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For clarity, the non-combatant status does not mean that chaplains and medical personnel cannot carry weapons. All of our doctors and corpsmen carried rifles and most pistols as well during our deployment. The Geneva Conventions allow for self defense.

The unarmed chaplain is U.S. Military policy. It came about as late as the Civil War. Certain countries do allow their chaplains to carry defensive weapons.

Shootsir,

Yes that is the U.S. Military policy. I agree with you on this, but that decision is way above my payrgrade. The Marines always took good care of me.

My final decision came after returning from a tour of duty in Iraq. Over many years I had been in situations where I should have been carrying. The worst of these was when my wife and I were kidnapped by two thugs who took as back to the retail store where I worked so they could rob it. This was before the days of Texas CHL. I currentky work at a church in a less than gentle part of town. My predecessor had two occasions where the church offices were broken into while he was present. I am at the church at least two evenings a week. I have owned, shot and enjoyed pistols for years. On occasion I would carry to the church if I was there late at night.

After returning from Iraq, it struck me as odd that I was less secure here than I was in a combat zone. I am a chaplain which means I cannot carry a weapon. I always had a body guard with me outside the wire. I shoot with the Marines whenever they are at the range and they were more than happy to tuck an extra M-4 into the vehicle if we were traveling by convoy. Even in such a hostile environment I was protected and, if needed, had the means to defend myself. I did not have that same sense of security when I got home. Ultimately that was the driving force behind getting my CHL. (It also didn't hurt that the fees were waived for active military. As a reservist I qualified and that made the process even easier.)

So now I carry habitually. I pray that all I will ever have to do is carry.