The Reminiscences of Capt. Roland W. Faulk, CHC, USN (Ret.)

In a career marked by a great deal of administrative work rather than parish duty, Faulk is probably best known for his spirited--and eventually successful--campaign against compulsory church attendance in the Navy. Among his varied duties were service in the battleship Idaho (BB-42) in the late 1930s, at the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines as World War II approached; in the battleship Missouri (BB-63) at the end of the war and the immediate postwar period; as chaplain at the Recruit Training Center, Bainbridge, Maryland; as fleet chaplain for the Pacific Fleet; and at the Eleventh Naval District. Faulk's recollections of service during World War II are important because of his observations concerning Rear Admiral Robert Workman, wartime Chief of Chaplains, and because of Faulk's role in recruiting chaplains through the V-12 program. He has much to say also on collateral duties of chaplains and on the Navy Relief Society. Based on four interviews conducted by John T. Mason Jr. in November 1974, the volume contains 465 pages of interview transcript plus an index and numerous appendices. The transcript is copyright 1990 by the U.S. Naval Institute; the interviewee placed no restrictions on its use.