Military Chaplain - Noncombatant Status

Noncombatant Status

The Geneva Conventions are silent on whether chaplains may bear arms. However, the Conventions do state (Protocol I, 8 June 1977, Art 43.2) that chaplains are noncombatants: they do not have the right to participate directly in hostilities.

It is generally assumed that during World War II, chaplains were unarmed. Crosby describes an incident where a US chaplain became a trained tank gunner and was removed from the military for this "entirely illegal, not to mention imprudent" action. At least some British chaplains serving in the Far East, however, were armed: George MacDonald Fraser recalls "the tall figure of the battalion chaplain, swinging along good style with his .38 on his hip" immediately behind the lead platoon during a battalion attack. Fraser asks, "if the padre shot, what would the harvest be ... apart from three ringing cheers from the whole battalion?"

In recent years both the UK and US have required chaplains, but not medical personnel, to be unarmed in combat, although the US does not prohibit chaplains from earning marksmanship awards or participating in marksmanship competitions. Other nations, notably Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and also Australia, make it an issue of individual conscience. There are anecdotal accounts that even US and UK chaplains have at least occasionally unofficially borne weapons: Chaplain (then Captain) James D. Johnson, of the 9th Infantry Division, Mobile Riverine Force in Vietnam describes (Combat Chaplain: A Thirty-Year Vietnam Battle) carrying the M-16 rifle while embedded with a combat patrol. Since 1909 US Chaplains on operations have been accompanied by an armed 'Chaplain Assistant'. However, perhaps on this occasion it was felt that an unarmed uniformed man would draw unwelcome attention.

Captured chaplains are not considered prisoners of war (Third Convention, 12 August 1949, Chapter IV Art 33) and must be returned to their home nation unless retained to minister to prisoners of war.

Inevitably, serving chaplains have died in action. The US Army and Marines lost 100 chaplains killed in action during World War II: the third highest casualty rate behind the infantry and the Army Air Corps. Many have been decorated for bravery in action (five have won Britain's highest award for gallantry, the Victoria Cross). The Chaplain's Medal for Heroism is a special US military decoration given to military chaplains who have been killed in the line of duty, although it has to date only been awarded to the famous Four Chaplains, all of whom died in the USAT Dorchester sinking in 1943 after giving up their lifejackets to others.