An all-male U.S. Army battalion known as the “Screaming Eagles” has become the first combat arms unit to have a female chaplain.
Capt. Delana Small’s recent assignment to the 101st Airborne Division is part of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) decision, following its recent Women in the Service Review (WSR), to open additional Army, Navy, and Marine Corps positions to “female Soldiers at the battalion level in open military occupational specialties.”
“I know that some aspects of what this position entails are groundbreaking,” Small said. “But, in my mind, I’m still doing the same job.”
Small is a graduate of Evangel University and a 2012 graduate of the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.
The WSR was submitted to the DOD in February and recommended that the DOD approve the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps request to open certain positions in direct combat units to women.
CT has regularly covered chaplains and the military, including the first chaplain to die in combat since Vietnam.
