DJIBOUTI, Africa - Patrick Dolan would have you believe that he is just a humble boy from Marion County, Ky., whose father taught him a lot about faith and God.
Like most country boys from Marion County, Dolan did his share of hunting and drag car racing. He tried his best not to get into trouble.
Now, fast forward to the present and meet Brig. Gen. Chaplain Dolan, who is also a humble and diverse man with a wealth of hands-on experience.
Task Force Longrifles Soldiers currently in Djibouti know Chaplain Dolan as both spiritual counsel and genuine Soldier.
Dolan proudly wears the badges of the military schools he attended: U.S. Army air assault school, airborne school and the pathfinder school.
Dolan was called to the church as a seventh grader.
“My father would get up and go to daily mass, and after some time I began going with him. I had served as an altar boy and in the choir, but it was going to daily mass with my father when I really felt like I was being called to something bigger,” Dolan recalls.
Dolan was ordained as priest in 1978 and attended the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Italy, where he received his doctorate in Theology. Dolan was commissioned as an Army chaplain in 1986 and began serving in the Kentucky National Guard in 1992.
For more than 30 years, Dolan has served the spiritual needs of deployed service members from Ecuador to Egypt, Afghanistan to Kuwait. While visiting Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, Dolan blessed service members from the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army during daily mass.
Task Force Longrifles Commander Lt. Col. Rob Larkin said, “It’s nice to have him here and it always feels good to see an old friend.”
In 2011, Dolan was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He became the first Kentucky National Guard chaplain and first Roman Catholic priest assigned as Army National Guard assistant to the chief of chaplains for the United States Army. In this position, Dolan acts as the chief advisor to the Chief of Chaplains on matters relating to the National Guard.