Twenty Years Since 2004 DODI 1304.28

28, "The Appointment and Service of Chaplains."There were two major revisions to the DODI, the qualifying graduation degree was lowered from a ninety-hour master's degree to a seventy-two-hour degree and the need for the school to be accredited by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) was removed.Appointment criteria for military chaplains, twice in the past century, impacted quality of both chaplains, and also more broadly, theological education in the United States.In the 1900s, mass mobilization created a need for more military chaplains.Religious bodies along with the War Department established appointment criteria for chaplains.These criteria, in turn, helped shape the Master of Divinity degree and a theological education accreditation association.Department of Defense Instruction (DODI) 1304.28,changed, in 2004, qualifying graduate education appointment standards without the collaboration of endorsers and theological schools.Changes to appointment standards significantly impacted quality chaplain accessions as well as theological education and formation.I contend