The following is a transcript of a briefing Janet Horton gave at Capitol Hill Day sponsored by the Federal Office of the Committees on Publication March 8, 2011.

I would like to open by sharing a statement from a document I wrote to explain the military chaplaincy to civilian appointees in the Department of Defense. 

The First Amendment may rightfully be considered one miracle in American democracy. The genius of the military chaplaincy has been its ability to provide comprehensive, continual religious support to service members, families, and authorized civilians without establishing a state religion. The chaplaincies even more miraculously somehow manage to do this by the hard work of clergy resources from over 200 different religious organizations that lend their clergy to the Armed Forces. This is even more amazing when you realize that the diversity of the American landscape has exponentially diversified in the last few decades. 

We all agreed to embrace the ideas of God’s omnipotence and love for His children.

The following is one illustration of the sense of unity of effort that people can experience when they join together on the basis of prayer. 

In 2000 the United States Army V Corps conducted a Field Training Exercise at Grafenwoehr, Germany. The exercise included 8,000 soldiers and lasted six weeks. Because this was a winter season, the soldiers ended up traveling across Germany in icy, snowy conditions. The soldiers from the stateside Reserve Division would also travel to the site—many with no prior knowledge of the Autobahn speeds or conditions. A German division also joined in this massive training opportunity. Because of the weather, the number of participants, and the fact that we had just returned from intensely demanding Balkan missions, the leadership began to express great fear that we would have unusually high numbers of accidental deaths and injuries.  

As the Corps Chaplain I was responsible for the religious support for all the participants for the entire eight weeks. I decided to address these fears with all the military chaplains, chaplain assistants, denominational lay leaders, and the priest from the German division. I called them all together for what I called a Spiritual Safety Briefing. I invited each chaplain, assistant, imam, Jewish lay leaders, LDS lay leader, etc. to join together to pray daily for the safety of our soldiers during this exercise. I suggested that there was no reason we had to accept there needed to be even a single fatality, if we would pray daily and specifically for the safety of our soldiers. 

I told them I wanted them to return two days later and to search their Scriptures, hymns, and other sacred texts, and come back prepared to share anything they found that constituted assurances and praises of God’s power to protect His people. I asked them to start by confirming for us and their soldiers, the Scriptural basis for not yielding to fear in such situations. We all agreed to embrace the ideas of God’s omnipotence and love for His children. They seemed very enthusiastic about such a prospect. I simply reminded them of the fact that healing was Scriptural and witnessed God’s preserving and sustaining power.

They naturally began to search for the texts they knew were there. Favorites like the 121st or 91st Psalm were read. Some sang hymns; some read prayers they’d written. It was truly inspiring, and the praise session lasted close to two hours. 

At the end of the meeting I reminded them we would do such specific prayer each day; and if there was any challenge, we would put out a call for dedicated prayer in that particular case. I briefed the leadership on our prayer duty, and they fully embraced the idea.

In the Corps Staff there was a specific section called the Safety Section. At each morning and evening briefing they put up slides that detailed the exact number of vehicle accidents, injuries, and deaths. The Corps surgeon also had a slide that would detail types and number of cases he’d treated. For the first few days there was nothing. Then the German general fell down in his morning briefing and was medically evacuated. His deputy said he was not expected to return because doctors had predicted a major challenge. We put out the word for prayer, and by the time the exercise formally started he was back. The leadership was very surprised, and he said the doctors couldn’t quite figure out what had happened. 

Throughout the eight weeks there wasn’t a single vehicle or travel-related accident. Our helicopters flew without incident. Soldiers that flew in from the States drove safely from Frankfurt or Munich to Grafenwoehr in some very icy conditions. The Exercise progressed, and none of the dangers anticipated occurred. The Corps surgeon remarked in one briefing that he felt like he was out of business. He hadn’t even dispensed so much as a cold pack.

When the German general returned, he asked me to come to the German chapel and address his entire leadership. He wanted them to understand more about the concept of praying specifically about the safety of our soldiers. They particularly loved the idea of being at a position of attention spiritually. 

Toward the end of the activities we had to “jump” our main headquarters elements. The Corps needed to maintain over 200 functions while their normal containments were loaded on trucks and a relocation was simulated. Because the huge tent would be packed with men shoulder to shoulder, each person’s place was carefully measured in inches. Because the senior staff officers were so impressed with the safety that resulted from the prayer, they refused to function without their planner chaplain. They vowed they’d make room for such an important element.

An incident occurred during the timed dismantling of the headquarters. A male soldier got a cable wrapped around his little finger. It severed the top half of the little finger. We put out the word to pray. The predictions were dire, as they supposedly didn’t find the finger right away. Then they couldn’t locate the needed neurosurgeon. Then the surgeon complained that the MedEvac helicopter was way late. He predicted there would be no way to save the finger. We put out the word for specific prayer. Everyone responded immediately.

Contrary to predictions, the man was back within a two-day period. His finger had been reattached, and he had full movement. The only remaining issue was that he might lose the little fingernail. 

On the final day, the MP who was the security for our classified documents lost control of his weapon. When it hit the ground, the M-16 fired off a live round. The discharged bullet went through the entire tent with the 200-plus people elbow to elbow. The joke at the end of the exercise was that the only fatality was the printer the bullet took out on the opposite end of the tent. The final chaplain ministry was to the soldier who lost control of the weapon. He was finally comforted when my deputy chaplain helped him see what a grace it was that not a single person was harmed when the bullet passed by such an extraordinary number of people. 

This proof of the level of security available to us was recognized by our three-star commanding general and his chief of staff. They refused to conduct any type of operations after that without direct coordination with their chaplain on the safety of their soldiers. The other striking aspect of this experience was the recognition that “the prayer of the righteous availeth much.” And this was completely embraced by persons of faith across major faith groups, denominational lines, as well as by our international coalition leadership from Germany. God, the one divine Mind, truly united all of these people on that exercise. 

I would close simply by repeating what I mentioned earlier. I simply reminded them of the fact that healing was Scriptural and witnessed God’s preserving and sustaining power. They naturally began to search their hearts to recall the texts they knew were there in their own Scriptures. They got their first taste of what it meant to give a specific prayer treatment.