By Jeff Hartsell
When President Barack Obama settles into his pew at Camp David's Evergreen Chapel on Sunday mornings, the man behind the pulpit is a former Citadel offensive lineman, Iraq war veteran, published author, great-nephew of Johnny Cash and brother of a former Miss America.
Lt. Carey Cash, who was an All-America tackle during his career at The Citadel from 1989-92, fills all those roles and more. Cash, 39, is a Navy chaplain who in January began his three-year tour of duty at Camp David, the Maryland retreat for presidents and their families.
The arc of Cash's career, which includes a 2003 tour with the Marines' 1st Battalion while it was engaged in some of the fiercest fighting of the Iraq war, doesn't surprise those who knew him as a 270-pound lineman on some of the best Citadel football teams in school history.
"He was a born-again Christian," said Jack Douglas, quarterback on the 1992 team that went 11-2 and won a Southern Conference title in Cash's senior season. "And one of the meanest players I've ever seen."
Cash has been in the news recently after Time magazine reported that the Obamas had chosen Evergreen Chapel at Camp David as their primary place of worship. That would appear to make Cash, a Southern Baptist who earned his theology degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, the successor to the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright as Obama's chief pastor. But after the Time story appeared, the White House put out a statement saying Obama "and his family continue to look for a church home. They have enjoyed worshipping at Camp David and several other congregations over the months, and will choose a church at the time that is best for their family."
As the attention paid to Obama's choice of church indicates, there are implications, political and otherwise, to everything a president does. That's why Cash is not allowed to discuss his role as Camp David's chaplain, according to his family.
"He's not allowed to talk about it, and we're trying to be cool about it," said Billie Cash, Carey's mother. "He was going to be chaplain at Camp David whoever the president was."
Carey Cash is a native of Memphis, Tenn., whose father, Roy, served 30 years as a Navy fighter pilot. Roy Cash is a nephew of Johnny Cash, making Carey the great-nephew of the legendary singer. His mother is a Christian author and speaker. And Carey's sister, Kellye Cash, was Miss America in 1987. Carey and his wife, Charity, have six children.
Cash was talented enough as a high school football player in Virginia to be recruited by several schools. But a visit to The Citadel in 1988, when Charlie Taaffe was preparing for his second season as Bulldogs coach, sold the Cashes on the military school.
"Carey's dad was overseas at that time," Billie Cash said. "But we went down there for an interview, and Carey loved the structure of it. We went to Charleston for football games for five years (Carey redshirted as a freshman.), and we fell in love with the community.
"The Citadel experience is a family experience, and everyone who has a child there is a member of the family," she said. "Those years were special years for us. We had withdrawal pains after Carey left The Citadel."
Shortly after Carey Cash graduated from The Citadel, his father retired from the Navy. It was at Roy Cash's retirement ceremony that Carey told his family he wanted to be a chaplain.
"It was a surprise," Billie Cash said. "But he said, 'I want to be like Dad, but I want to wear a gold cross instead of gold wings.' "
Cash served as a youth minister at East Cooper Baptist Church for a short time and was pastor at Smyrna Baptist Church in Burlison, Tenn.
When he joined the Navy, Cash was sent to Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, which was part of the invasion force that ousted Saddam Hussein. The battle the 1st Battalion faced on April 10, 2003, in Baghdad was "the worst day of fighting for U.S. Marines," Lt. Col. Oliver North has said. But only one Marine lost his life in eight hours of fighting that day.
Cash wrote about his war experiences in the 2005 book "A Table in the Presence," in which he describes baptizing almost 60 Marines and sailors and other experiences from his two tours in Iraq.
"He had a wonderful, loyal, intense camaraderie with that unit," Billie Cash said.
Near the end of the book, Cash describes a scene in which he and a friend reflect on all they've seen.
"We wept for the horrible sights war had brought into all our lives," he wrote. "We wept for our families so far away ... We wept for the loss of life that we had both seen — good men who had fallen at the hands of the enemy. They were heroic men; men with wives and children, mothers and fathers; men with hopes and dreams and goals in life. We both believed that this was a just war and a noble cause, and as always, in such an effort, sacrifices are demanded and lives are lost. But on this quiet afternoon, the two of us grieved for all those whose lives, and their families' lives, had been changed forever by the deaths of our fellow Marines."
Those are the experiences Cash brings to his chaplaincy at Camp David, where Evergreen Chapel holds non-denominational Christian services every weekend, whether the president is there or not. Almost 400 military personnel and staff work at Camp David, and the services are open to them and their families. President George W. Bush and his family made Evergreen Chapel their primary place of worship during his presidency.
According to Time magazine, President Bill Clinton occasionally sang with the choir at Evergreen. Children in the congregation put on a Christmas pageant every December, and the chapel holds a candlelight service on Christmas Eve.
If history is a guide, however, Cash won't serve the same role as spiritual mentor to Obama that Wright did.
"We used to tell people our job was to run it like a five-star resort," Patrick McLaughlin, who was chaplain at Camp David from 2002-05, told Religion News Service. "One of the things you value when you go on vacation is peace and quiet."
Whatever his relationship with the president, Cash already has done enough to make his family, and former Citadel teammates, proud.
"Faith is very important to our family," Billie Cash said. "Some people come to it in a foxhole, and some know that in good times or bad, it's a wonderful center that can carry us through life. And we embrace it."
