Newspaper Page Text
Friday, April 1, 1966
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Sea bees Impressed by Chaplain
Like their Christian colleagues, Jewish military chaplains are
ojten called upon {o serve men of other faiths. The following
story from the February 12, 1966, issue of The Providence, H. I.,
Journal illustrates this point very clearly, Jaccording to the Na
tional Jewish Welfare Board Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy,
which recruits, endorses and serves Jewish chaplains in the U. S.
Armed Forces.
• • • *
Of 1,045 chaplains in the Navy
only 10 are rabbis on active duty
and one of these is at Davisville,
R. I., as the first chaplain U. S.
Naval Mobile Construction Bat
talion No. 6 has had since 1959.
And only one of the Seabees
in the battalion is Jewish.
This is the story of how Chap
lain (Lt. j.g.) David B. Saltzman
cares for the spiritual and moral
welfare of a battalion of men not
of his faith.
The way in which he has done
this since last November when
he was assigned to MCB6 while
it was stationed at Guantanamo
Bay drew high praise from Lt.
Cmdr. H. A. Tomhari, his com
manding officer.
Graduated from the Navy
Chaplains School in Newport less
than a month, the 27-year-old
chaplain took over his functions
at Guantanamo Bay “with youth
and vigor" and has won the res
pect of all officers and men of
the battalion,” said Commander
Tombari. “We’re proud to have
him,” he added, noting that his
battalion has the first Jewish
chaplain ever assigned to the
Seabees and the first ever to
serve at the Guantanamo Bay
Navy Base.
How does a Jewish chaplain
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CHAPLAIN SALTZMAN
keep busy when his battalion has
only one man of his faith?
Chaplain (“Father”) Saltzman,
as he is called by some, busied
himself at Guantanomo Bay by
arranging for Protestant and
Catholic chaplains from other
units to conduct services for his
men and by conducting Jewish
services himself for the entire
Jewish population of the huge
Naval Base. He also was avail
able to all Jewish personnel and
their families in the Caribbean
area, visiting San Salvador and
other stations on once-a-month
trips with Protestant and Cath
olic chaplains.
So interested is he in the wel
fare of his men that he attends
all of the Catholic Masses and
Protestant services he arranges
for MCBG to be sure that all goes
smoothly.
“It’s my responsibility to set up
the facilities, so I am at these
services to make sure that every
thing is in order, that the ushers
are briefed, and so on," he said.
“But I attend as an observer, not
as a participant.” .
At Guantanamo Bay, according
to his commanding officer, Chap
lain Saltzman went out on the
various job sites to see the men
and took up his position at the
battalion first aid station when
MCB6 was on the Naval Base’s
defense line.
All this, said Commander Tom
bari, is part of the chaplain’s job
of boosting morale. It also
made the men aware of religion
and boosted attendance at Cath
olic and Protestant services, he
added.
The commander also was im
pressed by an educational pro
gram Chaplain Saltzman had for
the battalion’s officers.
“We learned how deeply Chris
tianity is rooted in the Jewish
faith,” he said. “It was quite an
experience.”
Interviewed at MCB6 head
quarters at Davisville, Chaplain
Saltzman was quick to explain
that he does not try to give spir
itual guidance to men not of his
faith.
“If a man comes to me with
a religious question I refer him
to the priest or the minister,”
he said. “If he has personal
problems or one dealing with
general morale, I try to solve
them.” Such problems might
result from death or illness in a
man’s family, marital squabbles,
budget difficulties or any num
ber of things that “bug” a man
and hurt morale.
One of his own “biggest prob
lems was saying grace before
meals for the battalion officers
in the wardroom.”
He solved this by saying grace
up to the point where any Chris
tian formula contained in it
would be offensive to a Jew, “and
then I let the men go on silently
by themselves.”
Chaplain Saltzman seve r a 1
times cited the Chaplain Corps
motto, ‘‘Cooperation without
Compromise.”
It is this principle which made
it possible for Chaplain Saltzman
to promote a Christmas decora
tion contest in which the men
built creches and decorated their
barracks at Guantanomo Bay.
He also handled all the details
of arranging for a Christmas
carol show in which 102 persons.
Catholic and Protestant choirs,
Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, took
part. And he saw to it that the
Hanukkah candles were lighted
for this holiday at one side of the
wardroom while the Christmas
tree was at the other side.
Chaplain Saltzman was born in
Brooklyn, N. Y., “the heartland
of America,” he said. He is the
only son of Mr. and Mrs. Irving
Saltzman His father is a recent
ly retired furrier.
The chaplain attended the
Yeshiva Day School in Flatbush;
Brooklyn College, graduating in
1960, and Conservative Judaism’s
Jewish Theological Seminary of
America in New York City,
where he received his master’s
degree in 1963, and was ordain
ed last June.
He had applied for the chap
laincy during his senior year at
the seminary. He went on ac.ive
duty last August.
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