(NAVEDTRA 10052) is revised and issued eachyear by the Chief of Naval Education and Train-ing. Figure II-1-3 shows the front cover of thispublication for calendar year 1982. The RPshould check with [he personnel in the localcommand’s educational services office to ensurethat this bibliography is current and readilyavailable for use in the Command Religious Pro-gram (CRP).Since this module is the first materialdeveloped for the RP rating, the remainder ofthis chapter will be devoted to describing: theChaplain Corps,military chapels and theirorigin, the CRP at a shore installation andaboard ship, the history of the Religious Pro-gram Specialist rating, RP skills and knowledge,RP duty stations, and CRP terminology. Thisbackground information is provided in order tobetter understand the place of the RP rating intoday’s Navy.THE CHAPLAIN CORPSThe second article of Navy Regulations wasadopted by the Continental Congress on 28November 1775 and made provision for divineservices afloat. It reads:“The Commander of the ships of the thir-teen United Colonies are to take care thatdivine service be performed twice a day onboard, and a sermon preached on Sundays,unless bad weather or other extraordinaryaccidents prevent.”Although chaplains are not specifically men-tioned in this article, it is obvious that Congressintended that the clergy be placed on boardnaval vessels to conduct worship services.A Congregational minister, the ReverendEdwards Brooks, was the first chaplain to servein the Continental Navy. He reported aboard theHancock in the spring of 1777 and was subse-quently captured by the British in May 1777.Sometime later he was exchanged for a capturedBritish chaplain.The Reverend William Balch was commis-sioned a chaplain in the United States Navy on30 October 1799. He is considered 10 be the firstcommissioned chaplain of the United StatesNavy. However, there is clear evidence thatWilliam Austin was serving as a chaplainwithout a commission aboard the Constitutionnearly a year before Reverend Balch reportedfor duty. Since the practice of using unordainedmen as chaplains was common in the early daysof the Navy, it is not known whether Mr. Austinwas an ordained minister. However, since heperformed duties as a chaplain and was listed inthe official records of the ship, it appears thatthe distinction of being the first United StatesNavy chaplain belongs to him.During this period, Navy chaplains were ex-pected to serve as teachers of various subjects aswell as perform ministerial functions. In answerto an inquiry made by a member of Congressregarding the duties of a Navy chaplain, theSecretary of the Navy on 21 February 1811wrote:“The duties of a chaplain in the Navy areto read prayers at stated periods; to per-form all funeral ceremonies; to lecture orpreach to the crew on Sundays; to instructthe midshipmen and volunteers in writing,arithmetic, navigation, and lunar observa-tions, and when required to teach otheryouths of the ship.”This statement summarizes the regulationswhich had been set forth in 1802. Therefore, it isobvious that the main burden of preparingjunior officers for their future duties restedupon chaplains. This trend continued until theGovernment established the Naval Academy atAnnapolis in 1845.After the establishment of the NavalAcademy, chaplains began to devote more atten-tion to their ministerial duties rather than toteaching midshipmen. However, the regulationsof 1939 shown in figure II-1-4 clearly indicatethat (he chaplain was expected to assist person-nel who were deficient in certain academic sub-jects (item number 5 in the figure). The duties ofthe chaplain were not significantly modified dur-ing World War II.This module is not designed to cover thecomplete historyof the Chaplain Corps.However, it is important for the RP to knowthat Navy chaplains have distinguishedthemselves inseveral professional areasthroughout United States history. The foregoing1-3
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