The US Army devotes a lot of attention and energy to making sure that soldiers are able to worship according to their conscience. It's not always practical to have a leader (priest, rabbi, minister) for every religion at every base, but the Army tries to accomodate everyone as best it can. Here at Camp Adder soldiers can attend more than one Catholic mass every week, Jewish services on most Friday evenings, muslim prayers on Fridays, and many "flavors" of Protestant services. Also, the Italians have their own Catholic Chapel and we've even arranged Orthodox Christian services for some of the Bosnian soldiers.

Unfortunately, the US Army didn't anticipate anyone with my religion coming here. I looked around, but I couldn't find any information on services to worship the Spirit of the Great White Bear. Josh told me that I should talk to the chaplain about this. I went over to his trailer. When I walked in, I met SGT Jessica ("JR") Johnson. She is one of the Brigade Chaplain's assistants. She explained that it is the job of the Brigade "Ministry Team" to help all soldiers with their spiritual needs. Although she herself is not a follower of the Great White Bear, she told me that she would help as best she could. She took me to meet the Brigade Chaplain, MAJ Wendt

Here Chaplain (MAJ) Wendt is talking to me about when and where to hold services to worship the Spirit of the Great White Bear:

Chaplain Wendt is a very animated guy! I didn't realize what a loud voice he had, and at first I thought he was getting mad at me, so I tried to hide behind SGT Johnson:

Once I realized that the Chaplain just had a loud voice and was not mad at me, we were able to talk things over for a while. The Chaplain was very helpful, just like SGT Johnson said he would be. He explained that while Army chaplains are all ordained clergy in a particular faith (like Catholic Priests, Lutheran Ministers, Jewish Rabbis, etc), they all understand that their duty is to ALL soldiers. They don't try to convert anyone, but rather make sure that all soldiers are able to observe their religion as much as possible. Their assistants, like SGT Johnson, are not ordained. Their job is to assist the chaplain with leading religious services, administrative matters, and a wide variety of other tasks. Also, part of their job is to protect the chaplain, because he is not allowed to carry a weapon. Personally, I don't think Chaplain Wendt needs much help - if he were ever in danger, he could just scare away the enemy by yelling at them:

In the end, Chaplain Wendt and SGT Johnson were able to find a room in the chapel annex that the other polar bears and I could use for services. He was not able to find a source for the Ceremonial Seal Blubber that we use in our rituals, but he promised to keep looking.