Lisa Northway becomes oldest woman chaplain in U.S. Army history

Lisa Northway was celebrated as the oldest woman chaplain in the U.S. Army at a ceremony earlier in August at Fort Sill.

Throughout her life, Northway has been stationed all over the world, helping soldiers increase their faith in the military and their religion. She provides for the free exercise of religion and counsels service members, civilians and loved ones in need of pastoral counseling or advocacy, among other things.

“I was the least likely to join the military,” Northway said. “I was definitely least likely to become a chaplain in so many ways. I asked my step-uncle, ‘What does it take to be a chaplain?’ He said, ‘Oh, you have to know Greek and Hebrew. It’s a really hard life, you wouldn’t want to do it.’ (And I thought) Oh yeah, certainly I couldn’t be called to be an Army chaplain because I’d flunked high school Spanish with my teacher tutoring me in the morning.”

Northway learned later on that there are seminaries that don’t require Greek and Hebrew.

“The Greek that we would learn isn’t even a spoken language anymore, so it can be looked up,” Northway said.

Being raised in a church surrounded by people in the armed forces created a stepping stone for Northway to become an Army chaplain.

“I didn’t know that (Army) chaplains existed,” Northway said. “I found out that my step-uncle was an Army chaplain. I thought, ‘Well, there’s Army chaplains so there must be good church or decent church if you join the military.’”

Seeing young military men challenged in their faith and witnessing chaplain burn out made Northway choose Army ministry.

“The young men I had talked to coming home on leave (said) they felt very challenged and that it was difficult to cultivate their faith to continue in the military,” Northway said. “There’s a bit of that social spiritual justice that kind of got me going. I knew I was called to ministry, but I didn’t know what that was gonna look like. I also knew I was called to work with people away from home for the first time. That was what piqued my interest.”

A member of the Pentecostal Protestant Assemblies of God, Northway was a part of a college and career group in Modesto, Calif., called Calvary Temple. She then went to Vanguard University to study pastoral ministries, where she met her husband.

“He flatly announced at some point after a few dates that he wouldn’t be able to keep seeing me if I was interested in dating other people,” Northway said. “I hadn’t dated anyone else, but it was probably the first young man that I didn’t laugh in his face when he said that. I think God probably shut my mouth to see this through. I never dated anybody else at bible college except him. We were married just short of a year later.”

Northway attended three different high schools, but graduated from Modesto City Schools in 1980. When she was 17, she was pregnant with her first son.

“Back in my day, you went away to your aunt’s house,” Northway said. “I didn’t stay there too long because she had three other children. It was a little bit much having a teenager with cravings. I went to the St. Elizabeth Home for Unwed Mothers to live with nuns in San Francisco and had an amazing experience. They just loved us. I found that I had friends there that were as young as 13 but were more mature for their age.”

Northway didn’t want to get an abortion.

“I just knew that I would personally not be able to have an abortion,” Northway said. “I spent a lot of my time as a chaplain helping people through abortion recovery. I did give my child up to a loving home and adoptive family. I always knew for healthy family dynamics, you don’t want to have a lot of family secrets.”

When Northway and her husband, Garrett, told their son Gabriel he might have a brother, Gabriel wanted to meet him.

“I said, ‘Gabriel, that’s awesome. I’m gonna do everything in my power to make that possible. But you need to know it needs to be his choice because he was the one that was given up for adoption,’” Northway said. “I did my Ancestry.com DNA test….About two years later, he found me. I knew he was my son, his wife helped him figure out he had a 50 percent match. Then they saw a picture of me online and were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is your mother.”

One of Northway’s chaplain quotes is “Family secrets keep family sick.” With this story, it fits.

“Because I was not willing to keep the family secret,” Northway said. “My mom got to finally hold her great-grandchild last year.”

Northway entered the U.S. Army Reserve in 1988, attending basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. Since then, she has served in Army bases throughout the world, including Camp Buehring, Kuwait and Fort Huachuca, Ariz. She even helped close the Army base in Schweinfurt, Germany

Northway said she wanted to work with people away from home for the first time.

“I knew I didn’t have to go to regular basic training to be a chaplain, but because I didn’t really have any military experience, I wanted to have that credibility that I’ve been through basic training,” Northway said. “When I sat across from a soldier and was with them, they knew I had been where they’ve been.”

Other than her step-uncle, Northway had a few members in her family that were in the Armed Forces, including her father, who was in the Navy Reserves before she was born.

During the Oath of Office ceremony, Maj. Gen. Winston P. Brooks, commanding general of the U.S. Army Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill, gave Northway the oath, allowing her to serve until she turns 64 and a handful of months. If she wants to serve until she’s 68 years old, she must submit a packet within a year.

“I think I’m gonna do it,” Northway said. “I want to inspire others.”