More Than a Mission: Building Bonds Through Faith
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — U.S. Army Chaplain Jon Knoedler, the senior Chaplain for the 8th Theater Sustainment Command, traveled to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG), to engage with the local community and offer methods to improve ethical decision making and spiritual resiliency amongst community leaders.
“So here in PNG, religion brings an asymmetrical advantage, something that other near-peer threats don’t bring in, don’t have, and don’t encourage,” Knoedler said. “In fact, it’d be the opposite. So where they bring in a lot of money, we bring in what drives culture, which is religion.”
The request for chaplain support was identified by the Oceania Engagement Team (OET), a U.S. Army Pacific Civil Affairs Company deployed to PNG and throughout Oceania to conduct civil affairs and civil-military operations.
OETs operate in multiple countries within the Pacific, including PNG, Timor-Leste, Marshall Islands, Fiji, Micronesia, Palau, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Kiribati. The OETs maintain U.S. Army Pacific Command’s persistent presence in Oceania by working with regional partners in support of a free and open U.S. Pacific.
“We have a focus on religious and educational projects that allow the Papua New Guinean populace to get a glimpse of what the United States Army has to offer and how we can better bolster their abilities to do and achieve things in their religious and educational communities,” said Capt. Steven Riley, the Team Leader for OET-PNG.
In late September 2026, the Chaplain arrived and met with a Chaplain counterpart from the PNG Defense Force (PNGDF) to discuss how they could work together to train more Chaplains and give them tools to assist soldiers in spiritual and faith-based ways.
“We are currently going through different exercises and workshops where the Chaplain is able to speak with civil professionals that lead the local communities here in PNG,” said Riley. “We’re also meeting with PNGDF, PNG Correctional Services, as well as PNG Constabulary to provide them the ability to ethically lead and manage the status and position that they have, responsibly through faith.”
At Saint Joseph’s International Catholic Church, the Chaplain spoke with members of the congregation about what gives them life, what some of those killers of that life are, and how to use it practically with other people and themselves.
“For us to have these sessions with the U.S. Army Chaplain was an honor for us because it was our first experience,” said Paul Harricknen, the president of the Catholic Professionals Society of PNG. “It was very impressive, and we felt that the topics we covered, such as leadership, crisis management, and ethical leadership, were important because those are issues for us.”
With the intention of strengthening the culture within PNG and building spiritual resiliency, the Chaplain reached the hearts of the congregation and gave life to those who brought him life with the word of God.
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