It is the USS Enterprise, the “Big E”—the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and when launched in 1962, the longest naval vessel in the world. Its home port is Naval Station Norfolk, Va., where the Big E recently left for one of her final six-month deployments before she is scheduled to be decommissioned—after 51 years of service—in 2013.


But until then, Lt. Cmdr. Holcombe, 47, has a full-time job to do. Fortunately, he’s not the only chaplain on the Big E. There are three others—the command chaplain, a Presbyterian, a Catholic priest and another Southern Baptist chaplain.


“The old saying on a ship is that every day is Monday except Sunday,” says Holcombe. “On Sundays, we obviously have church. In fact, many, many different services go on each Sunday.” As a chaplain, Holcombe says he not only prepares weekly sermons but his mission is to share the gospel and take care of his floating flock, most of whom average 18-25 years old in age.


Holcombe assists Enterprise crew members with any kind of issue they might have—ranging from a sailor who’s run afoul of his chain of command, to helping someone salvage or maintain a marriage, to even talking some sailors out of committing suicide. He also spends time just visiting the aircraft carrier’s living and work areas—every nook and cranny—of the Big E, no small feat when you consider it spans the length of five football fields.


“With all the spaces we have on board the ship, there’s always somebody to go visit,” says Holcombe, “and they all want a visit from the chaplain, even the folks in the (nuclear) reactors and other places you may not think a chaplain would typically go. But we’re always welcomed and well-received because they’re happy somebody’s coming in to see them.”


For six months, it’s a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week ministry. There’s no wife, kids or house to go home to each night, just the claustrophobic close quarters of a tiny stateroom Holcombe shares with another officer—a complete stranger at the beginning of the six-month voyage but certainly a stranger no more at its end.


ON MISSION • Winter 2012 37

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