Pres. Packer tells military chaplains: 'We depend on you'
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At the moment, 75 LDS men serve their country and the Church as chaplains in all branches of the U.S. armed services, an impressive corps, but it has not continuously been so.
Speaking Oct. 4 to an audience of LDS chaplains and their wives in the auditorium of the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City, President Boyd K. Packer recalled a time in the early 1960s when the number of chaplains in the Church had dwindled to five or six.
"Our men were retiring after full service, and we had great difficulty in getting replacements because the regulations had been set that a chaplain, in order to qualify, had to have 90 semester hours in an accredited university seminary," President Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve, said during the final session of the 2011 LDS Chaplains Seminar.
Of course, the Church, with its lay leadership, does not have ministers trained in university seminaries.
"We tried to abide by that," President Packer said. "We knew we wanted to keep the chaplains."
But efforts, including those Elder Harold B. Lee, then of the Quorum of the Twelve, to exercise his influence through his membership on boards of prestigious businesses in the East, failed to get an accommodation, and the number of LDS chaplains continued to wane.
"The men in the Church who would want to be chaplains couldn't meet the academic requirements as interpreted by the government," President Packer said.
A member of the Church's military relations committee, Elder Packer was called out of a meeting one day and told that an appointment had been made regarding the matter with the president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson. Elder Packer was to meet with him the next day.
Not yet a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, and having been a General Authority as an Assistant to the Twelve for only about three years, he wondered what to do.
"As I was leaving the building, I stopped to see Brother Lee," he recalled. "I said, 'Do you have any counsel?' and he said, 'Yes I do. Just remember this isn't 1830, and there aren't just six of us.'"
The remark alluded to the formal organization of the Church on April 6, 1830, with six members and to the Church's struggle to survive in the early days in the face of oppression and persecution.
"That was greatly encouraging to me," President Packer said.
He went to Washington and met with President Johnson, who sent him to Cyrus Vance, assistant secretary of defense.
"Tell me what it is you want," the government official said. "A fair hearing," was the reply.
Elder Packer was accompanied, he said, by U.S. Sen. Howard Cannon, a Church member who was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
After a subsequent meeting with the secretary of defense a concession was worked out "that is in force now, and here you are," he recounted, "and we've had a steady stream of wonderful men who have made their way through their service and have just been good Latter-day Saints."
He acknowledged that the chaplains shoulder much responsibility to serve well. "And you do serve well," he said. "The message I have for you brethren is we love you, we're proud of you and we depend on you."
He also had a message for each of the wives pertaining to their respective husbands: "You're better than he is." He added in jest, "You men are not good enough for your wives. I tell that to every man I meet, because it's always true!"
He observed that chaplains move with their families around the world to fulfill their responsibilities, and the process of doing that while raising a family is not easy for the wives. "You're much prayed for and much blessed. You are the spark and the spirit to keep the chaplains going."
President Packer said that during World War II, the question arose as to whether military service was honorable for a priesthood holder and that President David O. McKay said in general conference at the time that service in the military is approved of the Lord. President Packer cited the counsel in the Book of Mormon that inasmuch as a people are not guilty of the first or second offense, they shall not suffer themselves to be slain by their enemies.
He recalled an occasion when he was serving during World War II in the U.S. Army Air Forces and attended an LDS servicemen's conference on Okinawa. Many years later, Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve said he was at the same conference. They found a photo showing both of them at that conference.
Many of the Brethren, President Packer observed, have served in the military. "Some people can't put together the fact that we would willingly serve in the military, which is a circumstance in which we sometimes go to battle," he said. He recounted that on one occasion, a man asked him why he would do that. President Packer's response was, "Because I wouldn't want to leave it to someone else."
He noted that Church members have distinguished themselves in the military as generals, such as Elder Bruce A. Carlson of the Seventy, a retired general in the U.S. Air Force, who is director of the National Reconnaissance Office, and Elder Robert C. Oaks, a retired U.S. Air Force general and a former member of the Presidency of the Seventy. Chairman of the Church's Military Advisory Committee, he conducted the seminar session.
"All of you have your priesthood with you, and it will stay with you," President Packer told the chaplains. "You will be blessed and watched over, and your families will."
After President Packer concluded his remarks, he remained seated as the chaplains lined up in an orderly queue, each to greet him and shake his hand. In observance of a military tradition, many of the men gave to President Packer a "commander's coin," a small medallion bearing the insignia of the respective unit to which the member belongs. The coins are often given as a memento of gratitude, respect or camaraderie.
So many of the coins were presented to President Packer that Frank Clawson, director of military relations for the Church, collected them all into a display that was presented to the Church leader in his office the next day.
