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

People make career changes. He may not have always been a chaplain.

Like seeing a mustang with a good conduct you better be sure you are on solid ground when you make an accusation

I had a combat action badge from my deployment as a 13B years before becoming a chaplain. I had a friend with a special forces combat patch from before he became a chaplain.

Any Soldier who comes under fire can be put in for a CAB. I've also seen Chaplains who received awards, citations, etc. as Service Members BEFORE becoming a Chaplain.

I might regret saying this, but here goes...the Army seems to spend an inordinate of time focusing on bling. As I've followed different comment feeds on RP, I see dialogues about CABs, combat patches, how to get this ribbon, this badge, this tab, etc. Instead of chasing shiny stuff, why not just get satisfaction from doing your job well and not worry about what you (or someone else) has on their chest?

He may have been SF prior to becoming a Chaplain. I know very little about the CAB, but I don't see why a Chaplain would be exempt. Look at the Chaplains who received the MOH in Vietnam. I had the true pleasure to meet and be in the same command of a Full Navy Captain Chaplain, who wore a WW2 CIB, from Army service, and the Navy Combat Action Ribbon from Vietnam, which used to be equal to the CIB. He was a great guy, but no one...I mean no one gave him any BS. After the morning prayers, he grabbed his golf clubs and hit the beach, when not on the gun line.

I served with a Chaplain for a number of years who was Airborne, Ranger and Pathfinder. He retired recently as a Brigadier General. He was a the "Real Deal"! Don't judge a book by its cover.

When I was an instructor I saw a few Group chaplains come through just to get a tab. It use to piss me off as we are not ranger school. If you are not going to do what we do, then you don't have the right to wear the same tab we do. They do it to be allowed to stay in Special Operations. As sorry as I may think it is, its legit. He may have gone through the Q-course as a Chaplin.

When I was a contractor in Iraq we took a pounding at Camp Taji on 4 May, 2011 (I think, might have been 3 May though). Nobody fired one shot in defense, but every "Green Suiter" on the base at that time got the combat action award--it was reported to have been the worst attack in Iraq up to that point. I think this included all Chaplains, Medics, and Lawyers present--the three least likely to see combat. You know what they say--timing is everything...

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

I was a Chaplain Assistant assigned to 3d SFG and one of our chaplains went through the SFQC while I was there. It's not common for this to happen but it has happened.