‘Don’t Be Afraid’—Former Army Chaplain Shares How Pastors Can Help Veterans Who Are Struggling With Suicide

“This whole topic of mental health, especially among the older generations—they were never trained in this,” Glen Bloomstrom told Dr. Ed Stetzer and Daniel Yang in a recent episode of “The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast.” This conversation is a particularly relevant one for churches thinking this Veterans Day about how to better serve those who served.

While any type of person can be at risk of struggling with suicide, Bloomstrom has extensive experience working with soldiers and veterans groups in this area. He joined Saddleback Church co-founder Kay Warren to discuss how pastors and church leaders can take steps to help people who are in crisis. 

RELATED: Kay Warren and Glen Bloomstrom: The Vital Role Church Leaders Play in Helping To Prevent Suicide 

This Veterans Day, Evaluate Your Suicide Prevention Policies 

Glen Bloomstrom grew up in a military family (his father was a career Sergeant Major in the U.S. Army). He was baptized as a Christian his senior year in college and later attended Bethel Seminary. After beginning seminary, Bloomstrom and his wife started attending Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, which later commissioned him as an active duty Army chaplain. 

Bloomstrom served in the Army chaplaincy for 30 years, during which time he served in airborne, infantry and special operations units, served at the Pentagon, and earned a Master’s degree so he could be trained in marriage and family counseling and be equipped to train other chaplains.

He is now director of Faith Community Engagement at LivingWorks Education, where he partners with faith leaders, seminaries, denominations, and Department of Defense and veterans’ groups to prevent suicide through education and intervention training. Bloomstrom is also a member of the Faith Communities Task Force, which leads the Action Alliance in efforts to engage faith communities in suicide prevention.

“My experience with this topic began as a young chaplain in the early 80s, encountering soldiers with a variety of issues post-Vietnam—a lot of veterans at that time,” Bloomstrom told Stetzer and Yang.

“I encountered many things that we needed skills to do that, really, I hadn’t learned in seminary,” said Bloomstrom. He eventually “was sent to a graduate program by the United States Army. And then I served at the Pentagon, where I was responsible for suicide intervention training for the Army chaplaincy.”

The reality of suicide hits close to home for Bloomstrom, who shared that during his second-to-last assignment prior to his retirement in 2011, “a young chaplain that was very, very dear to me” died by suicide. Bloomstrom had worked with the young chaplain at the Pentagon. 

“I knew his family history, his story, and we were assigned doing lessons learned in Iraq,” Bloomstrom said. “And he died by suicide. And he knew all of this material,” that is, their suicide intervention training material.

“It’s kind of a personal thing,” Bloomstrom said, “to lose a dear friend who was also a pastor, a chaplain.”