Friday nights on the barracks are a buzz with the chatter of Marines and Sailors excited to have lastly made it to the weekend. Via the hallways floats the nice and cozy, buttery odor of freshly made pancakes. The scent entices the residents wandering the hallways, main them by their noses to the kitchen the place they discover a group of service members laughing and speaking whereas whipping up a feast of breakfast for dinner. The final Friday of every month, the chaplains head over to the barracks and spend the evening speaking with, and making pancakes for, single service members in an exercise fondly known as “stacks with chaps!”
Including one other pancake to the ever-growing stack of flap jacks, one of many chaplains, Lieutenant Commander Junsub Um, introduces himself to the brand new faces across the barracks.
“My title is Chaplain Junsub Um,” he says. “It’s totally simple to recollect, as a result of should you ever overlook, you simply must assume, ‘what’s it? Umm…’ and it is already come to you!”
With a relentless smile on his face and such a optimistic outlook, there would by no means be any doubt in somebody’s thoughts that he’s precisely the place he desires to be. Nonetheless, he didn’t at all times need to be within the navy, and he additionally didn’t at all times have the selection.
“I used to be born and raised in South Korea. As a younger male, there’s an obligation as a citizen that it’s essential to serve within the navy,” he defined. “So, I needed to be a part of; I used to be pressured to affix.”
Um joined the Korean Army and served for 2 and a half years, which he discovered to be a really eye-opening expertise. The transition from being at house and with household to dwelling the navy life-style was jarring.
One of the crucial troublesome elements of early navy life for him was that the busyness saved him from going to church.
“Our seniors gave us a whole lot of chores on Sundays, so I used to be not capable of go to church. It was troublesome to undergo.”
Ultimately, he met a Korean Army chaplain. Um defined to the chaplain that he hadn’t been capable of attend any spiritual providers. After Um expressed how lacking alternatives to go to the chapel affected him, the chaplain notified Um’s chain of command. This intervention allowed Um to go to chapel on Sundays, the place he was then capable of finding a help system.
“I felt significantly better,” Um mentioned. “I used to be nonetheless remoted from members of the family, however I used to be capable of go to church and I used to be linked with a group.”
Within the following years, by the spiritual providers and help of the group he had gained, he felt himself turning into extra resilient. He grew to grasp methods to deal with the stressors in his life.
After his compulsory service within the Korean Army, Um moved to america and attended seminary, the school one goes to when coaching to be a minister. His time in seminary was extremely anxious for him. He was a fulltime pupil, a youth pastor, and a custodial employee on the seminary he was attending. On prime of studying English, he was learning Hebrew and Greek.
“It was a whole lot of stress,” He defined. “However navy expertise helped me to maintain transferring ahead.”
After commencement from seminary, Um accepted a job in Jacksonville, Florida as an schooling pastor, the place he primarily labored with the native youth. Working with them was one thing essential for Um as a result of he knew how a lot of a distinction that having spiritual and religious help can have on somebody throughout their early life, because it did on himself.
After his four-year contract with the church, Um started to look in direction of the way forward for his profession and the place he wished to go.
“I assumed concerning the navy due to my background,” he mentioned. “I knew that to younger service members it’s so essential to have that help.” What he had endured early in his profession motivated him to assist different younger service members be taught to deal with stress and achieve resiliency, by turning into a chaplain.
Um mentioned he felt a calling to turn into a chaplain within the U.S. Navy. Right this moment, he prides himself on serving as a chaplain at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. His time as a chaplain introduced him to numerous responsibility stations world wide the place he served with Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, to incorporate Marine Corps Base Hawaii and U.S Fleet Actions Sasebo, Japan.
At MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, the place Um is stationed now, he frequently presents help of every kind. Um helps the station itself with group relations occasions to foster optimistic relationships with the area people. One such occasion, supported by the chapel, gave Marines the chance to go off base to a Japanese preschool and share Christmas presents.
He additionally helps the Marines and Sailors as a collective. At any squadron PT occasion, he’s certain to be there punching and jabbing a protracted with the remaining.
There are courses that each Marine new to the station is required to take and different courses which can be merely supplied to help service members that Um shall be current at and educate, like “One Love” a category that informs younger service members about wholesome relationships.
Chaplain Um additionally helps the people on base with one-on-one counseling, and he’s at all times open and out there to only sit with and discuss to those that want a serving to hand.
The navy background helps him to empathize and perceive younger service members who discuss to him, whether or not it’s an informal dialog at a squadron occasion or a private dialog on the chapel. Having been by the identical issues, Um is aware of what it’s wish to really feel remoted, lonely, and homesick, that are widespread emotions of latest service members.
Due to his experiences as a younger man within the navy, he knew the significance of the religious help that chaplains can present. Um is now providing the identical help he was given when that ROK Army chaplain took the time to intervene and create alternatives for Um to seek out the help he wanted. He helps help Marines and Sailors spiritually, and he presents hospitality and group. From counseling service members, to flipping pancakes on a Friday evening within the barracks, Chaplain Um is at all times round and bringing a bit of little bit of positivity to the Iwakuni Neighborhood.
