The Christian Science Monitor

Through the chaplaincy, the military is trying to do more to help soldiers shore up their relationships and improve their health so they can return to the battle front. The Bush administration this year allotted $7 million toward Strong Bonds, a new chaplaincy program. The added investment is a "huge deal," says Chaplain Ran Dolinger, noting that the Army's total annual budget for the chaplaincy is about $14 million.

Strong Bonds aims to teach military couples how to communicate without fighting. Chaplains can send feuding couples on retreats to reconnect at places like Myrtle Beach, S.C. On Fort Bragg, N.C., Chaplain Bradley West teaches a class he calls "How (Not) to Marry a Jerk" to single soldiers to help them make good decisions about potential partners.

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Already, new chaplaincy programs have been effective, playing at least a small role in cutting in half the divorce rate among Army officers between 2004 and 2005, Army officials say.

Moreover, the Army is giving chaplains increasing flexibility to use funds to send soldiers who are coping with the loss of comrades to Washington for war memorial tours for example, as members of Fort Gordon's Delta Company recently did.

"We bring to the table ... a spiritual aspect to the healing process," says Chaplain Klon Kitchen of Fort Jackson, S.C.

Spc. John Shelton returned from Iraq with a front tooth missing and a blown-out knee from a road-side bomb. He admits his tour of duty and his injury put stress on his marriage. Now, a chaplain spends time on the phone with Shelton and his wife, dealing with "marital stuff."

"It's a two-sided story when you come back like this," says Shelton. "Your family views you differently and the Army views you differently. That's one reason why I use the chaplains a lot."

Others in the military also say chaplains are needed now. Evangelical pastors, in particular, are on the rise, while the number of Roman Catholic chaplains has dropped to fewer than 100, according to the Army. (Most chaplains are Christian, but there are about 30 Jewish clergy and 15 Muslim clergy.)

But stiff requirements keep many away: Candidates are required to have a master's degree in theology and two years of experience in a civilian church. They also must pass the Army fitness test, which includes doing 40 pushups and running two miles in 16 minutes, 36 seconds. First-year chaplains earn an annual salary of $45,969.67.

Once on the job, chaplains help soldiers cope with their actions in battle, guided by the "just cause" theory that violence, even killing, can be the morally responsible thing to do in wartime.

As counselors to soldiers, they, themselves also confront post-battle stress. Fort Gordon Chaplain Steve Munson fights back tears as he talks about visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Va., with a group of Iraq war vets. For weeks after returning to the US from duty in Balad, Iraq - a town troops call "Mortarsville" - Chaplain Dolinger experienced "overpass effect," or the subconscious habit of gazing up at bridges in search of grenade-droppers or snipers.

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SUPPORT: Chaplain Steve Munson (c.) works with Iraq war Army veterans Spc. Travis Dulaney (l.) and Spc. John Shelton in Fort Gordon, Ga., as they struggle to reconnect with family. PATRIK JONSSON

While counseling the first wave of troops returning from Iraq in the fall of 2003, Chaplain West says he had to work hard "not to lose hope."

Meanwhile, critics say that many troops, hesitate to take part in programs such as Strong Bonds, whether it's for faith reasons or out of fear of reprisal from officers that single out soldiers who show what they perceive as weakness.

"Most guys in Vietnam never saw a chaplain, and I think that may still be true today," says Larry Tritle, a Vietnam war veteran and a military affairs professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "The reason was that chaplains were seen as part of the establishment."

But at Fort Gordon, chaplains minister to members of Delta Company. There, active-duty soldiers on "medical hold" from the war are assigned one mission: Get well enough to return to the Army and their families.

Of Delta Company's Dulaney and Shelton, Chaplain Munson says: "They are amazing guys, and if you saw them when they came in, you might not believe how far they've come."

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