South Carolina to get religious training center in base realignment

Published: 2007-04-11

FORT JACKSON, S.C. (CNS) -- In less than three years, the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson will be adding new dimensions to its work. By 2010, Fort Jackson will be the location of the new Joint Center of Excellence for Religious Training and Education, a facility that will train chaplains not only for the U.S. Army, but also for the U.S. Navy and Air Force. The new center is a result of the latest round of cuts and realignments being implemented as recommended by the Base Realignment and Closure commission in 2005. Chaplain schools at the Naval Station in Newport, R.I., and the Naval Air Station in Meridian, Miss., are closing, along with a training center for chaplains at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, according to government realignment documents. The facilities will relocate to Fort Jackson in two new buildings adjacent to the current chaplain school. Groundbreaking for the new facility will be held in 2008, and the new facility is tentatively scheduled to open in 2010, said Father David A. Kenehan, an Army colonel who is deputy commandant of the chaplain school.

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