Military Chaplain Spouse Resources

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Military chaplain spouse resources & books

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Resources for the military chaplain spouse

Chaplain crest items available for purchase

Wooden plaque with chaplain crest engraved

http://www.wmwoodworks.com/Unit.html (scroll to bottom of page)

Chaplain crest logos available for download

(courtesy Jennifer Cook)

Current chaplain crest, black & white (JPG)

This is a JPG modified as one color, often used by Cricut or Silhouette machine. This is meant to be small and for easy weeding. Details have been taken out and simplified.

Current chaplain crest, color (JPG)

Current chaplain crest, color, no background (PNG)

This file is a PNG with a drop shadow. PNG files have transparent backgrounds and should, in theory, be able to be placed on a color and not see a white box around it.

Current chaplain crest, color (AI)

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Vintage chaplain crest, black & white (PNG)

Vintage chaplain crest, color (PNG)

Books for the military chaplain spouse

Benita Koeman of Operation We Are Here is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. When you purchase a product that is linked to Amazon, I earn a small commission which in turn helps me to continue with my mission of providing resources to the military community and military supporters. Learn more...

From Reveille to Retreat

The journey of a lifetime

Editors: Wendy Brzezinski and Karen Bailey, Copyright @ 2015

FREE book download (pdf)

FREE bookmark of topics (pdf)

(printing 2 copies, double-sided = 4 bookmarks)

The Chaplain spouse has a unique position and lifestyle that can be both exciting and challenging. Each spouse enters into a unique and sometimes completely unfamiliar Army culture and is expected automatically to know how to survive, thrive, and be supportive. This can be daunting but, at the same time,is an opportunity to grow and experience a time of adventure and discovery of the world and of oneself.

In From Reveille to Retreat, the Chaplain spouse authors offer you a glimpse into the world of the Chaplain spouse-- from walking onto post for the first time to retirement. Through their insightful and poignant sharing, they have brought a wealth of knowledge, information,stories, humor, and sage advice. The Chaplain spouse of the Chaplain Corps have shared their hearts with you.

The authors share insights into numerous questions:

What is this Army all about?

What do I say without getting my Chaplain in trouble?

What is this Army language?

Why so many acronyms?

Is PCS a medical condition?

What do I say to the commander's wife or husband without looking silly?

Where do I go for information on schools and medical help?

Why is a chapel not a church or synagogue or mosque?

What should I do...what should I not do?

What are all those bugle sounds during the day on post?

How do I fit in with the chapel programs?

Are Hail and Farewells important?

How do Chaplain Family kids like themilitary?

How do I survive and thrive during deployments?

What is a Family Readiness Group, and how do I fit iin?

Why i s saluting so important?

What do OER, ORB, ERB, and NCOER mean?

Is the PX the best place to shop?

This book is a celebration of all Chaplain spouses and all they bring to the Chaplain Corps and the Army Family. Their courage, tenacity,love,and compassion are seen through their stories and information shared. So sit back, learn, and enjoy. Laugh a little and cry a little. Expect to be encouraged and strengthened for the journey of a lifetime.

The editors, Wendy Brzezinski and Karen Bailey, are the wives of Army Chaplains with over forty years of Army life. They wish for this handbook and guide to be a resource and foundation for a wonderful adventure in the Army and Chaplain Corps.

Nobody Told Me

A guide for pastors' wives

This book, Nobody Told Me, A Guide for Pastors' Wives is the first publication for Kay Cocklin. She has been the wife of a Pastor/Chaplain for forty years - thirteen years were spent as a pastor's wife, and twenty-seven years as a chaplain's spouse.

Sacred Spaces

My journey to the heart of military marriage

Author: Corie Weathers, Copyright @ 2016

Like many military couples, Corie and her husband, Matt, an Army chaplain, accumulated significant unshared moments during Matt’s deployments. Matt lost friends and fellow soldiers to combat in Afghanistan. On the home front, Corie sat with bereaved military families and walked through dark days with new widows as a friend and professional counselor. When Matt returned, he and Corie began using the term “sacred spaces” for these and other significant moments they had experienced independently. After multiple deployments, sacred spaces were taking up a lot of emotional room in their relationship.

When US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter invited Corie, as the 2015 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year, to join his team on a one-week overseas holiday trip, she eagerly accepted, hoping to gain a better understanding of her husband’s deployment experience and lessen the impact sacred spaces had on her marriage.

Corie didn’t choose the timing or circumstances of her trip with Secretary Carter—Christmastime, in the midst of her family’s second cross-state move in six months—but it seemed the perfect opportunity for Corie and Matt to gain a better understanding of each other’s perspectives.

Matt experienced life on the home front with new eyes as he moved their household belongings, prepared for the holidays, and settled their two young sons into their new school.

At US military installations and aboard aircraft and aircraft carriers in Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf, Corie spoke with military families stationed overseas and deployed troops on the ground, in the air, and at sea. She paid close attention to her own sensory and emotional reactions to these new environments and recorded her thoughts each day via video log, blog, and social media. She also wrote about the trip for Military Spouse magazine.

While she wanted to inform other military families about her discoveries, Corie deeply hoped the trip would impact her own marriage as well. She didn’t choose the locations the entourage would visit, yet fate landed her in the very place that had changed the trajectory of her life.

As Corie sat in the belly of a C-17, where her husband had said goodbye to the remains of friends and fellow soldiers, as she touched with her own hands the memorial at FOB Fenty and reflected on her grief as a care team member following the battle of COP Keating, Corie realized this journey was about much more than the push-pull of duty away from loved ones.

This was a journey to the heart of her marriage, a place where she would have to leave behind her resentment in exchange for ground she and her husband had surrendered to hurt, misunderstanding, loss—and to Afghanistan.

Corie set out on this trip hoping to gain a better understanding of her husband and his deployment experience, but along the way, she discovered a whole new perspective of herself and her military marriage. By sharing her story, Corie hopes to help other military couples strengthen their marriages.