"We talked until the lights went out in his eyes." (Video interview, 41:38).

David W. Polhemus

David Polehemus [detail from video] War: Korean War, 1950-1953; Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch: Army Unit: 82nd Airborne Division Service Location: Fort Bliss, Texas; Korea; also: Vietnam Rank: Colonel Place of Birth: NH

The son of a Methodist minister who served as a military chaplain during World War II, Colonel David Polhemus always felt drawn to the role of counseling troops. Acting as the chaplain to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he explains, is when he learned the difference that a chaplain could make in the lives of the soldiers around him. He terms his approach a “ministry of presence”—that his simple presence could do more for ailing soldiers than any sermon from the pulpit. He continued to employ this method during his time in Vietnam, though he remains haunted by the things that he witnessed in country. Following his military service, he became a counselor to soldiers who, like himself, struggle with post traumatic stress disorder.