Chaplains and non-combatant status

As I am no longer in service I suppose I could answer this one honestly. There where times in the national guard (after leaving active service as a 13B) where I knew more about the crew served weapons we where training on than anyone else in the unit simply because I had carried said weapon in combat years before. I know I once arrived at a .50 range with a unit that hadn't brought a subject matter expert and no one else knew how to assemble the .50. I didn't touch it physically, but I certainly directed the setting up of the weapon. Personally, I never met a soldier who thought it was bad that I knew that much about weapons. They always thought it was cool. They frequently stated their opinion that the non-combatant status of chaplains was stupid. My personal opinion which I can now share since I am no longer in service is that we have been fighting a war in which chaplains are not respected by enemy combatants, and if anything they would be a more desirable target; thus, we should allow chaplains to be armed if they feel like they need to be and if they get permission from their endorsing agency. We arm medics. We train medics on crew served weapons despite not being supposed to do so. The wording of the Geneva convention states that chaplains may appear as combatants if they hold weapons; and it's not as much a prohibition as it is a warning. If someone sees you with a gun they may think you are a combatant and shoot you. Other Western nations have chaplains who are armed; chaplain's in the Danish Home Guard for example are non combatants who are also armed while deployed.

Chaplains are protected under the Geneva Conventions for warfare. They have to carry a special id card that prevents them from being taken prisoner of war, and allows them access to POW's without being detained. Now with all of that being said, I would hope that Chaplains and doctors that if being overrun and are facing death, will pick up a weapon, aim true and shoot steady, and defend their life and those around them. But by doing that they forfeit their Geneva convention status as a noncombatant. As a matter of fact there are regulations that prohibit their offices from being collocated with military leadership and operations so as to not be lumped in as combatants. If they are defending their life, I would absolutely lose no respect for them.

I for one, if under attack I would want every one out there with me to be helping to fend off attacks whether it be paster, doctor, cook, ect ect. I remember the advice our drill gave us, when we were not so political correct ( and our enemy is not) we train our special operations soldiers to jump in and fight from the rear forward, and so does our enemy so our support and remf are probably going to be fighting more special trained soldiers than the front line would be. So if he or she are in a uniform they need to carry a weapon and be perficent with it

My pastor growing up had conceal carry, was an NRA instructor and had a FFL. So no, I have no issues with a Chaplain handling a weapon outside of official duties.