Chaplain of the Marine Corps reinforces resiliency, leadership with 1st Marine Division

Twenty years ago, U.S. Marines and sailors with 1st Marine Division conducted critical missions as part of the opening moves of Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Carey Cash, now the chaplain of the Marine Corps, was on the ground as the battalion chaplain for 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st MARDIV, during the initial assault. This year, on April 5, Cash visited with leaders from across the division to reinforce and introduce resilience practices and promote leadership engagement.

“As we deal with challenges of resiliency for 22,000 Marines and sailors, Chaplain Cash’s messages really resonate with the Blue Diamond,” said U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Benjamin T. Watson, the commanding general of 1st Marine Division. “Chaplain Cash is a veteran and a hero in the division and we are happy to have him back here.”

Cash, a Memphis, Tennessee, native, talked with enlisted and commissioned leaders of the division before a memorial ceremony with his 5th Marines comrades from the OIF campaign.

Cash opened with, “There is an EGA stamped on my heart.” Cash served in multiple Marine Corps units and has Marines in his family. He feels very close to the Marine Corps.

“My experience with 1/5 in Iraq is a lantern in my life I still use to guide me,” said Cash during his talk. “Marines are willing to do things others are not; Marines are willing to go towards the sound of gunfire and draw lines in the sand when needed.”

Cash offered a lesson of transcendence and spiritual readiness to senior officers and staff noncommissioned officers of the division. He explained four effective ways for division Marines and sailors to be apart of something bigger than themselves: faith, community, purpose, and shared sacrifice for the greater good. Cash emphasized the link shown in studies between transcendence, the previous four factors, and a significant development in teamwork, alertness, will, and even suicide prevention.