For the first time since 1954, a Southern Baptist has been nominated to lead the U.S. Army’s chaplains. The Army’s public affairs office announced May 10 that Chaplain Brigadier General Douglas Carver has been appointed to the grade of Major General for assignment as Chief of Chaplains.
Douglas CarverThe last chief of chaplains from the Southern Baptist Convention was Chaplain (MG) Ivan L. Bennett from 1952-1954.
In 2005, Carver became the Army’s 22nd deputy chief of chaplains and the first Southern Baptist chaplain to be promoted to the Chief of Chaplains office for active duty in more than 50 years. He also is the first Southern Baptist to hold the position of deputy chief of chaplains.
Carver is a native of Rome, Ga., and a graduate of Southern Baptist Seminary.
Pending anticipated confirmation by the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carver will be promoted officially to his new role at a “Change of Stole” ceremony July 12 at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
Involved in ROTC at the University of Tennessee, Carver was commissioned as a field artillery officer in 1973 as the Vietnam War was drawing to a close.
Carver grew up in a strong Christian home and was active in church as a young Army officer. One winter, while accompanying some Royal Ambassador boys on their annual retreat, a church deacon asked him a question: What was he going to do with the rest of his life?
“I said, ‘Oh, I’ll probably put 20 to 30 years in the military, get out, and maybe pastor a small church,” Carver recounted in a 2005 Baptist Press story. The deacon told him, “Don’t give God the leftovers of your life.”
After six years of active duty, Carver left the Army to answer the call to ministry – a calling that Carver says really began at age 16.
After graduating from seminary, Carver became pastor of Skyway Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., and remained active in the reserves. Major General Charles Baldwin, currently the chief of chaplains for the United States Air Force, was the Air Force Academy cadet chaplain at the time and asked Carver if he had ever thought about the military chaplaincy.
After much prayer and with support from his wife Susan and the church, he re-joined the military in 1984 and was commissioned as an active duty chaplain with endorsement by the North American Mission Board.
Carver began his work as a chaplain with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky.