Youngtown, Ohio Air Reserve —
The mission of the 910th Airlift Wing Chaplain Squadron is to develop mentally competent and mission-ready Airmen. They accomplish this through unparalleled care of souls, leadership advice, and religious freedom.
“The opportunity to serve the Airmen we interact with every day is what this job is all about,” Teck said. Sergeant John Baltz, noncommissioned officer in charge of chapel operations for the 910th Airlift Wing. “My favorite thing about being on the pastoral team is the people.”
The chaplain team intentionally visits units on base to get to know and build connections with individual members.
“We’re embedded directly within the work center,” explained 910th Airlift Wing Chaplain Jeffrey Richter. “People are more willing to talk to our pastoral team if we are in their neighborhood rather than having to come looking for us.”
910 members maintain 100% confidentiality, so they can speak to the pastoral team without any obligation to report anything.
“What is shared with us stays with us,” Baltz said.
Members of the 910th do not have to be religious to speak to the Chaplain Corps.
“About 99 percent of what we talk about with our members has nothing to do with religion,” Baltz said.
The chaplain team is always making sure Airmen are mentally healthy enough to participate in combat.
“If your spiritual pillar falls, they all fall. But even when other pillars fall, your spiritual pillar still stands,” says Baltz, who believes that the pillar of resilience is the spiritual pillar. I talked about physical, social, spiritual.
Spiritually healthy airmen can lead their men and accomplish their missions.
“We had an Air Force officer come back to Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, and he was very dissatisfied while on duty,” Richter said. “So, we talked for a while and advised her on next steps, even though it was clear she already had one foot out the Air Force door. A year later, I returned to Minot and I met her, and after our discussion, she told me that she plans to move up to the next rank, get married, and retire from the military someday.”
The Department of Defense chaplaincy team provides unparalleled spiritual care anytime, anywhere.
“I was concerned about the safety of a friend of mine who was stateside, so I asked security forces to talk to me while I was deployed. I worked closely with them and their leaders,” he recalled. Baltz. “When direct intervention took place, this man’s life was saved.”
The pastoral team sees lives changing every day.
To learn more about the 910th Chaplain Corps’ mission or to contact the team, visit https://www.youngstown.afrc.af.mil/About/Chaplain-Services/.
