Welcome to the web page for the Office of the Chaplain at the Joint Forces Staff College. Feel free to contact me or come by and chat. I am here to support your religious/spiritual needs, and also provide a safe space to talk.

Blessings,

Chaps

The Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) is the Norfolk, Virginia, campus of National Defense University (NDU) which is located at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.  NDU falls under the direct supervision of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to carry out joint professional military education. Thus, the Office of the Chaplain at JFSC provides traditional pastoral care and counseling in a unique setting that educates Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard officers to serve in various joint billets within the Department of Defense. Civilians from other U.S. government agencies and officers from the armed forces of other nations also attend the schools of JFSC. By virtue of a memorandum of understanding with the Chairman’s Joint Staff, and as a representative of the Joint Staff Chaplain located in the Pentagon, the Command Chaplain of JFSC also provides pastoral care and counseling to military and civilian workers at Joint Staff South locations in Suffolk, Virginia, and NSA Hampton Roads.

The billet of Command Chaplain belongs to the Chaplain Corps of the U.S. Navy, and it requires the individual to be trained and certified in Joint Professional Military Education Phases I and II. In addition, the Command Chaplain must have a professional naval code in ethics. This additional educational requirement, which goes beyond what is required to be a military chaplain, enables the Command Chaplain to teach a military ethics elective to students of the Joint and Combined Warfighting School (JCWS), advice JCWS curriculum developers on the Foundations of Unified Action module on ethics, give an ethics lecture to students of the Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS), and be the ethical and moral advisor to the Commandant of JFSC.

Commander David T. Nelson, Jr. is a graduate of Southeastern University, Lakeland, Florida, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 2003, Erskine Theological Seminary, Due West, South Carolina where he received his Master of Divinity in 2006, and he completed a Master of Arts (Philosophy of Ethics in Public Administration), at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia in August 2020. 

Chaplain Nelson was commissioned as a Lt. j. g. in the Navy in 2008. He completed the Chaplain Basic Course in 2008 and was assigned to Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, MAGTF Training Command from 2008 to 2011.  He was assigned to Carrier Air Wing 5 in Atsugi, Japan from 2011 to 2013 and deployed aboard the USS George Washington.  From 2013 to 2016 he served as Deputy Command Chaplain for Marine Air Group 31, Beaufort, South Carolina.  From 2016 to 2019, Chaplain Nelson served as Command Chaplain aboard Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Saint Marys, Georgia.  Having been selected for the Navy Chaplain Corps Advanced Education Program, Chaplain Nelson was accepted to the Graduate Philosophy program at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and was attached to NROTC George Washington University, Washington, DC from 2019 to 2020 while completing this program.  From September 2020 to March 2023, he served as the PA Chaplain aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.  From March 2023-present, Chaplain Nelson has served as the Command Chaplain for 6^th Marine Corps Recruiting District, Parris Island, SC.  Personal awards include the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (five awards).

Chaplain Nelson was born in Lakeland, Florida.  He is endorsed by the Assemblies of God, married to the former Tonya Elaine Markham, and has 3 daughters: Reagan, Reese, and Ryn.

 NSA-HR POW-MIA Chapel (1453 Mitscher Avenue, nearby JFSC)

Catholic Mass
-Tuesdays 0630

Bible Study
-Mondays and Thursdays 1200

Naval Station Norfolk Chapel (1630 Morris St, Bldg C-7, Naval Station Norfolk, VA 23511, located just inside Gate 2)

CATHOLIC SERVICES (Our Lady of Victory Chapel)
- First Saturday of the month Mass, 0900
- Sunday Mass, 0930
- Daily Mass (Tuesday), 1130 Holy Mass (Office Hours 0930-1300)
- Wednesday, 0600 Mass followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (Office hours 0600-0830)

PROTESTANT SERVICES (David Adams Memorial Chapel)
- Sundays at 1045

JEWISH SERVICES (Commodore Levy Chapel – 2nd Deck of Bldg C-7):
- Shabbat (Fridays) at 1145

MUSLIM SERVICES (2nd Deck of Bldg C-7)
- Prayer room available throughout the week

The Joint Forces Staff College Chaplain has information on a variety of programs, services, and local resources including:

• On Campus worship
• Naval Station Norfolk and other local area worship opportunities
• Pastoral and Marriage Counseling
• Bible Study
• Marriage Enrichment and Personal Growth Retreats through Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation (CREDO) program
• Suicide Prevention and Awareness

Purpose

Joint and Combined Warfighting School (JCWS) and Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS) students are encouraged to do more than simply study the material and pass their respective courses. Acculturation with each other and the community, and extra-curricular activities that build group cohesion, are also designed pieces of the curriculum. As a part of this emphasis, the seminars (classes) are also encouraged to participate in activities with community agencies and organizations which allow them to give of themselves in the service of others. The Command Chaplain is the coordinator for those seminar activities.  In this capacity, the Command Chaplain meets with the seminar points of contacts at the beginning of each term, gives them information they need to plan an outreach event in neighboring communities, and maintains contact to monitor success and record metrics of planned events.

The faculty and staff of JFSC are also encouraged to participate in community relations projects.  The Command Chaplain supports and encourages an enlisted petty officer who is assigned to JFSC and has been given the collateral duty of coordinating outreach events. Together, they write and revise the outreach standard operating procedures (SOP) for JFSC.