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rmy Chaplain Larry Dabeck (‘89,’98) saw the Iraqi rocket
fire whizz just over his head and hit the next group of
U.S. soldiers beside him. As he made his way to minister to the
14 seriously wounded men, he discovered among them was
Staff Sgt. Roger Turner, a fellow Christian he knew well.
“Sgt. Turner was mortally wounded and died in my arms while
I held him and prayed for him,” Dabeck said. “I got to be with
him as he passed from this life to join the Lord. That is one of
the greatest privileges of my life to be there with my brother as
he died.”
To minister to others in the middle of a war was far from
Dabeck’s mind as he received his Master of Divinity degree
from Columbia International University in 1998. He joined
the Army at age 37 after God closed the door to the more
traditional mission field. On the suggestion of his brother-
in-law, an Army helicopter pilot, Dabeck explored military
chaplaincy.
“A year later I was signing into my first duty station as a tank
battalion chaplain in the year 2000,” Dabeck recalled. “It was
really interesting as we talked to people at CIU and my pastor,
it really became obvious this was how God was leading and
how everything my wife and I had been doing up to that point
was not for the mission field, but was for this ministry, and God
just keeps confirming that every step of the way.”
THE CALL TO WASHINGTON
Since June 2016, God has seen fit to use Dabeck in an even
more influential way. He is Lt. Col. Dabeck and deputy joint staff
chaplain, the number two chaplain for the Joint Chiefs of Staff
at the Pentagon, overseeing about 3,000 military chaplains who
are serving one million active duty service members.
“There are only two chaplains that serve the Chairman of The
Joint Chiefs, that’s me and my boss” Dabeck explained in a
phone interview from his office at The Pentagon “That makes
A
CIU alumnus “taking care of those who take care of soldiers”
By Bob Holmes
THE
PENTAGON
From CIU to
Lt. Col. Larry Dabeck
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CIU Today
Fall 2017