WASHINGTON (ABP) – Baptist chaplain Brig. Gen. Charles Baldwin has been promoted to the Chief of Chaplain Service for the U.S. Air Force, and next month will become a major general and one of the three highest-ranking chaplains in the United States military.
As Chief of Chaplains, Baldwin will be senior pastor of a combined active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian force of more than 850,000 people serving in about 1,300 locations worldwide.
Baldwin, the son of an Air Force chaplain, has a career that spans 35 years. Graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1969, he served as a rescue helicopter pilot in combat during the Vietnam War. In 1977 he graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., with a master of divinity degree.
Baldwin's chaplaincy endorsement is from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. According to George Pickle, the Fellowship's associate coordinator for chaplaincy and pastoral counseling, Baldwin serves in one of the most meaningful and preeminent positions of service.
Baldwin was chaplain at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base in August 1990 when he and two thirds of the troops there were called to the Middle East. He served as a field chaplain during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, which he said was one of the highlights of his career.
“It was like being the pastor of a very large church,” Baldwin said. ” … [W]hen you are under fire in circumstances like that, you actually give more consideration to things eternal — like thinking about your family and making things right with the people in your life. The role of the chaplain comes to the forefront at that moment.”
Among Baldwin's primary duties as field chaplain was conducting worship services on Sunday, but one of his most vital roles, he said, was the ministry of presence from Monday through Saturday.
“We spent the rest of the week just being with the troops on the flight lines, in the maintenance tents … wherever they were doing their jobs,” Baldwin said. “When the pilots were positioned at the end of a runway, waiting for the 'go' order, the chaplains waited with them. Being present just before launch was reassuring to the air crews.”
Today, there are 37 Air Force chaplains serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Baldwin's job is to support them and to help set a tone for their service.
“I'm sort of the shepherd for the shepherds,” he said, adding his duty as a field chaplain and helicopter pilot give him credibility when he speaks to airmen and young chaplains.
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