When Father David A. Reinhart talks about his expected deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan, images of M*A*S*H character Father Francis John Patrick Mulcahy come to mind.

For actor Rene Auberjonois, playing Father Mulcahy was a movie role. Actor William Christopher played the part for the M*A*S*H television series.

For Father Reinhart, serving as a U.S. Air Force active duty chaplain in a war

Fr. Reinhart & Fr. Eric P. Schild

zone will be for real.

Diocese of Toledo Bishop Leonard Paul Blair has announced that Fr. Reinhart will be released to the Archdiocese of Military Services to serve effective July 1.

Fr. Reinhart is currently the president of the Kateri Catholic School System, which includes Cardinal Stritch High School, and he is pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish on Bono. He will be replaced by Fr. Eric P. Schild, who is associate pastor and faculty member at the Fostoria St. Wendelin high school.

Fr. Reinhart plans to have his bags packed when Stritch seniors graduate the evening of Friday, May 21. He will immediately leave to spend time with family that weekend before heading to basic training at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

“It’s something I felt compelled to do for a long time. As a member of the Army Reserves through college, I served for a little bit as Army Chaplain in one summer of my seminary years, and always thought that while I’m still young I needed to get back for a few years,” Fr. Reinhart said.

“God has been good to me. I live in a great country. They need priests. I’m a priest. I know I can handle the culture of the military. My family is in good health. The timing has just worked out. I knew Father Eric was coming out and available to move, so there was with myself and the Bishop a certain concern that this is the time.”

He reports at noon on May 24 for a six-week basic training conducted for doctors, lawyers, ministers, rabbis, and other professionals. After basic, he will be a commissioned officer and has five days before reporting to Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota.

After that, who knows?

“I’ve been told I will be deployed. There are deploying priests about every 14 months on a rotation and you’re gone for six months and back,” Fr. Reinhart said.” So I know that will happen. That’s part of why I want to serve. I think the young people that are over there are lonely and scared. I’m going to try to be there for them and I’m going to try to help them out as much as I can.”

Fr. Reinhart says if he were not expecting to be deployed, he would not have asked the bishop for permission to re-enlist.

“It’s part of why I’m doing it. If it were peace time, we need plenty of priests here and I’d feel less inclined to ask the Bishop for permission to do this,” Father Reinhart said. “But since we are at war, and since our people are so far away from home and there are guns being fired at them and being a priest in that environment is something I have felt called to do for a while.”

Some Stritch students were shocked when his plans were announced.

“We just had a young man in school ask, ‘What happens, Father, if you’re celebrating Mass and all of a sudden bombs start going off all around you?’” Father Reinhart recalled. “I said, ‘Well, wouldn’t that be a good way to go?’ A good situation to be in is to be praying when all of that happens. So that’s sort of the approach I’m taking.”

Fr. Schild is at Stritch an average of one day per week even though he is still assigned to St. Wendelin. Father Schild’s assignment in Oregon does not officially begin until July 1.

“My pastor back there is very understanding that I need to be here primarily when Father Dave goes to basic training,” Father Schild said. “I can’t just pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey.’ I can’t. He’s gone. When I’m here, I have to plan on him being gone.

“So it’s not fair to this (Kateri) school system in its infancy stages for me to not be brought on board. Father Dave has done an excellent job of making the tough decisions that need to be made so I can come in with a good foundation laid,” Fr. Schild continued.

“So obviously I think what he is doing is fantastic. I know it’s something that he is passionate about. He’s made his mark on this school in a very positive way and it’s a positive step for him. I’m fully supportive of that.

“Ever since it was announced in March, Father Dave has been excellent in bringing me up to date and giving me a call on a week to week basis, a number of times a week. ‘Here’s what’s happening,’ ‘Here is what is in the works,’ so I can be filled in on that.”

Fr. Reinhart said, “Schools are big operations. You’re talking about 600 students and you’re talking about 70 employees. We’re doing some construction this summer. It is really early and he has to hit the ground running, so I’m doing my best to keep him informed and the parish also.”

Fr. Reinhart received a Bachelor of Science degree in Land. Architecture from The Ohio State University. He later went on to receive a Master of Arts in Catholic Theology and a Master of Divinity from Saint Meinrad School of Theology. 

Fr. Reinhart has served as a chaplain and teacher at Norwalk St. Paul. He later served as Chaplain for Youth and Young Adult Minister at the Diocese of Toledo. Fr. Reinhart has served as President of Cardinal Stritch High School, later becoming Kateri Catholic School System since 2004.

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