The Commandant. Chaplain (Colonel) William D. Cleary--devout, genial, forceful, soldierly--has headed the Chaplain School since its reactivation at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Ind., thirteen months ago. By virtue of his position he is one of the two chaplains in the Army who exercise command. Irish-born and Paris educated, he first donned khaki as a chaplain in the World War, entered Germany with the Army of Occupation, served two tours in the Philippines, rose with the expanding Armored Force from chaplain of the First Armored Division to chaplain of the First Armored Division to chaplain of the First Armored Division to chaplain of the First Armored Corps, and finally, as The Armored Force Chaplain, left an indelible impress upon the spiritual life of the Army's toughest branch.
The Assistant Commandant. Short physically, but of commanding moral and spiritual stature, hard-working and intensely loyal Chaplain (Lieuteant Colonel) Ralph Deibert came into the Army twenty-three years ago from an instructor's chair at Albright College, Myerstown, Pennsylvania. Regarded by the students at the Chaplain School as the best teacher on the staff, he brings to his teaching and administration a rich fund of experience gained through two decades of peace-time service in this country and in the Canal Zone, as well as in a variety of assignments since the present emergency began, including tours as Post Chaplain at sprawling Chanute Field, III., division chaplain of the Sixth Motorized Division, corps chaplain of the Sixth Army Corps, and Chaplain of the New York Port of. Embarkation at Brooklyn. Like his chief, he joined the Chaplain School staff a year ago.
The Surgeon. Portly poetry-quoting, and profoundly patriotic, Lieutenant Colonel David C. Koller zealously guards the health of the 450 soldiers of God who pass through the Chaplain School each month. A Medical Corps captain in the World War for twenty-one months he returned to civilian life as a member of the Officers' Reserve Corps, in which he was promoted to his present grade in 1930. His home is in Stroudsburg, Pa.; his specialy is neuropsychiatry; and his hobby is authoring books (among them his autobiographical "The Devil and the Doctor") and pulp-paper thrillers with scientific plots. He came on duty in the present emergency in June, 1941, and had tours of duty at Carlisle Barracks, Pa.; and Camp Lee, Va., before joining the Chaplain School staff on March 19, 1942.
The Adjutant. The Commandant's right-hand man is greying, diligent Major A. (for Aloysius) G. Casey, who since 1920 has held every enlisted and commissioned army grade from private to field officer. Originally an ack-ack man in the Massachusetts National Guard Coast Artillery, with which he entered Federal service as a battery commander in September, 1940, he has served at Deer Island, Ft. Standish, Ft. Banks, Fortress Monroe, and half a dozen other stations on the Atlantic seaboard. An alumnus of both the Coast Artillery School and of the Adjutant General's School, he was one of the first National Guard officers to be transferred from a combat arm to the Adjutant General's Department. Technically in the AG pool at Washington, he has been attached to the Chaplain School since last April on a temporary duty status. His self-appointed unofficial mission at the School is to serve as guide to neophyte chaplains mystified by the mazes of their new military existence.
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