Today I saw a chaplain with a long tab and a combat action badge. Is there a scenario where this is possible?

There is a chaplain that I had seen and he had the tab. When I spoke with his assistant he was a prior enlisted MSG before he had received his calling as a chaplain.

Yes. An enlisted SF qualified soldier attends seminary or divinity school and direct commissions as a chaplain and then earns his CAB as a chaplain.

legit...its just a school like Ranger school. Many people have many MOSs. Depending on the MOS he was working while deployed or in this case combat action incident a long tab does not guarantee a CIB nor do all long tabs serve in SF units.

I was stationed in Mannheim, Germany from 1999 to 2003 with 515th TC, 181 TC BN. We had a Chaplin Thompson there that wore the Navy Seals Trident from when he was enlisted and was part of the teams. He was an awesome man and I wish I could run into him again sometime, I know he made Major before I left.

In Bragg around '96, saw an Army Chaplain coming out of JFKSWC who also had a trident. One could think maybe he saw something that changed the scope of his beliefs.

SF Groups have chaplains. Could be prior service. When I went through BCT in 1977, our chaplain had a CIB, master jump wings and 173rd Airborne Bde patch on his right sleeve.

As a Chaplain Assistant, I have seen some of these. Most of these Chaplains join SF support groups along with their Chaplain Assistants.

Prior service!! Happens all the time in a lot of fields.

At NPTU - Charleston, our chaplain is an Air Force captain who before that was an Army reservist and before that a Navy Nuke Machinist Mate SW so he has Navy ESWS on his Air Force uniform

I know a chaplain who had a CIB, and sf tab. Did everything before his commission into the chaplain corps