WASHINGTON — Active-duty service members who feel called to the chaplaincy will no longer have to leave the military to prepare for it, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Friday in a video announcement launching the Chaplain In-Service Procurement Program.
Under the program as Hegseth described it, a service member who holds a bachelor’s degree can remain in uniform while earning a graduate theological degree. The member keeps pay, allowances and benefits, the service branch covers tuition, and the member then returns to service as a chaplain, he said.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announces the Chaplain In-Service Procurement Program. (Video: U.S. Department of War)
“President Trump’s Department of War will not make you choose between the uniform and your calling,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth said chaplains are “the moral backbone of this military,” and that in the past a warfighter who felt called to the chaplaincy had only one option: take off the uniform, pay for seminary personally, and then try to find a way back in. He said he recently established an Office of Religious Affairs to support the spiritual readiness of the force and called the chaplain program that office’s first win.
The announcement did not include application dates, branch-by-branch eligibility rules or the number of slots available. Those details still need reporting from an official written release.
