This Week in DOW: Guard Helps Make Memphis Safe, Chaplain Corps Reformed

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, March 23, alongside President Donald J. Trump to join a roundtable discussion with leaders representing the Memphis Safe Task Force.

The task force is a federal anti-crime intervention task force involving the National Guard and multiple federal agencies.

"Prior to the deployment of the National Guard, Memphis was averaging one murder per day and was known to be the murder capital of the United States," Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said today in the War Department's Weekly Sitrep video.

Thanks to the guard's presence in Memphis, robberies dropped 60%, carjackings declined 74% and murders fell 70%, she said.

"Under the Trump administration, we believe no city or neighborhood should be left behind," Wilson said.

While in Memphis, Trump and Hegseth announced that National Guardsmen serving on select Title 32 missions are eligible for the same benefits and protections as active-duty troops.

Some of these additional benefits and protections include a reduction in retirement age, Transition Assistance Management Program eligibility, Post 9/11 GI Bill eligibility, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protections and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act protections.

"Thank you for agreeing to sign that declaration for the Memphis troops, the D.C. troops [and] the troops on our border. They'll now be paid and get benefits just like folks on active duty; thank you for that, Mr. President," Hegseth said to Trump, shortly after the president made the announcement.

Also, during his visit, Hegseth met with personnel assigned to the Tennessee Air National Guard's 164th Airlift Wing and senior leaders.

At the direction of Marine Corps Gen. Francis L. Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted its 47th lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by designated terrorist organizations, March 25, Wilson said.

U.S. intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Four male narco-terrorists were killed, and no U.S. military forces were harmed, she added.

Regarding Operation Epic Fury, over 50,000 service members in the Middle East are supporting this mission.

"President Trump made his objectives clear, and the Department of War is making sure those objectives are swiftly met. Twenty-seven days into this operation, our military continues to demonstrate that we are the world's most lethal and powerful military," she said.

We continue to dominate air and sea domains, while our forces eliminate threats from the Iranian regime, striking over 10,000 Iranian targets and delivering overwhelming combat power since Operation Epic Fury began, Wilson said.

Hegseth provided an update, March 24, on efforts to return the Chaplain Corps to its mission of serving the spiritual needs of warfighters - 82% of whom identify as religious, Wilson noted.

The faith and belief coding system has been renamed to religious affiliation codes and simplified from more than 200 faith codes.

"Based on recommendations from our internal review committee, the department will now use 31 religious affiliation codes. Most of the military population only use six codes. We've gotten rid of the ones that were impractical and unusable," Wilson said.

Also, Hegseth signed a memo that directs chaplains, all of whom are officers, to replace rank insignia on their duty uniforms with religious insignia, she said.

"This removes any unease or anxiety a junior officer, enlisted personnel and even a senior officer may have in seeking guidance on sensitive or spiritual matters. These reforms are just the start of restoring the esteemed position of chaplains as moral anchors of our fighter force," she said.

Hegseth said the overhaul was necessary because the current system had grown too large.

"A chaplain is first and foremost a chaplain, and an officer second. This change is a visual representation of that fact," he said.

Hegseth emphasized the importance of empowering chaplains, noting "theirs is a high and sacred calling, but they can only be successful if they are given the freedom to boldly guide and care for their flock."