Who was the first? What kind of opposition did he have? Have you met him? How many active full-time/part-time Ordained Adventist Chaplains are there in the Armed forces??

The first SDA minister became a military chaplain on April 14, 1931. However, that was without the knowledge and persmission of the General Conference.


Elder Virgil P. Hulse was born in 1896. His service withe the SDA church included mission service beginning in 1918, and later service in the Caribbean Islands.

Upon his return to the United States, he pastored churches in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Michigan. By way of interest, he pastored some of these after he became a full-time Army chaplain! Such would not be allowed today. One might ask if everyone know what he was doing for the other.

In 1922, he accepted a position as chaplain for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). He began active duty as an Army chaplain in 1933, but continued to work for the CCC. At that time, CCC officers were all Army officers.

Hulse continued off and on, as an Army chaplain in the Army and in the Air Force, until 1956 when he retired as a Colonel.

It should be clearly stated that Hulse served without the permission and knowledge of the General Conference. In 1940, military records reveal that Hulse switched his denominational affiliation to the Northern Baptist Church, which is now the American Baptist Convention.

NOTE: Hulse is the first known SDA clergyperson to enter Federal service as a chaplain. He served in the CCC, the Army, and the Air Force, as a SDA chaplain. Under current law no one is permitted to serve in a Federal chaplaincy without the permission of their denomination. But, in those days, such was not law, and Hulse was able to do so.

Hulse died November 10, 1964.

I WILL CONTINUE WITH A LATER POST ON THE HISTORY OF THE MILITARY CHAPLAINCY.

In this section, I will give a very brief account of our formal entry into the military chaplaincy. I will follow that by a comment of our entry into the VA Chaplaincy. Here, I will have to be extremenly brief.

In the early 1940s, certain Protestant denominations took almost violent exception to the idea of having military chaplains. This was due to two reasons:

a) First Ammendment considerations regarding the so-called "establishment of religion" clause.

b) The reality that Army chaplains were used in many other non-religious functions, some of which violated the beliefs of the denominatons.

The SDA Church through writings in LIBERTY, an other publications, agreed with the above and advocated against military chaplains.

However, prior to this, two SDA clergy had become military chaplains with the knowledge of and tacit permission of the General Conference.

Elder Floyd Bresee (a well known name in Adventism) was the first to enter the military with any kind of permission. He had served in mission work, and in other major occupations in the SDA Chruch. He became an Army chaplain in 1942. He resigned in 1955.

William Bergherm became the second to become a military chaplain with informal permission of the General Conference. He also had prior mission service, and served as an Army chaplain from 1943 until 1950. Berghman was possibly the first SDA prison chaplain, a job which he began in 1959. He died in an automobile accident in 1963.

Neither of these two men had formal permission of the General Conference to become chaplains. The law required that they be endorsed by a recognized endorsing agency. The GC refused to endorse either of they because, as was stated with specific reasons in a letter, the SDA Chruch was not going to formally approve of anyone becoming a military chaplain. However, in addition, the SDA church did not have a recognized endorsing agency as it was not going to endorse anyone. The letter then stated that if the SDA Chruch were to endorse anybody, they would endorse these two. On that basis, an agency established to certify to the Army that people were properly endorsed, certified to the Army that these two were properly endorsed.

As another interesting factor, I believe that one of these two people had recently failed a GC medical examination to return to mission service overseas. When he appeared before a three-person medical board, two MDs were not present, and the third MD was sick and did not want to examine a patient. So, he watched this person walk into the room, and declared that he had passed his physical without further examination.

By way of interest, I am one of some other SDA Clergy who failed their militray physical, yet was able to become a military chaplain, and to serve until retirement. When God wants peple in a position, God will place them there.

Also, both of these men failed to meet the educational requirements, as did several others people who became military chaplains. God places people in positions where God wants them to be.

I SHALL RETURN TO THIS STORY LATER.

Following the end of WW-II, many SDA service people had encountered real problems due to their faith. Some had been convicted of crimes in military courts whch made them convicted felons, and some were serving time in Federal prisons.

A group of high-level military chaplins decided that something needed to be done about the SDA situation. They contacted the General Conference and requested to meet with a group of our leaders. That request was granted. They requested that the GC allow its clergy to become military chaplains.

The GC considered that request, and formally decided that they would neither encourage SDA clergy to become military chaplains, nor would it prevent them from becomming such, and that the GC would formally endorse the entry of SDA clergy into the military chaplaincy.

Dr. Robert Mole became the first SDA clergy person to formally enter the military, as a chaplain in 1953, as a Navy chaplain. In the letter stating the he was endorsed, the GC official requested that the Navy give him assignments that were so bad that Bob Mole would resign his commission after he had completed his initial three years.

Bob Mole retired in 1976.


Dr. Mole did not meet the educational requirements to become a military chaplain. But, by the time of his retirement he had earned one doctoral degree, and five masters degrees.

THE NEXT POST WILL BE A BRIEF STORY OF OUR FIRST VA CHAPLAIN.

The Department of Veteran's Affairs, as it is now called, has a prior history of limiting its chaplains to specific groups of people. John Umeda became the first SDA Clergy person to enter the VA Chaplaincy.

In 1959 he took a leave of absence from SDA employment to persue educational goals that later led to his certification as a marriage, family, and child therapist. During the time that he was persuing his educational goals, he took clinical training, called Clinical Pastoral Education, at a VA hospital in California. This allowed him to become known in VA circles, in California. As a result, he was given a position as a VA chaplain in a California hospital, in 1971, after he finished his educational training. He has served our denomination well, in breaking into an organization that was essentially closed to SDA Clergy.

Dr. Robert Mole is the second VA chaplain, and probably the best know one. In 1976, a high-level official in the U. S. government determined that it was in the best interests of the U. S. government to have a second VA SDA chaplain. In coordinating that with the General Conference, a collective decision was made that this second VA chaplain should be Bob Mole. Dr. Mole was directed by the SDA Chruch to retire from the Navy, and to begin a position as a VA chaplain. that occured in 1977. (Yes, he was ordered to leave the Navy, and assume a position in the VA.)

Dr. Mole is probably the best known SDA VA chaplain in the VA system, and is known today by many of the older VA chaplains. He had visiblity. He has probably done more positive good for the SDA chaplaincy in the VA than any other person could have done.

He has died.

END OF THIS BRIEF HISTORY.