By Thom Stoddert
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Chaplain is very much more than a spiritual person ministering to the sheriff’s deputies that work in the communities around Tacoma.
Rick Bulman is a former combat Marine who served in Vietnam and now serves the residents of Pierce County in a variety of capacities. He is heavily involved with the deputies and their family matters, the people of Pierce County, and several veterans’ groups, focusing on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
He has two priorities; first is to God; second, to the military, including active duty service members, veterans, and law enforcement.
For Bulman, the line between civilian and the military is often blurred. Law enforcement officers often experience the same symptoms and issues that combat vets have. When there has been a “critical incident,” usually with a fatality, working with the survivors is just like dealing with a unit that has suffered combat casualties.
Chaplain Bulman’s career started while still in the Marine Corps, when he realized that he had issues left over from Vietnam. This led him to involvement in Point Man International, a faith-based veteran’s group that worked a lot with PTSD victims and re-adjustment issues.
In time he was working with other veteran groups, most focused on soldiers just returning from the present conflicts. He also learned that PTSD often affects members of law enforcement.
You might say he is the perfect man for the job — he’s been there, done that, and is still at it for both communities.
The formal preparation for his job for the Pierce County Sheriff consisted of hours of training to be able to work with grief stricken survivors and added to this, the debriefing of law enforcement officers, members of the fire departments, and the search/rescue teams.
Many of whom have just taken part in events with fatalities while they were also endangered. It wasn’t long before Rick understood many of these people are also veterans, themselves, members of the National Guard with histories of deployments.
The training Bulman received has been qualified under the auspices of various international accrediting agencies. His education is ongoing, reinforced by seminars, schooling, and licensing. Thus he is indirectly being trained to provide help for veterans through Point Man International and other organizations.
He is also part of the ICS, a program instituted by presidential order after the first attack on the World Trade Center. This program allows various civil agencies to communicate with each other and form an organization, modeled to deal with a specific crisis with flexibility and appropriateness under the management of Federal Emergency Management Agency.
All of this puts Rick on call 24/7.
But on his days off, Chaplain Rick performs marriages. Once a Marine, always a Marine, then a specialist and volunteer giving back to the community like so many vets do.
