Capt. Dale A Goetz, 43, of White, S.D. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. He died Aug. 30 in the Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. Capt Goetz completed his Master of Divinity degree at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis in 2000. He was pastor of a church in White, S.D., until beginning his work toward chaplaincy. Goetz was commissioned in January of 2004. A graduate of Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, Wis., was a member of the 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Carson, Colo. He hailed from White, S.D., where he had served as a pastor before joining the Army in 2000. He had been in Iraq in 2004 before his current assignment in Afghanistan. He is survived by his wife, Christina, and three sons.

∼

*Dale Goetz was born on February 24, 1967 to Hope and Dale H. Goetz.[1] Dale had two sisters named Ann and Kim.[2] Hope Goetz was an Elbert County Commissioner in eastern Colorado. She took the place of her husband after he died.[3] Dale's father had also been in the U.S. Navy, meaning that Dale had come from a military family.[4] Dale grew up in Hood River, Oregon. He was an athlete and worked at a dairy processing plant.[5] In 1986, Dale graduated from a small private school called Horizon Christian School. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the Air Force, but he also realized that he wanted to go to Bible College. In 1995, he graduated from Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, Wisconsin with a Bachelor's degree in Bible Studies. His wife Christy also attended Maranatha Baptist Bible College, which is where they met. Dale then went on to receive a Master of Divinity degree from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis in 2000.[6]

Dale worked as a pastor at a Baptist Church in White, South Dakota, but he realized he had more of a calling in life than being a small rural town pastor. Dale had talked to a Navy Chaplain and had been intrigued with the opportunities that a military chaplain could have. Dale then told his wife that he wanted to become an Army Chaplain. Christy was afraid that he would be killed with the war raging in Iraq, but Dale signed up to become a Chaplain in 2004.

Once Dale had been commissioned as a Chaplain in the Army in 2004, he had been placed as a member of the 4th Infantry Division in Fort Carson, Colorado.[7] Dale then served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 in his first deployment. Dale then served in Okinawa, Japan from 2006 to 2009. Dale and Christy moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2010, where they bought their first house.[8]

The idea of a chaplain has been traced all the way back to the Torah. In the United States, they can be traced back to the Revolutionary War. The history of military chaplains changed over time. Before WWII, chaplains were responsible for making sure there was no gambling or drinking in a time of war. After WWII, chaplains developed more of a role of consolidation for soldiers. Chaplains were even drafted in WWII, since there was such a huge need for them. For the modern conflicts in the Middle East, chaplains have been there for marriage advice, PTSD help, and have prayed with their soldiers. Chaplains go to soldiers in a time of conflict and they don't carry around weapons like other soldiers in combat zones.[9]

Dale volunteered to go to Afghanistan even though he had already served on a tour in Iraq. He wanted to go console soldiers and be there for them in a war zone. He knew soldiers who had been deployed three or four times, while he had only been deployed twice and he felt like it was his mission to be deployed again.[10] Dale was killed in the Kandahar Province in Afghanistan on August 30th, 2010. He died when a roadside bomb had detonated when he was on his way to console soldiers. The bomb killed him and four other soldiers. When it came to Dale's opinion on war, his wife Christie stated that "He believed in self-defense but also in praying for his enemies."[11]

When Hope Goetz heard that her son had been killed, she thought she was having a heart attack and paramedics were called. It turned out she was just having heartbreak from the news about her son. Hope and Dale's sister Kim went to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to collect Dale's body. Before Dale was deployed, he told his wife that he wanted to be buried in the same cemetery as his father. Now both Dale H. Goetz and his son are interred in Ft. Logan National Cemetery.[12]

Dale had been the first Army Chaplain who had been Killed in Action since the Vietnam War.[13] He was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal, a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star Medal, and three Army Commendation Medals during his military career.[14] Despite all his honors, Dale had been the type of soldier who had rather carried a bible than a gun.[15] Dale had been deployed for only less than a month when he was killed, but he selflessly volunteered to console and help others.

*Courtesy of Monica Kleyman: The University of Denver, Department of History - Apr 4, 2025

∼FOLD3:

A Baptist minister who grew up in Hood River is the first Army chaplain to die in combat since Vietnam.

Chaplain (Capt.) Dale Allen Goetz, 43, died Monday in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan's Arghandab River Valley. He had been in Afghanistan less than a month. Four other Fort Carson, Colo., soldiers were also killed in the attack.

His mother, Hope Goetz, who lives in Colorado, traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday to meet her son's remains, friends say.

News of the death sped through Hood River, where Goetz developed his Christian faith and love of the military while attending a small private school, Baptist Christian, now called Horizon Christian.

"He had always wanted to minister," classmate Scott Ashby said. "He had a dedication to God and country."

Goetz is the 124th service member with strong ties to Oregon to die in Afghanistan or Iraq. But as a chaplain, he was a noncombatant and unarmed.

The more than 400 Army chaplains in Iraq or Afghanistan are military officers. Their job is to reach soldiers on the battlefield, to provide religious support and to perform services or rites, said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Carleton Birch, spokesman for the Army Chief of Chaplains.

An armed chaplain's assistant travels with each. The first assistant to die in the wars was killed in Afghanistan last month, Birch said.

Goetz grew up in Hood River, an athlete whose first job was at an old-fashioned dairy where he processed milk and sold ice cream at a drive-up window, Ashby said.

A year before he graduated in 1986, he prayed with his principal, Oscar Stenberg III, and another student to receive Jesus Christ.

"From that point, it was like a light was on in him," Stenberg said.

Goetz enlisted in the Air Force, then went on to Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, Wis. He graduated in 1995 with a bachelor's degree, according to the college website, and met his wife, Christina, there. He completed his Master of Divinity degree at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis in 2000. He was pastor of a church in White, S.D., until he joined the Army and began his work toward chaplaincy in 2000.

He served with the infantry at Fort Lewis, Wash., then three years in Okinawa, Japan, until he was transferred to Colorado in January. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson. He served 11 months in Iraq in 2004-05.

Stenberg said Goetz mailed about a month ago saying he was excited about serving soldiers but was concerned for the family he left behind.

Survivors include his wife and three children ages 10, 8 and 1. Funeral services are planned in Colorado Springs, Colo., with burial at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver.

∼FOLD3:

Army Capt. Dale A. Goetz, 43, of White, S.D., was assigned to 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. He was one of four soldiers killed on August 30th, 2010 in the Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.

A native of Hood River, Oregon, Goetz developed his Christian faith and love for the military while attending a small private school in his hometown. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the Air Force but also wanted to go to Bible College. In 1995, he graduated from Maranatha Baptist Bible College, where he met his wife, and went on to receive a Master of Divinity degree from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in 2006.

He worked as a pastor in White, South Dakota, but after a conversation with a Navy Chaplain, chose to answer another calling and became an Army Chaplain. Although Chaplains do not carry their own weapons, they travel into combat zones to reach soldiers on the battlefield, provide religious support and perform services or rites. He was the first Army Chaplain killed in action since 1970. He was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal, a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star Medal, and three Army Commendation Medals during this military career.

∼FOLD3:

Captain Dale Goetz cared about the soldiers he served as an Army chaplain both their physical and spiritual needs.

He had a great burden for the soldiers," said Jason Parker, pastor of High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs. His specific prayer request was to see 300 soldiers come to Christ. He was also praying for God to call 10 of those soldiers into the ministry. That was one of his specific prayer requests.

"God was using him. He was very actively witnessing. He didn't want to be just a social worker. He wanted to see soldiers hear the Gospel and trust Christ."

Goetz, a 1995 Maranatha graduate, died Monday morning, Aug. 30, in Afghanistan while serving as an Army chaplain. Parker said Goetz was one of five men killed by a roadside bomb while traveling in a convoy near Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan. His death was also confirmed in an Internet posting by Ralph Colas, Executive Secretary of the American Council of Christian Churches. Goetz was one of the groupâ??s approved chaplains. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported that Goetz told friends three soldiers had accepted Christ since he arrived in Afghanistan.

The funeral will be Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. at Soldiers' Memorial Chapel at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. The Oregonian reported that Goetz will be buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver

The Associated Press, quoting the Army's chief of chaplains, said Goetz is the first Army chaplain to die in combat since October, 1970. A chaplain's assistant was killed in Afghanistan last month.

Goetz is survived by wife Christy (Moen), also a 1995 Maranatha graduate, and three sons--Landon, Caleb, and Joel. His youngest son, Joel, was born in July of 2009.

Long-time Maranatha faculty and staff members said they could not recall any alumnus having been killed in action since the Vietnam War.

Parker said the Goetz family had been transferred to Colorado in January after three years in Okinawa, Japan. They were interviewed for membership at High Country Baptist Church on Aug. 1, the day he was deployed. Goetz had been in Afghanistan less than a month when he died.

"We officially voted them into the membership Sunday," Parker said.

Goetz had expressed a desire for less rigid enforcement of apparel guidelines and other lower-priority rules for soldiers in combat in this Washington Post article. He also articulated the differences between Muslim and Christian approaches to salvation in this editorial for The Independent of Elizabeth, Colo.

He officiated at the 2006 funeral of Gerard Rugers Jr. The World War II U.S. Army Air Corps radio operator died in 1944, but his remains were not discovered until the fall of 2005 in the Himalayas.

Dale Allen Goetz came to Maranatha from Colorado. He earned a bachelor's degree in Bible. He played one year of football and two years of baseball for the Crusaders and was president of the missions prayer band as a senior. He was also named the Outstanding Greek Student as a senior.

"I do remember him as a very outgoing person, very friendly,' said Maranatha mathematics professor Phil Price, who played football and baseball with Goetz and also graduated in 1995. "I think he may have been older when he came, somewhere in his mid-20s. He and his wife were a very nice couple.

"Dale was a great guy. You could tell he was serious about wanting to serve God in whatever he was going to be called into."

Goetz completed his Master of Divinity degree at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis in 2000. He was pastor of a church in White, S.D., until beginning his work toward chaplaincy. Goetz was commissioned in January of 2004.

He served with the infantry at Fort Lewis, Wash., before being transferred to Okinawa. Goetz was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson. He served 11 months in Iraq in 2004-05. Goetz had earned the Meritorious Service Medal and was a three-time recipient of the Army Commendation Medal.

The Dale A Goetz Memorial Trust Fund is being set up at the Bank at Broadmoor, 155 Lake Ave., Colorado Springs, CO, 80906. The fund is designated to help Army chaplains minister to soldiers.

--Posted Aug. 31, 2010