Chaplain Candidates get hands-on lessons during visit to 301st Fighter Wing

  • Published
  • By TSgt Stephen Bailey
  • 301 FW Public Affairs
NAS JRB Ft Worth, Texas --  Potential new Air Force Chaplains recently got a whirlwind tour of the Air Force. One of their big stops was a visit to NAS JRB Fort Worth and the 301st Fighter Wing.
The candidates visited many units here, learning how each shop does business and even spending time ministering to individual's needs.
During their visit to 301st Maintenance Squadron, one of the biggest stops on the tour, candidates asked specific questions regarding turnaround time for each job, how many troops each shops has, opportunities for awards and promotion for the troops and the state of morale there.
The tour also went to the fabrication and structural branch where they received briefings on how maintenance is performed on the F-16.
The group toured the crew chief area and received information on the crew chiefs role and their importance to aircraft and pilot safety.
Chaplains wanted to know how many maintenance were assigned to each aircraft and if they stay with the same aircraft or rotate after a period of time.
These Reserve chaplains have about a year to go in their seminary training. These men and women were from all over the country, and several were prior enlisted, coming from various military career fields to include administration, intelligence and maintenance fields.
The groups also toured an F-16. A crew chief discussed in detail specifics regarding deployments and other real world events the F-16 and the wing have been involved.
Candidates on this tour are sponsored by a church affiliation and must lean toward that particular sect's teaching when performing chaplain duties. Although it may seem difficult to accomplish this with so many various religions in the chapel program, the potential chaplains stated that, "This is why America is such a great country; when we have the freedom of religion to worship in various ways."
Several chaplains expressed their appreciation to work in ministry and to help our men and women when it comes to performing their military responsibilities.
The candidates said were extremely excited to visit an F-16 reserve unit, and enjoyed how educational the tour was. They said it gave them a much deeper appreciation for the work each servicemember does.