Chaplains in T2K

[Raellus]

@Homer: Thanks for that helpful info.

@CraigD6r: I've long toyed with the idea of playing a Chaplain or Chaplain's Assistant in T2k. Using v1-2.2, such a character would be pretty useless, outside of strictly RP purposes. 4e actually makes the role useful, mechanically-speaking. It has mechanics for stress and mental trauma, sustained via combat (or witnessing various horrors of war). A character with the Counseling specialty has a better chance to heal another character's mental trauma. I built a Chaplain's Assistant PC using the Medic archetype and giving him the Counselor specialty instead of the suggested medical specialties. I figured he'd be called upon to assist unit's actual medic, so it's a secondary specialty (so he effectively serves as the party's psychiatrist and combat medic). For an actual Chaplain, I'd use the officer template and give him/her the Counselor specialty.

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[chico20854]

[I've long toyed with the idea of playing a Chaplain or Chaplain's Assistant in T2k. Using v1-2.2, such a character would be pretty useless, outside of strictly RP purposes. I built a Chaplain's Assistant PC using the Medic archetype and giving him the Counselor specialty instead of the suggested medical specialties. I figured he'd be called upon to assist unit's actual medic, so it's a secondary specialty (so he effectively serves as the party's psychiatrist and combat medic)

An awful lot of Chaplain Assistants I ran into had a Rambo complex. I'm not sure if it was out of a sense that they had a responsibility to defend an unarmed chaplain, or trying to compensate for their reputation as the "softest" MOS in the Army!

[Homer]

Chaplains assistants

One battalion had the oesuper-UMT. The chaplain was a prior service SF comms guy (better S-6 than the S-6). His assistant was an ex 11C Batt Boy, had ETSd and decided to come back as as a chaplains assistant. Needless to say, everyone wanted to get JMPId by chappie!

In T2K I thinking theyd become something like the Preacher and Hull in Pale Rider.

[Ursus Maior]

Shepherd Book in Firefly comes to mind also.

[Homer]

Very apt. Its hard to feel sorry for yourself when the chaplain is gutting out that movement to daylight with you.

[Higgipedia]

In the U.S. military, chaplains are supposed to be unarmed, so I'm a bit puzzled about these stories of chaplains carrying such a variety of weapons. I've reviewed over 120 TO&Es and only two mention chaplain being armed, and equally interesting, both of these were removed within 12 months of being released. IMHO this indicates that when a chaplain is armed, they are violating military regulations, as well as the Geneva Conventions. Having said this, there are no regulations forbidding a chaplain from earning a shooting badge, they simply cannot carry a weapon in a combat zone.

Most Chaplains I've been around downrange were unarmed, as they are supposed to be. I can think of one, who was an Weapons Squad Leader in Gulf War I, who insisted on having an M4 when we were convoying out during the initial Iraq invasion in 2003. He was one of those crusading Baptist types who thought all of the Muslims were animals. PFC Higgins wasn't going to challenge a Chaplain, that's for sure. Of course, I have a pretty contentious relationship with the concept and influence of chaplains in the military. Largely because of guys like this.

[Higgipedia]

An awful lot of Chaplain Assistants I ran into had a Rambo complex. I'm not sure if it was out of a sense that they had a responsibility to defend an unarmed chaplain, or trying to compensate for their reputation as the "softest" MOS in the Army!

HA. We had a Chaplain's Assistant who pissed hot for cocaine on a battalion-wide drug test. When they confronted her about it, she said it must have been what she THOUGHT was powdered sugar her boyfriend put on her pancakes.

[Raellus]

Polish Military Chaplains

I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that Poland was alone amongst the Warsaw Pact armed forces in having a military chaplain service (due to Poland's strong Catholic tradition), but I have so far not been able to confirm or bely this hazy memory.

Does anyone know one way or the other

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[kato13]

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/13/world/protests-capture-holiday-in-poland.html

NYT confirms as of 1988

Poland's are the only armed forces in the Warsaw Pact to have chaplains.

[Ursus Maior]

The Polish did things differently to an extant that often breaks the idea of a monolithic Kremlin controlled Eastern bloc asunder. They also used different small unit structures than the rest, e. g. they didn't switch away from GPMGs to LMGs and had tripods assigned to their third squads in platoons for fire support. They also built their own wheeled APCs and amphibious APCs together with the Czechoslovakians, instead of buying BTR-60s or BTR-50s (although some of the latter were initially purchased).

Also, they allegedly were focussing more on individual initiative than was taught in general Soviet doctrine. They didn't quite switch towards "mission-type tactics" (German: "Auftragstaktik"), but freedom of decisions was greater with NCOs and subaltern officers than in the Soviet Army.