A Baptist minister from Oregon who was killed in Afghanistan on Aug. 30 is the first Army chaplain to die in combat since Vietnam, according to the Army.
Capt. Dale Allen Goetz, 43, died in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan’s Arghandab River Valley, after being there for less than a month. Four soldiers were also killed.
The more than 400 Army chaplains in Iraq or Afghanistan are military officers. Their job is to reach soldiers on the battlefield, to provide religious support and to perform services or rites, said Lt. Col. Carleton Birch, a spokesman for the Army Chief of Chaplains.
An armed chaplain’s assistant travels with each. The first assistant to die in the wars was killed in Afghanistan in August, Birch said.
Goetz graduated from Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, Wis., and Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Kan. He was pastor until he joined the Army and began his work toward chaplaincy in 2000.
Survivors include his wife and three children. (RNS)
Share with others: