Specialty Summary. Builds a culture of spiritual care for Air Force members, their families and other authorized personnel, while pursuing the Chaplain Corps vision to Glorifying God, Serving Airmen, and Pursuing Excellence. Facilitate religious observances, pastoral care, and provide advice to leadership on spiritual, ethical, moral and morale issues. Meet the diverse needs of the multi-faith military community by managing religious programs, administrative, financial, and facility support. They recruit, train and organize volunteers for specific religious ministries. Uniquely trained in the principles of religious diversity, religious accommodation, major faith group requisites, privileged communications and religious program management. Also, trained in suicide-intervention skills, crisis intervention counseling, traumatic stress response and religious support to hospitals and mortuaries. Chaplain Assistants are considered visible reminders of the Holy and conduct themselves in a manner that brings credit, pride and honorable distinction to the Chaplain Corps.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Manages, develops, and implements ministry needs assessment and identifies available resources to meet the spiritual, religious, ethical and moral needs of Air Force personnel, their families and other authorized personnel. Formulates action plans for using resources including personnel, materiel, facilities and funding. Interprets and implements policies and procedures inherent to the free exercise of religion. Assists chaplains in researching issues and advising commanders in the resolution of accommodation of religious practices.
Manages support of religious observances to include worship services, liturgies, rites, ceremonies, and memorial services. Coordinates worship-space requirements and oversees laity in preparing facilities, use of multimedia equipment and religious accouterments. Identifies and coordinates requirements for religious observances with medical, mortuary affairs and other agencies as needed.
Manages support of pastoral care to include counseling and referral, spiritual nurture, renewal and retreats, visitation and religious instruction. Executes crisis intervention counseling to include suicide intervention, traumatic stress response. Executes religious support to hospitals and mortuaries. Conducts unit visitation. Applies conflict-management skills. Organizes and coordinates stewardship and social-outreach activities. Coordinates Chaplain Corps activities with military and civilian organizations.
Manages religious support team (RST) functions, personnel readiness and deployment taskings. Develops, coordinates and reviews operations plans and annexes. Coordinates religious and pastoral support requirements with base supporting agencies. Manages contingency operations during major and non-major (e.g. humanitarian relief) combat operations. Coordinates religious and pastoral support requirements with base agencies. Manages chapel control center. Prepares and presents religious customs and culture briefings. Partners with chaplains in responding to aircraft crash and mass casualty sites, hostage situations, casualty collection points, evacuation and deployment processing points and work centers. Conducts spiritual triage by applying listening, observation and interviewing skills. Protects privileged communication obtained through chaplain pastoral counseling and intervention counseling. Coordinates and facilitates force protection.
Manages Chaplain Corps resources.
Manages manpower, personnel and volunteer programs. Identifies manpower requirements, develops position descriptions and assigns workloads. Manages attached reserve component personnel requirements and training. Manages laity training, involvement and recognition. Recruits, organizes, trains, oversees, and coordinates with volunteers to support specific religious ministries, maintains religious facilities and accouterments, and safeguards religious resources.
Manages financial support—Appropriated Funds, Chapel Tithes and Offering Funds (CTOF) and Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Funds. Assesses religious program priorities and fiscal support capabilities—identifies resource requirements, ascertains appropriate funding sources, submits budgets, reviews and coordinates budget execution, implements adjustments and conducts follow-up. Allocates resources and administers fiscal internal controls. Prepares statements of assurance. Ensures safeguarding of religious offerings. Advises parish councils and laity on fiscal support procedures.
Manages facilities. Assesses and processes requests for religious facility maintenance, modification and new construction to meet ecclesiastical and religious diversity requirements. Develops and coordinates self-help projects. Schedules and evaluates facility usage and maintenance.
Manages administration. Prepares written communications. Develops graphic presentations. Inputs and retrieves statistical data. Maintains, stages and disposes of official records. Develops self-inspection checklists and performs self-assessments. Develops and maintains public relations materials, professional information resources and web-based publicity. Facilitates protocol support and manages special projects and programs pertaining to distinguished visitors.
Specialty Qualifications:
Knowledge. Knowledge is mandatory of the concepts and principles of religious diversity, religious accommodation, major faith group requirements, privileged communications, conflict management, screening and interviewing techniques, crisis intervention, trauma response, suicide intervention, volunteer and religious projects and programs management, resource administration and internal controls, contingency planning, deployment and mobilization procedures, personnel readiness, force protection and physical security of resources.
Education. For entry into this specialty, completion of courses in English composition, accounting, computer operations, world religions and human behavior is desirable.
Training. The following training is mandatory for award of the AFSC indicated:
5R031. Completion of a chaplain assistant apprentice course.
5R071. Completion of a chaplain assistant craftsman course.
Experience. The following experience is mandatory for award of the AFSC indicated:
5R051. Qualification in, and possession of, AFSC 5R031. Also, experience in supporting religious observances, pastoral care, readiness and deployments, and managing administrative functions and religious resources.
5R071. Qualification in, and possession of, AFSC 5R051. Also, experience in managing Chaplain Corps manpower, personnel and volunteers, readiness and deployment operations, administrative functions, chapel financial management and internal controls, and religious programs.
5R091. Qualification in, and possession of, AFSC 5R071. Also, experience in leading and managing religious support activities.
Other. The following are mandatory as indicated: For entry into this specialty: Prior qualification in any AFSC at the 5-skill level or higher (or 3-skill level if no 5-skill level exists.) No history of emotional instability, personality disorder, or other unresolved mental health problems. No record of conviction for any major offenses, or sexual-, larceny-, theft-, or assault-related serious offenses listed in AFI 36-2002, Regular Air Force and Special Category Accessions.
Letter from the Wing Chaplain and NCOIC recommending or nonrecommending the individual for retraining into the Chaplain Assistant Career Field.
