain support box containing “a small shelter that can be used as a chapel facility. Other items include, but not limited to, USA flag, Christian flag, Hebrew flag, Muslim flag, flag stand, tables, benches, chairs, power cables and strip, public address set, fan, lamp, wastebasket, coffee maker, locker, fire extinguisher, ladder, communion set, Christian Bibles, Book of Mormon, book stand, chalice, rosary, missal, cross/crucifix, kiddush, yarmulke, and prayer shawl.”[5] Again, these UTCs reflect a focus on static, chapel-centric operations in built-up and secure locations. Furthermore, contemporary Chaplain Corps training emphasizes the staff role of the chaplain. Of the three professional military education courses company grade chaplains receive (the basic chaplain course, chaplain spiritual leadership course, and the embedded religious support team course), the majority of the desired learning outcomes for these courses focus on chapel specific operations—chapel resource management, leadership within the chapel construct, and staff work.[6] While these are necessary and valuable skills for chaplains to possess, an exclusive or even primary focus on these skills leaves chaplains unprepared to support Airmen engaged in ACE missions. For, in a peer conflict, (particularly in the Indo-Pacific) stationing chaplains at large main operating bases removes them by days and potentially thousands of miles from the point of spiritual injury—the austere forward operating sites and contingency locations where Airmen will fight and die and require spiritual care.[7] These forward operating sites and contingency locations will be manned with small teams of mission-ready Airmen.[8] Furthermore, these teams will require a high level of independence to operate, hence the Air Force’s adoption of mission command.[9] These teams—mission generation force elements or mission support teams—will be the Airmen most exposed to the physical risk of combat, and therefore in greatest need of chaplain support and care.[10] To enable this scheme of maneuver, the Chaplain Corps must restructure its operational construct to integrate into these teams that move forward into theater. Individual religious support teams (RSTs) must possess the skills and equipment to survive in a high-threat and austere environment[11] at the forward edge of the theater, as that is where Airmen will most need worship services, moral injury care, spiritual support, and spiritual care at the end of life.[12] Recommendations To do this, the Chaplain Corps must restructure from centrally controlled religious support to embedded ministry across the force. Currently, the Chaplain Corps uses a centralized structure where a senior RST of a field grade chaplain and a senior noncommissioned religious affairs Airman directs the operation of several tactical level RSTs consisting of company grade chaplains and junior or noncommissioned religious affairs Airmen. These teams are dynamically and temporarily allocated to operational units based on the direction and risk tolerance of the senior RST. However, in a peer conflict, direction from a senior RST may be impossible, and the Air Force as a whole is moving to deploying integrated, cohesive teams of Airmen who know each other and have trained together—which the current religious support model does not enable.[13] Thus, the Chaplain Corps should adopt an organizational model where company grade RSTs are embedded directly in units and rated, employed, and directed by the commander, while the installation senior RST organizes, trains, and equips RSTs to meet the needs of commanders.[14] Tactical employment and tasking of RSTs should be directed by commanders, not senior RSTs who will likely not have visibility into the tactical issues facing forward deployed RSTs.[15] This model is already in use in high-risk units through the True North and Preservation of the Force and Family programs and considered extremely effective by senior leaders.[16] As such the embedded ministry construct should be expanded enterprise-wide to become the default posture for religious support.[17] This embedded posture enables chaplains to default to working in direct support of a local commander using mission command, which is a requirement for successful execution of ACE missions. This shift could be accomplished in a resource-neutral fashion, as existing chapel billets for company grade RSTs could be realigned to line units, and existing chapel budgets subdivided among embedded RSTs, while remaining managed by the senior RST as part of its OT&E function. To enable this shift to independence, the Air Force Chaplain Course College should restructure the basic chaplain course to integrate content from the embedded religious affairs course—making the default operational posture for new chaplains direct support of commanders, rather than support of chapel operations. Additionally, the Chaplain Corps College should integrate both chaplain-specific and practical expeditionary skills into the basic chaplain course, as they already have in the Chaplain Candidate Program.[18] The basic chaplain course should focus on preparing new chaplains to provide spiritual support (religious services, counseling, memorials, etc.) in austere environments. Furthermore, chaplains should be equipped with immediately practical expeditionary skills and certified in their employment. As non-combatants who require an additional armed escort, commanders often struggle to see the short-term value of integrating RSTs into ACE packages and operations—“spiritual care” is a nebulous concept, and while chaplains provide value during worship services and in worst-case scenarios of last rites and crisis counseling, the immediate value they provide during the other six and a half days of the week is often ill-defined. On top of this, integrating an RST into an ACE package requires a commander to give up two spaces on an already small team for the chaplain and religious affairs Airman.[19] As such, chaplains should have practical expeditionary skills congruent with their non-combatant status that provide immediate value to ACE packages. For example, all chaplains and religious affairs Airmen should receive tier-two tactical combat casualty care training, enabling them to provide medical care beyond last rites. Other potential areas of value include forklift operation, large passenger vehicle licensing, power production, and pallet building—all skills that provide immediate value to a small team and still safeguard the chaplain's noncombatant status. These skills give chaplains an additional means of contributing to the team, and catalyze spiritual care opportunities, as they deepen the integration of the chaplain into the day-to-day operations of their assigned unit. Therefore, in line with the RAND Corporation’s recommendations, the Chief of Chaplains should develop a list of approved multi-capable skillsets congruent with the noncombatant status of chaplains, and standardize expected proficiency levels.[20] While chaplains often develop these skills ad hoc, a formal approved skills list would drive increased training and adoption of multi-capable skillsets across the Chaplain Corps. Additionally, the Chief of Chaplains should direct wing and major command chaplains to advocate to squadron and wing commanders for mission-specific training and exercise participation for company grade RSTs at home station. Company grade RSTs should be regular features of wing level exercises and should receive career field specific injects. Finally, the Chaplain Corps should expand the current Contingency Religious Support Operations TTP with specific spiritual care tasks and standards—hasty and planned individual and mass memorial services, moral injury counseling, crisis intervention, worship services, etc.—that all RSTs must be proficient in accomplishing in an austere environment. This allows wing level senior RSTs to train company grade chaplains to a specific standard. While the Chaplain Corps has developed a “readiness train the trainer” course in conjunction with the Air Force Expeditionary Center, the course material focuses on informational concepts, rather than standardized tasks and skills-based proficiencies.[21] The Contingency Religious Support Operations TTP should therefore provide a clearly defined task-based standard for chaplains to train to. This list of standardized tasks will also allow unit level RSTs to equip themselves to accomplish these tasks. Currently, the Chaplain Corps has no scalable means of religious sustainment in an austere environment. The issued chaplain kit is a small hand-held kit that enables chaplains to perform a worship service in a field environment—an important task, but not the only religious or spiritual care task chaplains will be required to accomplish in a peer conflict.[22] The only other religious sustainment is the “chaplain support box” UTC of war reserve material which contains an entire chapel ecosystem.[23] The issued chaplain kit is too small for multi-week agile combat employment missions, and the war reserve material is not agile enough for distributed basing. Therefore, the Chaplain Corps should formalize the development and fielding of man-portable “flyaway kits” that contain all equipment required for chaplains to perform 7 to 30 days of services, counseling, memorials, and daily operations in an austere environment. These kits have already been organically developed by some units, and the average cost is $1000-3,500, which is easily borne by even small chapel teams. These kits should be integrated into Chaplain Corps UTC’s, and company grade RSTs should regularly train in their employment as part of the AFFORGEN cycle. Conclusion A future peer conflict will result in staggering numbers of casualties.[24] These losses will challenge Airmen’s spiritual fitness and resiliency and require the presence of the Air Force Chaplain Corps to care for the living, comfort the wounded, and honor the dead. To fulfill its charge to provide spiritual care to Airmen, the Chaplain Corps must—like the rest of the Air Force—reoptimize for great power competition in how it organizes, trains, and equips chaplains. By shifting to an embedded ministry model force-wide, certifying chaplains in practical non-combatant skills, and equipping them with lightweight sustainment tools, the Chaplain Corps can rise to the challenge. Captain Nathan Cantu is a chaplain serving at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, as an embedded chaplain in the 19th Mission Support Group as part of the True North Program. Prior to this, he was an Individual Mobilization Augmentee in the Air Force Reserves assigned to the 633rd Air Base Wing at Langley AFB, Virginia. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Theological Studies at Liberty University with an emphasis on the ethics of military violence. [1] Frank Kendall, “Reoptimizing for Great Power Competition,” 2024. [2] USAF, “AFDN 1-21: Agile Combat Employment” (Maxwell AFB, AL: LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education, 2022), 4. [3] Jennifer Hlad and Amy Hudson, “ACE-ing the Test: WestPac Exercise Stresses Agile Combat Employment” Air and Space Forces Magazine (May 1, 2020). [4] USAF, “AFTTP 3-4.52: Contingency Religious Support Operations” (Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ: USAF Expeditionary Center, 2023), 4.2. [5] USAF, “AFI 52-104: Chaplain Corps (HC) Readiness” (2019), 3.2.4. [6] The Air Force Chaplain Corps College graciously provided current syllabi for these three courses in September of 2024 for my review on the condition that I not make them public. [7] Valerie Insinna, “Denied Hot Meals and Indoor Toilets, US Airmen Prepare for the Fog of War” DefenseNews (August 28, 2019). [8] David Roza, “CMSAF Flosi: What ‘Mission-Ready Airmen’ Means for You” Air and Space Forces Magazine (June 17, 2024). [9] USAF, “AFDP 1-1: Mission Command” (Maxwell AFB, AL: LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education, 2023), 3. [10] SECAF Public Affairs, “USAF Units of Action: Air Task Forces Defined, First Locations Announced” Air Force News Service, (15 May 15, 2024). [11] Sean Carberry, "Forget Hardened Bases, Pacific Conflict Requires Agile Combat Employment, Commander Says," National DEFENSE (March 8, 2023). [12] Sean Carberry, “Forget Hardened Bases, Pacific Conflict Requires Agile Combat Employment, Commander Says” National DEFENSE Magazine, (8 March 2023). [13] SECAF Public Affairs, “Airmen to See Changes in Deployment Cycles with AFFORGEN” Air Force News Service, (June 27, 2023). [14] Airman 1st Class Zachary Heal, “Embedded Resiliency: Chaplain serves the Contingency Response Group” 36th Wing Public Affairs, (October 15, 2019). [15] Sandeep Mulgund, “Command and Control for Agile Combat Employment” Wild Blue Yonder, (August 30, 2021). [16] Samantha E. DiNicola et. al., “An Evaluation of Task Force True North Initiatives for the Promotion of Resilience and Well-Being Within the Air Force” RAND (October 15, 2020). [17] Jim Thompson, “AFSOC Working to Embed Chaplains to Combat 'Moral Injuries' in Its Squadrons” Northwest Florida Daily News, (May 10, 2022). [18] Patrick Sullivan, “Chaplain Candidate Program Turns Lieutenants into Chaplains” DVIDS, (August 2, 2024). [19] Rhett Isbell, “Agile Combat Employment: A Leaner, Meaner Force” USINDOPACOM (February 24, 2024). [20] Shawn Cochran et. al., “The Forces We Need: Building Multi-Capable Airmen to Enable Agile Combat Employment” RAND (December 20, 2023). [21] USAF Expeditionary Center Public Affairs, “Invigorated Pre-Deployment Chaplain Corps Course Forging Warrior Hearts and Spirits for Future Fight” USAF Expeditionary Center (May 9, 2023). The Little Rock AFB Chapel Readiness Religious Support Team made the readiness training materials available to me for research, however they are not cleared for public release. [22] “Current Issue Chaplain Kits” [23] USAF, “AFTTP 3-4.52: Contingency Religious Support Operations” 2.1.4.2.4. The 380th AEW created an expanded chaplain kit in 2021 (), and my home unit has created ACE-focused flyaway kits we’ve used in exercises. I derived these cost estimates from our purchase logs and an estimate of the contents displayed in the 380th AEW’s video. [24] Mark F. Cancian, Matthew Cancian, and Eric Heginbotham, “The First Battle of the Next War: Wargaming a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan.” Center For Strategic and International Studies, (January 2023), 120.