Preserving America's Historical Significance

Leader-Led & Chaplain Prayer in the US Armed Forces

In addition to Exemplary Conduct, the first principles of the Armed Forces enacted by Congress in November 1775 call for prayer and Divine services at least twice a day:

Article 2. “The Commanders of the ships of the Thirteen United Colonies are to take care that divine service be performed twice a day on board, and a sermon preached on Sundays, unless bad weather or other extraordinary accidents prevent it.”

It remains the duty of all public officials to ensure that American Military Forces, including Service Academies, both state and federal, fully prepare future officers for the rigor and peril of combat which must always include frequent leader-led unit prayer. The nations’ Declaration of Independence recognizes the “Creator” as the source of law and liberty as “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” established a fixed standard, a higher discipline – a battle-tested standard – to restore and uphold against years of disturbing reports of multiple military crises arising from moral relativism and undemocratic changes contrary to America’s first military principles of virtue, honor, patriotism and subordination, called “Exemplary Conduct.”

Daily prayer recalls to all military and civilian leaders that, as John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This is not the time to leave the field to “domestic enemies” who would have the temerity to urge Congress to force our soldiers to fight “without a prayer.” Leader-led military unit prayer remains an unbroken historic military necessity throughout American history and continues as essential to combat effectiveness and training of future military leaders for the 21st century.

Prayer for the common good and acknowledgement of Divine Providence is a central, official and historical tenet of the combat leadership preparation of the American Military, particularly officer training and particularly in times of national peril or war. Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, USN

Find out more about prayer in America’s Armed Forces in the book, “Endowed by Their Creator”: A Collection of Historic American Military Prayers 1774-Present.