HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS to Saint Sophia Cathedral’s Father Bill Bartz, CAPT, CHC, USN MCCDC / MCB Command Chaplain, Quantico, VA. Father Bill is the recent recipient of the United States Navy’s prestigious John H. Craven Servant Leadership Award. Father Bill, today in one voice the congregation of Saint Sophia Cathedral cries out: BRAVO ZULU!
Chaplains & RPs,
In case you have not received word from other sources, I invite you to join me in extending hearty congratulations to Chaplain Bill Bartz on being chosen by his 06 Chaplain colleagues as the 2010 recipient of the John H. Craven Servant Leadership award. Chaplain Bartz was officially recognized by the Chief of Navy Chaplains RADM Mark Tidd in an award ceremony at the conclusion of the CHC Senior Leadership Symposium in Columbia, SC last week. See below description of award criteria.
r/JMH
CAPT J.M. Hightower, CHC, USN
AC/S Religious Ministries
MCRD/ERR Parris Island, SC
The John H. Craven Servant Leadership Award (CLSA) is a peer-nomination based award that acknowledges the significant service of a Navy Chaplain who has earned the rank of CAPTAIN or is a CAPTAIN-Selectee. The Craven Award recipient is one who epitomizes the Chaplain Corps motto, “Called to Serve.” Chaplain John H. Craven embodied the capabilities that characterize the ministry of all effective Chaplains–“taking care of our own, facilitating for others and caring for all through cooperation without compromise.” Since 2006, the Navy Chief of Chaplains began an annual administrative board to review nominees and select a deserving senior Navy Chaplain who exemplifies servant leadership qualities which were so much a part of the ministry of CAPT John H. Craven.
Chaplain Craven’s service as a Navy Chaplain during World War II both was exemplary and inspiring. He accompanied Marines on combat amphibious landings on the Pacific islands of Marshall Islands, Saipan and Tinian. While there he witnessed the U.S. flag raising at Iwo Jima in February 1945. During the Korean War, Chaplain Craven was with his Marines as they landed at Inchon providing ministry and comfort to Marines during the historic battle for Seoul. Chaplain Craven was with his Marines when the Chinese forces entered into the Korean conflict in late 1950, and provided ministry to the embattled 7th Marine Regiment on the bitterly cold and bloody retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. He, like other survivors of Chosin, suffered severe frostbite. Years later, Marine Corps veterans of the Chosin engagement would recall his prodding and exhortations — not particularly gentle but effective — to keep moving when they felt like giving up. Grunt Marines fondly referred to Chaplain Craven as “John the Baptist.”
