PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Coast Guard Chaplains will meet at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia Beach, Va., for their annual symposium April 8-10. This year’s theme is “Ministering to the Emerging Generation.”

Guest speaker Dr. Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research in Nashville, Tenn., will assist the chaplains in understanding more and connecting with the “Post Modern Generation” - young adults from in the 17-24 year-old demographic who view the world through lenses far different from previous generations. Stetzer has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. He served three years as a seminary professor at the Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and has taught at 15 other seminaries. He is currently the director of LifeWay Research.

“Our newest Coast Guard members are very sharp, confident and enjoy a collaborative environment,” explains Capt. Gary P. Weeden, chaplain of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. “They question things more often, have strong ideas of their own and are often more interested in what they can contribute to the mission than the amount of money they make. We need to better understand the lenses from which they see the world and learn how to listen, engage and communicate.”

The symposium will equip the chaplains with skills to work with a generation that comes from a very subjective/existentialist environment to a military world of specific parameters and objective parameters, according to Capt. Robert Marshall, Coast Guard Atlantic Area chaplain.

Vice Adm. D. Brian Peterman, Coast Guard Commander Atlantic Area; Rear Adm. Fred Rosa, Commander Fifth Coast Guard District, and Capt. James Louttit, Deputy Commander of Coast Guard Maintenance and Logistics Command Atlantic will also speak at the symposium.

Approximately 50 members of the Navy Chaplain Corps (active and reserve) are assigned throughout the Coast Guard to advise commanders to ensure the free exercise of religion, provide religious ministry and support to authorized personnel. In addition, chaplains serve as advocates for the well-being of all personnel and as command liaison to civilian religious leaders, communities, organizations and agencies.

You can find out more about what the Coast Guard does here.

Here is Vice Admiral Peterman, Commander, Atlantic Area / Commander, Defense Force East, speaking to the group:

For more information about what a Vice Admiral is, click here.

I spoke before and after Vice Admiral Peterson:

I was quite out of place without a uniform:

I speak a lot of places (or so my wife tells me). But, this is one of the most intriguing.

Here are a few more interesting facts for you related to the Coast Guard and to their chaplains:

1. The Coast Guard is a separate branch of the military. It is not a branch of the Navy, although that seems a common perception.

2. The Coast Guard is always deployed. Unlike some branches that deploy for a season, they are “deployed” every day. This is not to say that other branches are not working hard, but you can always say that about the Coast Guard.

3. The chaplains I trained are not technically "Coast Guard chaplains." Like the Marines, their chaplains are Navy chaplains assigned to the Coast Guard.

4. The duties of the Coast Guard are remarkably varied. Search and rescue is well known as is, I would think, drug interdiction. But, there are many other functions such as…

maritime law enforcement, maintaining aids to navigation, marine safety, and both military and civilian search and rescue--all in addition to its typical homeland security and military duties, such as port security.

5. The U.S. chaplains are of many different faiths—something I needed to keep in mind as I spoke. However, they all know that I am a conservative evangelical Christian and, I believe, took that into account when I started to preach (grin).

6. Although the chaplains are of many faiths, a chaplain does not do the religious rituals of another faith (that is an urban legend propagated by the television show M.A.S.H. and Father Mulcahy).

As part of my preparation for this trip, I visited a Coast Guard facility. Their work is quite impressive. I can’t share details, but I was amazed at the level of responsibility these young men and women serve. I watched them work in a secure facility and they were professional, passionate, and focused.

The Coast Guard is also the oldest seafaring branch of the military. Wikipedia explains:

The roots of the Coast Guard lie in the United States Revenue Cutter Service established by Alexander Hamilton under the Department of the Treasury on August 4, 1790. Until the re-establishment of the United States Navy in 1798, the Revenue Cutter Service was the only naval force of the early U.S. It was established to collect taxes from a brand new nation of patriot smugglers. When the officers were out at sea, they were told to crack down on piracy; while they were at it, they might as well rescue anyone in distress.

"First Fleet" is a term occasionally used as an informal reference to the US Coast Guard, although as far as one can detect the United States has never in fact officially used this designation with reference either to the Coast Guard or any element of the US Navy. The informal appellation honors the fact that between 1790 and 1798, there was no United States Navy and the cutters which were the predecessor of the US Coast Guard were the only warships protecting the coast, trade, and maritime interests of the new republic.

The modern Coast Guard can be said to date to 1915, when the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the United States Life-Saving Service and Congress formalized the existence of the new organization. In 1939, the U.S. Lighthouse Service was brought under its purview. In 1942, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was transferred to the Coast Guard. In 1967, the Coast Guard moved from the Department of the Treasury to the newly formed Department of Transportation, an arrangement that lasted until it was placed under the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 as part of legislation designed to more efficiently protect American interests following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

In times of war, the Coast Guard or individual components of it can operate as a service of the Department of the Navy. This arrangement has a broad historical basis, as the Guard has been involved in wars as diverse as the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and the American Civil War, in which the cutter Harriet Lane fired the first naval shots attempting to relieve besieged Fort Sumter. The last time the Coast Guard operated as a whole under the Navy was in World War II. More often, military and combat units within the Coast Guard will operate under the Navy while other Coast Guard units will remain under the Department of Homeland Security.

I think we would do well to remember the sacrifices these servicemen and women make, both the chaplains and those that they serve. This is not easy work and these chaplains serve at a crucial time in the lives of these “coasties.”