Can a Chaplain Corp Officer become a Special Forces Officer?

[tim30006]

I have read of prior enlisted Special Forces qualified soldiers who have served as Chaplain Corp Officers. I know of non Special Forces qualified Chaplains who have served in the Groups. However, can a Chaplain Corp Officer enter and pass the Q course to become a Special Forces Officer, but then afterwards revert to primarily performing the duties of a Chaplain Corp Officer?

I have found two individuals that seem to have done this. Their stories seem kind of fishy to me. Can someone in the Special Forces community please verify these two gentlemen?

Rev. Peter Hofman
http://www.thebanner.org/news/2014/0...ial-forces-tab
http://www.thebanner.org/together/20...-the-oppressed

Captain Tim Crawley
http://soteriapublishinghouse.com/?p=5434
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/timothy-crawley/47/668/781

[JJ_BPK]

There is not enough information to vet these two individuals. But I can make an observations:

I had a classmate in Infantry OCS who was an ordained minster. He and I both were assigned to Ft Brag after jump school. Myself to 6th gp he was in 7th gp. We both went to JFK scuba school in KW. I can not verify if he got his "3" tag on his MOS.

The point SOME minsters preach but that is not their MOS.. This may be what Peter Hofman has accomplished.

Tim Crawley could also have followed the same route, but the article never says he graduated from the Q.

In either case, if they finished the course and have not served on a team, they are both stretching their resumes..

Of the available pictures, each wears a chaplain's cross, not crossed arrows..

[Joker]

I do not know either of these two gentlemen, but I have served with several Special Forces qualified chaplains. A couple of them were SF NCOs who went that route, the rest went to the "Q" course as chaplains.
Their stories do not seem fishy to me.

[GreenSalsa]

I know Pete Hofman. He is an ordained Chaplin that attended the SFQC, he is not an 18A. Occasionally, (I am not sure of the numbers or the pathway) SWCS allows support officers to attend the 18A pipeline.

The primary reason is to enable the person to provide better support to the Special Forces Regiment. I believe Pete said it best in the article “The type of men I am around . . . judge a book by its cover. The way they do this is by your uniform. With the Ranger tab and Special Forces tab I enter their brotherhood,” he explained. “When they need someone to turn to they can say, ‘This guy understands me.’”

I have seen this done with Veterinarians before too. To be clear, he will never serve on an ODA or command Special Forces units. He is a Chaplin and will probably spend the rest of his career supporting SF.

Back in the day(long before the Tab), there were chaplains who went through the SFOC and wore the flash while serving in group.

[Joker]

Originally Posted by WCH

Back in the day(long before the Tab), there were chaplains who went through the SFOC and wore the flash while serving in group.

Yep, we had Dr's., Dentist, Chaplins, and pilots in my SFQC class.

[CDRODA396]

As Joker stated, we have had many Chaplains headed to Groups (to be Chaplains) come through the course.

[spottedmedic111]

Originally Posted by GreenSalsa

I know Pete Hofman. He is an ordained Chaplin that attended the SFQC, he is not an 18A. Occasionally, (I am not sure of the numbers or the pathway) SWCS allows support officers to attend the 18A pipeline.

The primary reason is to enable the person to provide better support to the Special Forces Regiment. I believe Pete said it best in the article “The type of men I am around . . . judge a book by its cover. The way they do this is by your uniform. With the Ranger tab and Special Forces tab I enter their brotherhood,” he explained. “When they need someone to turn to they can say, ‘This guy understands me.’”

I have seen this done with Veterinarians before too. To be clear, he will never serve on an ODA or command Special Forces units. He is a Chaplin and will probably spend the rest of his career supporting SF.

Yea, Pete (CPT Hofman) and I deployed together in 2012 and he's been talking about earning his tab for years. And he's not the first I've had. My Chaplain (I forget his name) in 1/1 SFG(A) earned his tab while serving as a Chaplain in the early '90s. The program has been around a while.

[Utah Bob]

Mr. Spock, what's your take on this?
I find it fascinating, Jim. Although the logic escapes me.

[Sinister]

We had many, many different support branch officers qualified through the SF Detachment Officer Qualification Course in the mid-80s through the early 90s. Although they could be awarded a tab and the identifier they remained in their own branch (chaplains, docs, veterinarians, dentists, etc.) and wore their basic branch brass (crosses, caduceus, etc.).

They do NOT "Steal" a quota or slot from NCOs -- they will never become an 18B, C, D, E, F, or 180A.

DOD GWOT policy has been to rotate units overseas on short tours -- they have NOT PCS-planted a group flag forward which may or may not have required MOS-qual'ed other branch officers. Most officer management program restrictions from the Cold War seem to have gone away, others just got worse.

Having jump wings seems to still be the common denominator for being able to divert an MD to serve as the Group Surgeon / Dive Surgeon / Flight Surgeon, or one of the other branch officers into SMU, Group, and Battalion-level staff positions (dentist, vet, SIGO, Comptroller, etc.). We had a number who served as jumpmasters, one who was MFF-qualified, and a few others who some time during their careers went through Ranger school.

Padres had to have special permission/dispensation to carry a weapon through the course (since they are non-combatants per Geneva-Hague).

While they certainly looked odd with the cross on the collar they still had a long tab and occasionally a star or wreath on their wings.