One of our parish’s young men just returned from Army Advanced Camp. An enlisted national guardsman and university Army ROTC cadet, this was his last big hurdle to getting a commission as a lieutenant next May. He plans to serve out his duty obligation in the National Guard. When the subject of Church at camp came up, he reported going to Roman Catholic Mass, along with at least 14 other Orthodox soldiers. They had impromptu gripe sessions after each mass about how weird Roman Catholicism is, before dispersing back to their own barracks. Novus Ordo routinely fails to impress Orthodox Christians, but it appears to be better than either staying in or suffering through Protestantism. These, unfortunately, were the only three options these men had.

During the conversation, he got really serious and said, “Why are there never any Orthodox chaplains? Why doesn’t anybody care about us?” That is a sentiment we hear echoed again and again by young men and women in uniform.


https://orthodoxreflections.com/american-orthodox-soldiers-deserve-better/