For more than four decades, Rear Adm. Gregory Todd has served alongside Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen, through times of peace and war. Now, the Navy Chief of Chaplains, prepares for a new season: retirement.
Adm. Todd recently sat down with CBN News National Security Correspondent, Caitlin Burke, reflecting on faith, service, sacrifice, and the calling that kept him in uniform for more than 40 years.
Caitlin: Can you talk about that first call that you did answer to serve as a Chaplain?
Adm. Todd: I was young, I did a lot of things, maybe, impulsively, really of course, out of faith, but still, I had a lot to learn. and that was the great thing about the Navy, was that it had the patience with me to help me learn and grow as a leader, grow as a spiritual leader.
Todd believes the moments that shaped him most came during crisis. In 2001, while he served with the Coast Guard in New York, terrorists flew two planes into the twin towers.
Adm. Todd: After 9-11 it became very personal. There was that realization. These service members, whether they knew us or not, they were standing between my family and what could hurt them, and that really drove me at that point. It was like, what can I do for these people, what can I do to prepare them spiritually for the challenges they’re going to face?
Caitlin: Where do Chaplains fit into the story when people think of the men and women of our Armed Services?
Adm. Todd: Well, I would go back to Psalm 23, ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.’ This is a territory that I think the warrior realizes that they’re visiting. This is divine territory, God owns life and death, and so when the Warrior walks through this territory, I think they’re looking for a guide…and so the Chaplain is there, the representative of God, to help them get through that.
Over his career, Adm. Todd served at Ground Zero, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and alongside Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen around the world. As Navy Chief of Chaplains, he became a driving force behind legislation allowing service members to transfer to the Chaplain Corps and complete their education while still on active duty. Still, his most gratifying accomplishments came during quieter moments of ministry.
Adm Todd: When you were with people in their pain and you could pray with them and they had the reassurance that God was with them…or when I’m baptizing a Marine in Afghanistan and after the service three of his buddies stand up and say, ‘We want that.’ Those are the things I’m most proud of. Or to proclaim the gospel, that their sins are forgiven, and that Christ has risen from the dead, and to have someone come up and say, ‘I never heard that,’ and you’re so thankful that you were the one that could share it with them…there’s a lot of structural things that we did, but it’s the things that are eternal that I feel best about.
Caitlin: Which title are you most proud of?
Adm Todd: Dad. That’s the one I treasure, being ‘dad.’ Everything else comes and goes, and that’s the one I’m going back to, dad, grandpa, actually, my grandkids call me ‘Popeye.’
Caitlin: What advice would you give your successor about where his or her priorities, focus, heart should lie?
Adm. Todd: It’s all about the flock. It’s all about the people that we’ve been called to care for, that is the focus, that is the most important thing. God has called us to them, and I think from a Christian perspective, he’s called us to make them disciples.
Todd steps away at a time of change, with Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, eliminating the Army’s spiritual fitness guide, and then, in an historic first, calling on the Army Chief of Chaplains, Maj. Gen. William Green, to retire. Most recently, Hegseth ordered Chaplains to replace any rank insignia on their uniforms with religious insignia.
Adm Todd: It’s one of those kinds of servant leader roles that we stay focused on the mission. We give leadership its due, but the mission continues. We need to focus on taking care of the souls of the service members and their families, and so we stay focused.
Surrounded by family, friends, and colleagues, Adm. Todd recently closed his chapter with the Navy. As he walks into what’s next, Todd is confident, God’s not done with him yet.
Adm Todd: God’s call, I think, for right now, is to wait….I think he is saying to wait and to focus on family. Our family has sacrificed time away from our parents, time away from our kids, and of course the grandchildren. So we want to focus on them, but we also feel like we can continue to give back. So taking a knee, focusing on the family, and we’re listening here.
Caitlin: At the end of one season and the beginning of the next, is there anything else you want to add?
Adm. Todd: I think the overwhelming feeling at the end of all of this is gratitude…I’ve had several people who will say things like, ‘Well, thank you for your service,’ and that’s a very kind thing to say. I’m very thankful for that, but I was really, I kind of took someone aside the other day, and I said, ‘I appreciate you saying that, but it kind of feels odd when you follow God’s call and you’re so blessed by it, to have someone say thank you for your service.’ You’re like, no thank you for the opportunity.
Caitlin: Well thank you sir, for saying ‘yes.’
Adm. Todd: It’s been my pleasure.
