Chaplain Underhill

Personal Introduction

Greetings! I hope you are well. I am Chaplain Underhill, founder of Fire Teams men’s ministry at Camp Humphreys, South Korea. Fire Teams is a men’s ministry geared towards soldiers between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. I assume, since you are reading this blog post in particular, you would like to know about me, so let’s get started. I am forty-five years old. I have been married to my wonderful wife, Megan, for thirteen years. We have three daughters: Bella (11), Chloe (9), and Delia (7). I am currently a Chaplain in the U.S. Army. I have served in the military for over twenty-two years in three different branches (U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army) and in six different MOSs (jobs). My civilian jobs are too numerous to account for in this forum. You are probably wondering how I have managed to have this much change and transition throughout my life. Fun story! Let’s start with my childhood.

            I was born and raised in North Carolina. I would say we were lower middle class. We lived in a rural area with tobacco, cotton, and sweet potato fields. At the time, the nearest town was about a thirty-minute drive. The closest city was about an hour’s drive. So we were rural, but we did venture to the malls and big department stores every now and then, even if we were just window-shopping. However, until we could drive, my friends and I spent most of our time scouring the countryside looking for adventure and anything that posed a challenge. NOTHING was too big, scary, or dangerous for us to take on. Except for snakes, bats, big dogs… and the old man in the white house on the hilltop who was weird, always watching us, asking what we were doing, and telling us to stay away from his apple trees. However, I had one main issue that overwhelmed me for years, which I will address later.

            My best friends were Wesley and James. I had other friends, but most of my time was spent with Wesley and James. We loved taking on challenges together, whether it was building a treehouse, building rope swings for the creek, or digging trenches to combat a pretend invasion from some imaginary enemy force. As we grew older, we began to move on to building go-carts, four-wheelers, dirt bikes, and, of course, cars. Throughout our childhood, we would overcome challenge after challenge. We thoroughly enjoyed learning and progressing to new things.

            My childhood played an essential role in my military career. The principles and attitudes I developed prepared me for the challenges of the military. In fact, my childhood is why I thrive in the military. The military offers new challenges every day and new places to see! The military is the perfect place for my conquering, adventurous spirit. Of course, it has had its downs, but no one wants to talk about the downs. As stated previously, I have served in three different branches and had six different jobs. It’s amazing what you can do if you don’t think about the difficulties and just say yes to every opportunity! As I haven’t stated what my six jobs were, here they are. I have been a: C-130 Mechanic (Air Force); C-9 Loadmaster (Navy); C-130 Loadmaster (Air Force); C-130 Crash and Recovery (Air Force); Chaplain Assistant (Air Force); and presently, Chaplain (Army). Yes, I enjoy a challenge! I have traveled the world three times over and had extensive training. In fact, I would say that over half of my career has been in training. However, I had one main issue that overwhelmed me for years. Remember the issue I spoke of earlier? It stayed with me until about five years before leaving the Air Force. The issue was that I knew something was missing from my life. Specifically, Jesus Christ was not a part of it. I knew that God wanted me to give up my life of sin and follow Him. Yet, I refused to.

            So, how did I get to where I am today? It was a long journey with many people involved. Throughout my childhood, my parents attended church. I received a biblical understanding and foundation during those years. As I grew up, I abandoned the church for two main reasons. First, although my parents went to church, they did not live a Christian life. I didn’t understand why they bothered to attend church if they didn’t really believe what was preached. After all, they should live it if they believed it, right? Second, many church people hurt me in my teen years. The hurt caused me to have a highly negative view of religion. Yet, I still had a longing and a deep burden to follow God and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

            The long journey started while I was a child attending church with my parents. However, the journey got interesting when I began attending a church in Fuquay-Varina, NC, named Fellowship Bible Church. When I first started attending Fellowship, it seemed like a typical church. In many aspects, it was. However, there was and still is one main difference. The men in the church were very spiritually mature and exceptionally willing to teach and mentor other men. I will mention a few of them: Donald Dickens, Ken Doss, Glenn Vonk, Mike Evans, Terry Manahan, John McClamroch, John Park, and Vince Grassi. From the first time I began attending Fellowship Bible Church, these men started to mentor me and help me understand what it meant to be a godly man. Donald Dickens, in particular, helped me the most. The more I attended church, the more I observed Donald and his interaction with his family and others. I was amazed at how he led with humility and strength. He had what I wanted.

            Over time, Donald graciously accepted to be my formal mentor, and he began mentoring me one-on-one. Neither one knew what we were getting into with this agreement. Remember, I like challenges. One reason I love challenges is that I am incredibly bullheaded. When I was young, you would have better luck getting a pork chop from a pit bull than getting me to change my mind or do something I didn’t want to do. Additionally, if I did want something, it would take an army to stop me from obtaining it. Donald had his hands full. So did I, for that matter. For the first time in my life, I had met someone just as stubborn. Add that he was brutally honest, and I had a contender! Over several years, Donald mentored and helped me through some of my most challenging times. After twenty-some odd years, he is still my mentor today. Yes, although we are both almost equally stubborn, God has honed us down some, thankfully.

            My life experiences and spiritual journey are far too extensive to put in this post. I can honestly say that my spiritual journey has been unique in many ways, yet extraordinarily ordinary in many others. I have only given you the beginning of my journey and just the most significant highlights. If you want to know more about me, feel free to contact me. I would love to schedule a time to chat with you about my life and how God led me to accept him completely. We can talk about my struggles, how I became a Chaplain, or anything else you would like to know.