Sather, a globe-trotting chaplain, commands hundreds

At MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Fla., a busy Libby native commands quite a bit of respect, and airmen.

Lt. Col. Jerry Sather, 54, is the Command Chaplain for the Air Force Element of SOCCENT (Special Operations Command Central). He oversees all chaplain activity for the Air Force Special Operations in Central Command.

  What does all that jargon mean? Sather oversees all Air Force chaplainry in some of the world’s hottest spots, including Egypt, the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Wherever our airmen and women operate and fly in that crossroads of the world is where Sather has command.

This keeps Sather busy, as on occasion he must travel from Florida to these locations. Before MacDill, he was stationed in Misawa Air Force Base in Japan.

How does a boy from Libby end up commanding chaplains from Cairo to Baghdad? From Tel Aviv to Islamabad?

Like most people from town, it began at Libby High School, where Sather graduated in 1976.

“He was always very musical,” said his mother, Gladys Sather. “He loves to tell stories and to entertain, just like his father did.”

Perhaps it was this story-telling ability that got him interested in reading Scripture to others in the armed forces, but it was his music that first motivated him.

After high school graduation, Sather attended the University of Montana for a year. Then he got his first taste of military life when he was accepted into the U.S. Army Band, with which he served in Germany and registered for the Reserves.

He played with them for 4-1/2 years, before coming back to UM to finish his studies. By then he had found his calling, and went to a seminary school in Portland. 

Sather, the natural entertainer, played his saxophone solo at graduation, a treat for those in attendance.

After graduation, he served as chaplain in the Reserves until the mid-1990s.

That was when he transferred to U.S. Air Force to serve as a chaplain for an active branch of the military and his real adventures started.

Since signing on with the Air Force, his deployments have taken him to England, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Japan and most exotic of all – the City of Tampa, Fla.

While the globetrotting Sather was hard to talk to with more than the odd email, Gladys, his mother who still lives in Libby, says the reason for Sather’s success came from his environment growing up.

“I think the town and Libby High did very good in those years,” she said.