Army: Chaplain is 1st KIA since Vietnam War

September 3, 2010 · By Jerry Castillo

KABUL, Afghanistan — A chaplain who died in Afghanistan this week was the first Army clergyman killed in action since Vietnam, military officials said Thursday.

Army Capt. Dale Goetz of the 4th Infantry Division was among five U.S. soldiers killed when their armored vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Monday. Goetz was in a convoy traveling from one forward operating base to another, where he counseled soldiers. Witnesses said the vehicle was Humvee.

Before Goetz, the last Army chaplain to die in action was Phillip Nichols, who was killed by a concealed enemy explosive in Vietnam in October of 1970, said Chaplain Carleton Birch, a spokesman for the Army chief of chaplains.

Goetz, 43, is survived by his wife and three sons, all under the age of 10, all from White, S.D. The family is currently residing at Fort Carson, Colo.

Geotz was the pastor at the First Baptist Church in White before joining the Army in 2000.

Goetz and his family recently joined High Country Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, where Fort Carson is located, the Argus-Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., reported.

Officials said Goetz had hitched a ride on a resupply convoy when he was killed.

The Army has more than 2,800 chaplains, including those in the Guard and Reserve. More than 400 are in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Birch said chaplains are considered noncombatants and don’t carry weapons, but they are accompanied by a chaplain’s assistant, a soldier who is armed.

A chaplain’s assistant, Staff Sgt. Christopher Stout of Worthville, Ky., was killed in Afghanistan in July, Birch said.

Chaplains don’t go on combat patrols but do go onto battlefields to conduct services and counsel soldiers, Birch said.

“Many of those places where they travel are very dangerous,” he said.