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- Peter Muschinske, a reserve component chaplain in the U.S. Navy, at the Northern Wisconsin Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery, where both his parents and in-laws are interred. Photos: Courtesy of Peter Muschinske
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- Muschinske, who was nominated this year for the rank of rear admiral (lower half), speaks at a reenlistment ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Missouri.
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- Muschinske (center) with colleagues of the U.S. Third Fleet Reserve Headquarters Unit.
Growing up as the son of a U.S. Air Force chaplain in Rice Lake, Wis., Peter Muschinske grew accustomed to people telling him, “You’re going to be a pastor like your dad.” Muschinske laughs at the memory now. “In my little, introverted, youngest-child heart, I said, ‘I will never be a pastor or chaplain.’”
But Muschinske believes that God had plans for him. For the past three decades he has served as a reserve component chaplain in the U.S. Navy. This year he was nominated for the prestigious rank of rear admiral (lower half), pending U.S. Senate confirmation.
Christopher L. Otten, senior director of federal chaplaincy for the ELCA, that Muschinske had won this rank “not because of his past accomplishments—which are impressive” but because of his “potential, skills and capacity for leadership.”
Muschinske’s road to both God and the military began after he graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire with a double major in psychology and communication/theater arts. While looking into graduate studies in psychology, he moved back home to Rice Lake and began commuting to St. Paul, Minn., for a philosophy class at Luther Seminary. That class led to an awakening.
This year Muschinske was nominated for the prestigious rank of rear admiral (lower half), pending U.S. Senate confirmation.
“I thought, ‘If this has anything to do with being a pastor, being kind of a resident theologian and reflecting on those formative core values that come to us through philosophy and religion, then this is going to be wonderful,’” Muschinske said.
During his second year in Luther’s Master of Divinity program he noticed someone walking around campus in a dress naval uniform; this person turned out to be a chaplain recruiting for the Navy’s Chaplain Candidate Program, and Muschinske enrolled. The program trained him in multiple ministry scenarios before he was to decide on his ultimate path. Upon graduation he chose to join the Naval Reserves because of the flexibility it allowed him for work-life balance.
“There were times where the Navy asked if I wanted to go on active duty,” Muschinske said. “Either my life with a young family or my congregational calling were enough to make me say that I’d rather have this kind of bi-vocational job, where the two are complementing each other.”
Expanding vocational scope
Despite this bi-vocational calling, Muschinske has been deployed during his career. He served in Anbar Province during the Iraq War, a dangerous assignment.
“When you have members of your unit who are subject to [improvised explosive devices] and getting seriously injured or dying, or when you have indirect fire of mortar rounds or rockets coming into your compounds that you live on, you have an extremely heightened sense of existence, life and death,” he said.
As a chaplain, Muschinske ministers not only to Lutherans but to sailors and Marines of all faiths. During deployment he has found that representing God is more critical than representing a specific denomination.
“In the context of a deployment, I actually worked more broadly with all of our armed forces and, to some extent, with our coalition partners from other nations,” he said. “That expands [my vocational] scope from a more localized congregation to a global setting, with different religions represented.”
“You have an extremely heightened sense of existence, life and death.”
Even when Muschinske isn’t deployed, he helps to prepare sailors, Marines and members of the Coast Guard for war—and for death.
“Technically you could argue that, as a parish pastor, you’re preparing people to die, but it doesn’t happen as often,” he says. “In the military, you’re doing that, [and] it’s accelerated. But you still have the same end in mind, which is a life well-lived and making a difference.”
Following a long and full career as a Navy chaplain, Muschenske was preparing to retire when he received news of his promotion. He couldn’t forgo the opportunity to achieve a major career milestone and to continue to serve the sailors and Marines who sacrifice their time, and sometimes their lives, to protect the country.
“I believe that I’m now a part of ensuring that the Navy is a place of integrity and purpose,” he said. “The Chaplain Corps has a unique role in providing for the development and sustainment of what I would say is our best asset, which is our people.”
