Pratima Dharm
U.S. Army, 2006-2015, Operation Iraqi Freedom

Pratima Dharm
U.S. Army, 2006-2015, Operation Iraqi Freedom

Pratima Dharm, the first Hindu chaplain in the U.S. Army, grew up surrounded by spirituality of all kinds in India. She moved to the United States in 2001 for school. Dharm wanted to become a chaplain which required attending seminary, but Hindu studies were not offered. To meet requirements, along with studying psychology and Judaism, she attended a Protestant seminary. After becoming a Pentecostal minister, she was commissioned as an Army chaplain in 2006, joining a community of approximately 1,000 Hindu servicemembers. Dharm became the first Hindu chaplain in the Defense Department in 2011. “There's this tremendous sense of hope and relief that there is someone who understands their story at a deeper level, coming from the background I do,” she said of her fellow Hindu Soldiers. Dharm worked as a counselor on suicide prevention, combat stress training, marriage counseling, and other spiritual and psychological needs. Earlier, Dharm deployed to Iraq in 2007-2008, earning a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal for running ten humanitarian aid missions for the Iraqi Kurdish population. Dharm left the service in 2015.