Next They'll Want Dry Water in Their Canteens

The Los Angeles Times had some coverage a small number of atheists who want atheist military "chaplains". The paper printed a couple of letters about this. This raises the question of what exactly such a chaplain would do?

Jack Kaczorowski of Los Angeles wrote:

Imagine the atheist chaplain ministering to his flock to make sure that in a moment of weakness they do not "backslide" into believing in God, and when the shrapnel starts flying, moving from foxhole to foxhole reassuring the men that there is nothing out there and that they are quite alone.

Yes, I can see it now, counseling a dying solidier, one could say, "Well, tough break, kid. This is it. You have nothing to look forward to. Literally. Thank you for sacrificing for the rest of us, even though we're nothing but molecules interacting per natural forces, existing without ultimate purpose."