{"id":338177,"date":"2024-12-22T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=338177"},"modified":"2024-12-23T20:07:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T20:07:09","slug":"usag-stuttgart-chaplain-makes-history-as-dods-first-black-priest-promoted-to-colonel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=338177","title":{"rendered":"USAG Stuttgart Chaplain Makes History as DoD’s First Black Priest Promoted to Colonel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Chaplain (Col.) John Ijeoma (right, at podium), U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart deputy command chaplain, speaks at the Patch Chapel on Dec. 8, 2024, during a promotion ceremony where he became the first Black priest in the U.S. Department of Defense to be promoted to the rank of colonel.
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STUTTGART, Germany — Chaplain (Col.) John Ijeoma felt a spiritual call to serve when he was only 7 years old.<\/p>\n

Now the Deputy Command Chaplain at U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart, he\u2019s spent the majority of his 61 years sharing the Catholic faith with others as a priest. This month, he became\u00a0the first Black priest in the U.S. Department of Defense\u00a0to be promoted to the rank of colonel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI finished my elementary school at the age of 11, but by the time I finished, I didn\u2019t know anything about how to become a priest.\u201d he said. \u201cI told my parents this is what I wanted to do, and they helped me sign up for the exams and prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n

USAG Stuttgart Command Chaplain (Col.) David Curlin read the orders to promote Ijeoma to his new rank at the Catholic Mass service held on Patch Barracks Dec. 8. Bishop William Muhm, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, conducted the Mass to a packed house and later joined Bishop Thomas Obiatuegwu, the auxiliary bishop of the Orlu, Nigeria diocese (and a former U.S. Army Chaplain himself), to pin eagles on Ijeoma\u2019s uniform.<\/p>\n

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\n Chaplain (Col.) David Curlin (center-left) and Chaplain (Col.) John Ijeoma (center-right), U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart command chaplain and deputy command chaplain, respectively, stand at attention at the Patch Chapel on Dec. 8, 2024, during a promotion ceremony in which Ijeoma became the first Black priest in the U.S. Department of Defense to be promoted to the rank of Colonel.
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\u201cFather John Ijeoma is a man of exceptional character whose humility, joy, and selfless service are matched only by his remarkable ability to connect with people of every background \u2013 young and old, Black and white, high and low,\u201d Curlin said. \u201cHis equanimity and effective communication make him a tremendous asset to Holy Trinity Parish, just as he has been to the Soldiers he has faithfully served throughout his distinguished career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ijeoma entered minor seminary at the age of 12, and after completing middle and high school, he went straight into major seminary, a Roman Catholic theological college that prepares men to be priests. In 1988, he was officially ordained into the Catholic priesthood. The path was a traditional one for many who choose to serve as priests in the Catholic faith, but Ijeoma, who was born in Aba, Nigeria, did not necessarily take a traditional path to the Army chaplaincy.<\/p>\n

After almost 10 years of working in parishes across Nigeria, he was recruited in 1997 to work in the Diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana, by a friend who thought he might be a good fit. It\u2019s there that he found he was intrigued by the prospect of serving those in uniform, so he started asking Service Members he encountered at the airport or elsewhere about the breadth of the religious services offered by the military. Eventually, he connected with a recruiter at the local mall who passed him onto a recruiter from the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little tough because I asked for permission three times before getting a \u2018yes,\u2019 but I eventually told the bishop the Army was my passion and I needed to join, or I\u2019d go back to Nigeria,\u201d Ijeoma said. Rather than lose Ijeoma\u2019s impact on Catholics in the United States, the bishop agreed to let him commission into the Army, and he began his military service in 2004.<\/p>\n

Since then, he\u2019s been assigned to duty stations in South Carolina, Washington state, Kansas, Belgium, South Korea, and Stuttgart, Germany, where he\u2019s been stationed since 2019 other than a seven-month assignment up the road in Wiesbaden. He has three deployments under his belt and has been awarded two Bronze Stars, three Meritorious Service Medals, and three Army Commendation Medals. Two of his deployments resulted in Meritorious Unit Citations being awarded to units in which he served.<\/p>\n

Most recently, he\u2019s helped lead contingents of African-born chaplains to Nigeria in support of U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) missions, coordinating with other chaplains and religious leaders and leading an invocation for a Marines Corps birthday celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knows I come from Nigeria and know about the culture,\u201d he said about USAFRICOM Command Chaplain (Col.) Karen Meeker\u2019s decision to include him and other African-born chaplains in delegations, adding that he\u2019s hoping to make more trips in the future. \u201cThe intent is to have a coordination between the Nigerian chaplaincy and the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Chaplain (Col.) John Ijeoma (center), U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart deputy command chaplain, stands flanked by Bishop Thomas Obiatuegwu (center-left), auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Orlu, Nigeria, and Bishop William Muhm (center-right), auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of the Military Services, USA, and others following his promotion ceremony on Dec. 8, 2024, at the Patch Chapel in Stuttgart, Germany. Ijeoma is the first Black priest in the U.S. Department of Defense to be promoted to the rank of Colonel.
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After 20 years in the Army, Ijeoma planned to head into retirement this coming January to enjoy some hobbies and spend more time with his mother and extended family in Nigeria. However, he was called on to reconsider because of a shortage of priests both in the Army and locally in Stuttgart.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m strong enough and the military lets me, I love being an Army chaplain, and I\u2019ll be glad to help as much as I\u2019m required,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chaplain (Col.) John Ijeoma (right, at podium), U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart deputy command chaplain, speaks at the Patch Chapel on Dec. 8, 2024, during a promotion ceremony where he became the first Black priest in the U.S. Department of Defense to be promoted to the rank of colonel. (Photo Credit: Photo by Dayna Rowden, U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338179,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=338177"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338183,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338177\/revisions\/338183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/338179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=338177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=338177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}