Military Chaplains need healing too

"Despite never seeing combat" was pointed out in this article as if it was an important factor. This Chaplain ended up with PTSD after being sent to Afghanistan. He was already haunted by the suicide of a soldier he was taking care of before he was sent there.

Post-Traumatic Stress: Looking For A Place To Rest
UPDATED News Canada
February 24, 2013


A Canadian Armed Forces chaplain who was sent to Afghanistan to give spiritual support to the troops came home with post-traumatic stress disorder himself, despite never seeing combat.

Maj. Michel Martin takes listeners to his dark corner of reality, describing a heart-wrenching descent into anguish, depression and anger in a CBC Radio documentary entitled Looking for a Place to Rest. It was produced by John Chipman for The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright.

Martin, who moved into the armed forces after acting as a civilian pastor, was on the front line dealing with the mental suffering of the troops.

The sudden suicide of a soldier under his care, before his deployment to Afghanistan, began his spiral of emotional stress.

“I had a burden on me, I felt guilty,” Martin says.
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Chaplains do not fight in combat but they fight what combat does to others. If you can't understand how Chaplains can need help to, then you don't understand PTSD.