Navy Chaplain Answers Higher Calling

NORCO, Calif (NNS) -- One Corona, Calif., resident was commissioned as a naval officer and chaplain May 14 during the Armed Forces Day celebration at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona.

The ceremony for Lt. j.g. B. Shane Anderson, a naval reservist, allowed the new chaplain to answer the call to serve God and country, becoming part of the Navy's mission as a global force for good.

Anderson and the Navy Chaplain Corps' top officer, Capt. Diana Meehan, share something in common - they both lived in Corona before joining the Navy. Meehan lived in Corona for more than a decade before entering the maritime service while an associate pastor at First Baptist Church. Meehan was happy to hear Anderson joined the Navy's chaplaincy ranks.

"We are happy to have Shane as a member of the team," Meehan said.

A graduate of Riverside's California Baptist University, Anderson obtained a graduate divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and is an ordained minister.

The commissioning took place before hundreds of guests who watched the historic ritual of a naval officer taking the oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution before receiving his shoulder board insignias and the cross designating him a chaplain.

Anderson's wife, Felicia, a Navy civilian employed at the base, participated in attaching one shoulder board, while Cmdr. Jon Jerge, Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Detachment Corona's officer-in-charge, who conducted the commissioning, attached the other.

Once Anderson completes additional training after his commissioning, he will be assigned to work as a naval Reserve chaplain, as he applies to become an active duty chaplain. Anderson is proud to be a part of the Chaplain Corps and anticipates he will be working soon with Marines at Camp Pendleton.

"I've had a long calling for the chaplaincy," said Anderson, who has ministered to young people as a volunteer pastor for more than a decade.

Anderson is anxious to provide his insights to guide those in uniform and their families with counseling during these challenging times of lengthy overseas deployments and issues related to returning from combat. The majority of the naval service's ranks are comprised of young people aged 18 to 24 – the age group of which he has devoted much of his ministry.

Anderson said having the ceremony in front of his family and friends was both humbling and a day he will forever cherish.

"It was a real honor for me to have my family here, and to do it at the base where my wife works," said Anderson.

Anderson's father is a retired Air Force veteran, and his grandfather served in the U.S. Navy.

The Navy Chaplain Corps' connections with U.S. history run deep, pre-dating the U.S. Constitution and even the Declaration of Independence.

Regulations by the Continental Navy established the Chaplain Corps in 1775, requiring "Commanders of ships of the 13 united colonies" to care for the divine services of those in their command.

Regulations a quarter-century later would also require Navy chaplains to serve as schoolmasters to teach Sailors writing, arithmetic, navigation and other topics as captains ordered. This academic role would later contribute to the establishment of the Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1845.

Today, the Chaplain Corps represents more than 100 faiths and has more than 840 chaplains to provide religious support and counseling needs to the nation's three maritime services, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

For more news from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division, visit www.navy.mil/local/nswccorona/.