Many times, I have been asked what advice I would give to those who want to become chaplains or chaplain assistants in the 75th Ranger Regiment. How should you prepare? What does it take? How does it overlap with other roles?

While there is a lot I could say on the topic, here is a short list of my top four pieces of advice.

Focus on being the best chaplain or chaplain assistant in the Army, and the Ranger Regiment will consider you for a position.

This is a physically demanding unit, and the people in it take personal fitness very seriously. You won’t get hired (or if you do get hired, you won’t survive in this unit long) if you are not in top physical shape.

These guys aren’t a bunch of dumb grunts. This unit consists of some highly educated and very intelligent men and women. The greatest weapon Rangers bring to the battlefield is their brains.

This unit demands the highest ethical standards. That’s because it often trusts a low to mid-level leader with decisions that would be made by very high-ranking people in the rest of the military. The unit can trust these types of decisions at this level because it has such a high standard for ethical behavior.

Again, this advice is just the beginning, but if you continually improve in these four areas, you will definitely have an advantage.