Written By Lieutenant Commander Kristian L. Carlson

Kit Carlson has served alongside Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, & Special Forces, and has completed three deployments. In 2020, the Navy sent him to Duke University’s Divinity School to earn a specialized Master’s Degree, ThM, in Pastoral Care, where he focused his studies on challenges facing Active Duty personnel, Veterans and their families. His specific areas of interest include care for persons with Complex Trauma, strategies for healing from PTSD, Moral Injury, & mild TBI. A key personal mission of his is to leverage the strengths of faith-based Veteran Service Organizations as strategic partners to chaplains, the VA, and the DoD in their ongoing resiliency & suicide prevention initiatives. He is married to his Chilean sweetheart, Damaris. They have two young children, who are the delight of their hearts.

The initial moments are etched well in my memory. I’m writing from O’Hare airport in Chicago. It was here in this city that many of my hopes would coalesce culminating 27 SEP 2006 when I was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy as a Chaplain Candidate Program Officer, at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri. Then again 13 DEC 2011, I was commissioned as a 4100 Active Duty Chaplain at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. But here in Chicago is where it all began, at a Christian college, Trinity International University. I minored in Biblical Studies and majored in English Literature with a focus also in music.  11 SEP 2001 came:

James Allen: “Kit, dude, did ya see what just happened to the Twin Towers in NYC?” 

Me: “No. What?”

James Allen: “Dude, somebody just struck the towers with a jet. We’re going to war, man.”  

James was an Air Force veteran, a suitemate with me in the CIT dorm and a good friend. As a military dependent at the time, I heard firsthand the new security measures happening at Fort Rucker, Alabama where dad was installation Chaplain, there at the home of Army Aviation. And I heard straight from my sister Nora, what was happening in Okinawa, where my brother-in-law was Ops, then XO, at MWSS-172 as a Marine Officer.  Our worlds had dearly changed.  That day, my friend Christine and I rode the “L”, an above ground subway, to Downtown. We shared the love of Jesus on the trains with Chicagoans, prayed for people and spoke of taking courage in Christ.   Then we got off the “L” and went and sat still stunned, in solidarity with New York, on the steps of the Sears Tower. It was our way of taking in the shocking tragedy of people leaping from Tower windows to escape the flames and the horror of trembling doomed skyscrapers. And it was a way for us to say, “our God is Great. He is with us (Ps 46), and we are not afraid.” 

Fast forward. In 2004 I was teaching at a Christian High School in West Allis, Wisconsin, just outside of Milwaukee.  That November, on Election Tuesday, I stood on the corner of 35th and Oklahoma, on the city’s South Side and toted a Bush-Cheney sign to the chorus of naysaying cars driving by and folks flipping me “the bird.”  I did it because I believed in what President Bush wanted to accomplish in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a response to 9/11. And a way to intervene in two fraught nations over-run by Al Qaeda Islamic terrorist networks and by a dictator, Saddam Hussein, who had flouted international sanctions and maybe even harbored WMD.  I share about Milwaukee because while I had longed to serve in the military, something crystallized in my heart that day, as I stood at some risk, by myself, in a deep blue city, campaigning for George W. Bush. Much in my heart was also related to his Pro-Life stance as opposed to John Kerry. But the critical nature of the president’s power to move the levers of Government and the prospective of continuing with God-fearing leadership captured my energy and hopes.

Less than two years later I was commissioned as a Navy Chaplain Candidate Program Officer (CCPO). While I had envisioned myself as a tentmaking missionary in the Arab World, perhaps teaching English, working as a Foreign Service Officer, or for the NGO Samaritan’s Purse, God had other plans. I left Milwaukee, and moved to Fort Leonard Wood where my dad, a mustang former Army Chaplain assistant, now Installation Chaplain and Colonel, was serving as the Maneuver Support Center Chaplain. 

While teaching was rewarding, and I did a good enough job to be invited back the next year ( I taught American Literature honors, Speech and Spanish to six sections –120 students!)…I still hadn’t fully landed on my “niche”, the vocation God would open to me. In fact, I was exhausted from working 70 – 90 hours a week and living alone in a small flat in the city, by myself, above the widowed homeowner. Mrs. Phyllis Huffman, my landlord, loved watching the musical Golden Age Hollywood movies. She wistfully spoke of her deceased husband, who was a plumber, but to her a Troubadour. He could sing beautifully and helped rear their beautiful family and loved her well. Looking back, spending time with Phyllis as a 24-year-old “green” teacher, I was “chaplaining”—shepherding– a lonesome, grief-stricken person, with the Comfort by which we ourselves are comforted (2 Corinthians 1:4). 

I left Wisconsin the summer of 2005 and landed at Fort Leonard Wood, where I sought respite and direction from the Lord for His calling on my life. Having recently done ministry work in Israel during the 2nd Intifada, and later also in formerly communist Romania in summers of 2002 and 2004, I continued to feel drawn to Missions, especially to Muslims.

My final big step toward chaplaincy happened in Fall 2005. A Colonel Chaplain (R), Skip, and his wife Dawn, parents of a medically retired Force Recon Marine, and of two missionary daughters to Turkey and Indonesia, asked me to begin leading music worship with them for a Bible Study of 200 Soldiers in Basic Training.  Many of the young Soldiers were heading to danger in the Middle East as Combat Medics, MPs, and “88 Mike” Truck Drivers, to serve during the Surge of forces designed by Generals Petraeus and McChrystal. It was called “COIN”, a counterinsurgency strategy to win hearts and minds, and build democracy among Iraqis and Afghanis.  I reluctantly said “Yes” to the Bible Study, but did not truly feel HOOAH enough to stand in front of Soldiers.  I liked occasionally smoking tobacco pipe and a Hookah, wearing Birkenstocks and hemp necklaces, playing guitar and reading classics like Dostoevsky and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. How would these hardened warriors receive me??

But somehow they did. And 200 in the Battalion, quickly became nearly 1000 a week for three straight years. 

I became a contract musician leading worship for two Soldier services. Weekly I discipled Soldiers and led rehearsals, a band, and choir of 20 – 35 musicians. We gave out 7000 full OT and NT Bibles from the American Bible Society which I had requested. There is no sight or sound quite like hearing Baker Theater full of hoarse young Soldiers shouting and singing to Jesus in unity. Hands lifted up singing “Days of Elijah” and “Lord I Lift Your Name on High”; or to see them waving their USA patches in abandoned patriotism and resolve as we’d play Toby Keith’s “American Soldier” on the Theater’s loudspeakers.

I was commissioned September 27, 2006, by COL Chaplain Dan Parker. My Dad led a commissioning prayer. I attended seminary, 2006-2009, at the AoG Seminary, and was mentored closely by COL CH (R) Scott McChrystal. I chose to shift endorsement from the EFCA to the AoG, and moved to East Hartford, CT to pastor and prepare for ordination. I served 29 months at a beautiful large church of 5000 called Crossroads Community Cathedral. Chaplain McChrystal facilitated the opportunity along with the AoG Seminary President, Byron Klaus.  

As I’m reflecting, I want to say that I didn’t get into chaplaincy ministry or leadership on my own. God used a team of wonderful women and men who mentored me and opened doors for me. And I want to point out to myself, that sustaining ministry in the future is something my wife and I can not do alone either.

Damaris and I were married in April 2010 and spent our first 18 months of marriage in New England. Precious times. From 2009 – 2011, in the spring and fall, I traveled 12 weeks, total, up and down the rivers and dirt roads of the Amazon, near Iquitos, Peru, sharing the Gospel alongside the Senior Pastor at Crossroads, Bishop Terry Wiles.  I translated annual ministry reports, from Spanish to English, of 70 pastors of La Selva, the Jungle, as they sought to grow in pastoral accountability and in God’s Word, through coursework our church offered.

​During those early years, as a Navy Chaplain Candidate Officer, working in the civilian world from 2006 – 2011, I often did the work of evangelism and discipleship, pioneering and collaborating. I frequently ledworship with guitar and voice. As I neared Active-Duty Chaplaincy I hadmore opportunities for pastoral leadership, leading a wedding, funeral, and preaching. From a young age I had been drawn to missions work,especially to the “10-40 Window” where many live with no near-neighbor witness of Jesus Christ as Savior. Through Chaplaincy, I wanted to serve the country the best way my gifts allowed. I wanted to do my part during the global war on Terror, and grow in leadership, discipline, and firm up my financial foundation for the future.  A deep part of me wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps and to make him proud. I believed it was a tremendous mission field all its own.

Having served in the Navy, now for nearly 19 years, I have been given so much by the Service and from my shipmates. Tours have taken me across the world to Cambodia, mainland Japan & Okinawa, Australia, Saipan, Guam, Hawaii, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Djibouti, UAE, Iraq, Germany, and France. I’ve served three years with Marines (MCIPAC), had 2 deployments and spent 330 days, often on the high seas, aboard the Guided Missile Cruiser, USS Bunker Hill. 

Leading those 300 nightly Evening Prayers from the warship Bridge 1MC (intercom), I count a treasured gift. Most recently, I pursued the advanced education program, and earned a second Masters, ThM, fully funded, while in residence at Duke University. Following that I reported to “the Quarterdeck of Navy Medicine” the Hospital Corpsman Schoolhouse in San Antonio, Texas. Here, our command serves 5,500 Sailors a year, and trains 26 officer and enlisted medical specialties.

Growing up as a Chaplain’s son, and with a strongly Christ-honoring mother, ministry was the norm I knew in life. In that way, Navy Chaplaincy has not surprised me. But the sea-services cultures and mission have offered a thrilling ride–very different from my upbringing at Army bases across the US. During these 5 decades I have observed a precious commonality, how no matter the uniform, there’s something compelling about the humility, human needs, and yet valor of Americans who serve. They are heroes. They’ve committed their health, lives, and often their best years to war, defense of the weak, living in spartan environments, for marginal pay while enduring frequent family separation.

Many wonder if Chaplaincy is a “sell-out.” Perhaps a deal with the Devil because of pluralism. But I would answer that numerous chaplains and lay ministers of divergent beliefs, LDS, Muslim, Jewish, & Roman Catholic have refreshed and sharpened me. We have truly become friends, while all the time I continued to pray for their salvation in Christ. Dad taught me that in the United States, each of us, in Pluralism, has a right to a seat at the table. We respect those at the table, but also “own” who we are.  I have found that rather than barriers or constraints in the military, the doors have flung open, to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ.

At the same time, I’ve faithfully fulfilled my oath to our Constitution and my fellow Americans as a naval officer.  An aspect of Chaplaincy I love is the Pauline example to “be all things to all men” and to enculturate myself at each Command.  Practically it means I have worked to earn their respect and trust, by being with them, suffering through the good times and bad.  This Immanuel Factor ministry has opened many doors to naturally sharing my hope in Jesus Christ.

I will admit that I have suffered more in the Navy than I expected when I joined. I have known spiritual and emotional valleys very deep.  The separation from my wife on deployments, the missing of the birth and pregnancy of our first child; sending Americans home in body bags from Iraq; and witnessing war-ravaged parts of the world…these experiences have “seasoned me” and I feel changed.  

If the Assemblies of God’s Chaplaincy Endorser leadership gave me window to speak to prospective Chaplains and families, I would tell them, “Look at the Fields. They are White unto the Harvest. Pray the Lord of the Harvest to send Laborers.”  I would also be honest with them, that the call, if they can avoid pitfalls of ego and careerism, will likely allow much suffering to affect their soul, both from the counseling space, and from our mission in war. But that Jesus Christ, is the Faithful Friend, familiar with grief. And as they walk out “Vocati Ad Servitium” ministry, that He will see them through.         

Written March 2025 at Newport Naval Station, Rhode Island. Assignment #1 from CDR, Dr. Ed Erwin, for Professional Naval Chaplaincy, Intermediate Leadership Class-25020. Letter to Your Religious Endorser, CAPT (R) James Denley.

If you have questions about Navy Chaplaincy contact me at striderk@yahoo.com. I will gladly put you in touch with multiple Chaplain Recruiter friends, and answer whatever questions I can.