Reporting from an “undisclosed location,” an official Marine article notes the contribution of the Chaplains’ Corps to the mission:

United States service members are warfighters, first and foremost. No matter how impassable the terrain or daunting the enemy, the U.S. armed forces risk their lives to defend the nation and uphold its most fundamental and cherished values. With new missions always on the horizon, and day-to-day stresses weighing on their shoulders, it can become easy to neglect taking time to cultivate, nourish, and refine their spiritual practices.

To help facilitate religious worship and combat feelings of isolation, loneliness, and disconnection both in garrison and in deployed environments, the Chaplain Corps and other military clergy officials are in place providing religious outlets, counseling, and other services for troops. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Corey Thornton, the command chaplain…

Chaplain Thornton also described their role in advising senior leaders, in addition to the services they provide for the troops:

We advise the commanding officer and senior leadership on moral and ethical issues as well as upcoming religious practices, helping them become more mindful and sensitive of those practices…

He also noted they facilitate religious observance even for those who don’t share their faith, and that it is ultimately the military commander who is responsible for protecting the religious rights of the troops:

Even if the clergy available are not able to directly lead certain religious services due to their own beliefs or religious ordination, they are responsible for facilitating and providing resources for all religious faiths.

“The commanding officer is responsible for making sure that religious freedom and the free exercise of religion is maintained in the command,” said Thornton…“The chaplain is who leads that program for him and helps him provide that for the command.”

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