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One chaplain returns, while chaplain candidate departs

  • Published
  • By Mike W. Ray
  • Staff Writer
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  A former chaplain candidate who served in the 552nd Air Control Wing and was ordained in Oklahoma has returned to Tinker, while a chaplain candidate who performed a month-long training session here is now back home in California.

Capt. Ralph T. Elliott Jr. arrived here in late June to join the new 72nd Air Base Wing chaplain, Lt. Col. Paul D. Sutter, as a member of the Tinker Chaplain Corps. Other members of the group are Maj. Scott P. Nupson, the deputy Wing chaplain for the past three years, along with Chaplain Capts. J. Stephen Hicks, Kraig Smith and Immanuel Okwaraocha.

Other members of the chapel staff are the superintendent, Master Sgt. Mario Regalado, along with Tech. Sgts. Lachanda Crathers, Joshua Gestrich and Kirt Dicen. In addition, IMAs attached to Tinker are Chaplain Maj. John Key, Chaplain Capt. Andy Peck, Staff Sgt. Fair Rezanka, and Staff Sgt. Lisa Cacao, who operates the Latté Lounge.

Meanwhile, 2nd Lt. James Lanford, a chaplain candidate, completed a brief tour here recently.

Captain Elliott's arrival boosted the base Chaplain Corps up to six; Tinker has had only five chaplains for the last three years. Nine chaplains were assigned here in 2007, but by the summer of 2009 their ranks had slipped to five members. "A manning review helped us to get another paid billet," Chaplain Nupson explained.

Captain Elliott has been in the Air Force for 18 years; this is his second tour at Tinker. He enlisted in the Air Force in September 1994 and served here in 1995-2003, initially in Airborne Warning and Control System radar maintenance.

Subsequently he became a chaplain assistant and served an internship as a chaplain candidate. "When I was working on the flight line, my wife (Cherie) and I attended the base chapel," Captain Elliott said. "I rededicated my life to Christ," and Maj. Herbert Coker, then the base chaplain, "became my mentor."

Captain Elliott was ordained as a minister in 2001 at Fairview Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, where he served as an associate minister for four years. Afterward he earned a Master's of Divinity degree at American Christian College and Seminary in Oklahoma City, and has been an Air Force chaplain for the past nine years.

A military chaplain is expected to perform myriad duties, he related: preside at weddings and funerals, lead Sunday School classes and direct Bible studies, deliver sermons, provide spiritual and marriage counseling, advise leadership, offer suggestions about how to handle financial matters, and more.

For example, Captain Elliott is trained in suicide prevention techniques and traumatic stress response, and was appointed recently to the 72nd ABW Integrated Design Team that promotes the Voluntary Protection Program.

"We are military officers as well as chaplains, and are on duty 24/7," he noted.
After eight years at Tinker, Captain Elliott and his family departed on June 2, 2003, less than a month after their house was leveled by a May 8, 2003, tornado that ripped through south Oklahoma City, Moore and Midwest City.

Chaplain Elliott was assigned to Cannon AFB in New Mexico for three years; was transferred to Misawa Air Base in Japan for three years; and spent three years at Kessler AFB in Mississippi.

He also drew a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, at Bagram Air Base. While there, "We got mortared" and were on the receiving end of missile attacks, he recalled. Nevertheless, the morale of U.S. military personnel serving in Afghanistan was "unbelievably high," he said.

"It's a challenge when you're away from your family, serving in a combat zone," the chaplain said. "But we were needed." Service members overseas experience a range of separation disruptions, he related, such as missing the birth of a child, the deaths of family members back home, receiving "Dear John" letters, and getting maimed or burned in a firefight.

Lieutenant Lanford, a chaplain candidate, returned home after a 35-day tour here. The lieutenant came to Tinker on July 1 and flew home to his family on Aug. 4. He and his wife, Joy, have four pre-school aged children, and a fifth is on the way.

While at Tinker, Lieutenant Lanford visited several units on base, including Security Forces and the 3rd Herd, helped at the Latté Lounge, preached "a couple of times," and "got an idea of what it's like on the administrative side," he said.

"Our job is to provide for the free exercise of religion for all Airmen," regardless of their religious preferences, the lieutenant said. "We do our best to make sure all their religious needs are met."

The lieutenant is finishing his last year at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, north of San Francisco, Calif.; he said he expects to complete his degree program and graduate next May. The 34-year-old Southern Baptist said there are qualifications that need to be met with both his endorser and the Air Force before he can become an active-duty Air Force chaplain.

Lieutenant Lanford took his Air Force oath in September 2010. He envisions serving in the Air Force Reserve while performing ministerial duties in a civilian church somewhere in the Midwest or South.