Retired Brigadier General's Latest Mission

It’s safe to say that Lely Presbyterian Church’s new pastor, Ed Brandt, was kind of a big deal in his last position, although, true to his calling, he’s too humble to say so himself. The gregarious Brandt’s credentials certainly reveal a career of great accomplishment.  

Brandt recently retired as a Brigadier General in the Army National Guard. He was the Senior Army National Guard Chaplain and Deputy Chief of Chaplains for the Army National Guard. He served as the primary Army National Guard liaison to the United States Army Chief of Chaplains. He provided advice and counsel to the Director of the Army National Guard, and oversaw resources, training, and policy for over 800 chaplains serving nearly 350,000 Army National Guard Soldiers and their families.

These days Brandt is happy to provide advice and counsel to the 80-some parishioners who attend his services during the summer at Lely Presbyterian Church on the East Trail.

“My first Sunday was Easter Sunday this year,” Brandt said. "I’ve been here two months and 18 days. The people are great. This just feels so right. I was ordained in 1985. I’ve been serving churches since 1984. Typically, you get a small church, you serve for a period of time, then you get a bigger church. God seems to call people to a bigger church that pays better. I thought in my retirement from the military, I’ve been very blessed. I’m thinking 'here is a chance to go to a congregation'—it just fit. It just was perfect. Not play that ecclesiastical go up the ladder game.”

On Saturday Brandt showed the enthusiasm of a fledgling pastor as he worked the room during a monthly “cook-in” in the church’s social room, snapping photographs with his Nikon camera and zoom lens. He notices the volunteer cooks coming inside after preparing hamburgers and hot dogs in the trademark Florida summer heat and humidity. He immediately recognizes the cooks for their efforts and urges the parishioners to give them a big round of applause.

Brandt, a self-described people-person, loved his military service. “I was a chaplain in the National Guard for 32 years,” he said. "Wherever you have people you have problems. It’s like taking care of people - taking care of problems. It’s not all bad. It was meeting people at their best times and meeting people at their worst times. When I retired, I was at the point in my career where it was more policy, resources - it was more administrative than it was chaplain work. I loved it. And I love people. That was the best part about it. Especially young kids. We always beat up on the millennials - no need to. They’re sharp kids, committed to our country. And that’s a good thing.”

Brandt sort of joined the Army National Guard by chance. He was a young pastor in Pennsylvania. He had no idea he would someday find himself in Iraq.

"I was in my first church,” Brandt remembered, "and the insurance agent said, ‘Hey, have you thought of being a chaplain in the National Guard?’ And I said, 'No.’ I met with the state chaplain of Pennsylvania. He was funny. He said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll never get deployed. Maybe a flood, a prison riot.' Next thing you know there was Gulf War I and Gulf War II. I was deployed in 2008-2009. I went to Iraq for a year.”

Brandt downplays the danger he faced.

"We were in a pretty safe place,” he said. "We were behind the wire. Although we had units outside the wire. Outside the perimeter. We had walls, gates to get in, gates to get out. I only went in a few times.”

Brandt counseled soldiers who were in difficult situations. "You were with people who were away from their families for a whole year,” he said. "Working relations were a challenge. So, we dealt with them. People have joys and concerns. But the real joys and concerns are I lost five guys this past week. That’s a real prayer concern. It’s not like, ‘help me find a parking space at Walmart.' It was a real-life moment. So, you really engage people like that.”

"Who ever thought I’d be having Christmas Eve services in Baghdad, Iraq,” Brandt reflected. "Or celebrate Easter outside Al-Faw Palace where Saddam Hussein was. Or get to tour some of his palaces. He was a bad guy. He did not treat people well."

When Brandt looks back at his military career, he thinks of the people he met and the lifelong friendships he made. But he admits that there were some scary times in Iraq.

“There were two times,” he said. "The chaplain I replaced; he went for a jog. When he came back, during his jog, a missile had hit the trailer where he lived. If he would have been there, he would have been nothing.

“One time I was out there and I heard, ‘Incoming, incoming.’ And I thought, ‘Holy Crap! This is the end of my life. Get down on the floor. Protect myself. Then it was ‘all clear.’”

For some soldiers, the experience was too much to handle. Brandt did his best to help them.

“There were some people who fell apart,” he said. "Because they’re away from their kids. Single parents away from their kids. People who couldn’t go back for whatever reason to see family. When you’re pulled out of an environment that’s familiar - and a routine - and placed in something that’s brand new, with a lot of people you’re not used to spending a lot of time with, you discover another side of yourself, which can be good and can be bad. I was responsible for 1,200 soldiers. I had two chaplains who reported to me. We had headquarters and two battalions. One guy traveled just to see how people were doing. We took care of people. Counseling. It was a cool job.”

Brandt was deployed when he was 49. The average age in his unit was 44.

“We went from Delaware to Ft. Bliss,” Brandt said. "Ft. Bliss to Kuwait. I think we were in Kuwait for three weeks, and then at like 2:00 AM we were boarding a plane to fly to Baghdad, Iraq.”

“We were a signal brigade,” he said, "which is short for internet, phone. You talk about special forces, that’s a younger group of people. Infantry is younger.”

Brandt looks down at his iPad at a picture of his unit aboard a plane to Baghdad. 

“Heading to Baghdad,” he recalls, “the crazy thing is we’re sitting in our seats, we’ve got our helmets on, we’ve got our battle gear on, all that stuff.  They said, ‘make sure you have your seatbelts on.’ How are you going to put your seatbelt on?”

Brandt would like to see mandatory service in the United States. 

"I’m a big believer in mandatory service between 18 and 24,” he said. "What it does, it brings people together from different parts of the country, which isn’t happening. It makes you see another perspective. And we all get something out of this country for nothing. We think the country owes us something, but it doesn’t. You get structure, you meet people. You learn about yourself. Another thing it does is give you a common bond, which is something we don’t have right now. Less than one percent of our population serves in the military.”

Many don’t understand the National Guard.

“When I was over there,” Brandt said, "about 53 percent of the Army was National Guard Reserve. The infantry was about 70 percent Guard. We’re all wearing uniforms that say U.S. Army on them. Nobody knows the difference."

Brandt rose the ranks in the National Guard. Again, he shows the humility of a pastor. “I was lucky,” he said. "Just in the right place at the right time. My TAG, my Adjutant General, put me in for it. He pushed for it. It was a real privilege, a real honor, to do that.”

Brandt feels rising through the ranks is something that should happen naturally.

"You meet people who want to go up to the next rung in the ladder,” he said. "That’s all they want to do. I always told people, ‘Just do your job. Do your job the best you can and maybe you’ll get recognized for it.' Sometimes you have to work to leave a mark and not just have it handed to you.”

Not surprisingly, Brandt has done his homework on Lely Presbyterian Church. He understands the expectations of his new job. He has a plan.

"This church was founded in 1974,” he said. "They celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2014. They had a long tenured pastor for 20 years. They’ve had some people who came in and left. So, they had this revolving door for several years. The word I keep hearing is stability, stability, stability. I can do that. I can do that really well. It’s not rocket science. It’s caring for people, a good sermon on Sunday morning and do some programs that make a difference and be involved in the community.”

He’s already making himself a part of the community. “I’m in the process of joining the Pelican Bay Rotary Club,” he said. "I’ve become the chaplain of the Collier County Veterans’ Council. I go to the VFW. I love that stuff. You’ve got to love people.

"My goal is to grow the congregation. Get some younger people involved. Then hand it off to somebody six to eight years from now."