Air Force Brig. Gen. James Brantingham, the deputy chief of chaplains, gives an invocation at a March 2022 event at the Pentagon, Arlington, Va. Brantingham, who had been in the post for about a year, was removed at the end of January, service officials said. (Eric Dietrich/(U.S. Air Force)
WASHINGTON – The second-highest ranking chaplain in the Air Force has been removed from his leadership post at the Pentagon due to a loss of confidence and a “pattern of shortfalls,” the service said Friday.
Brig. Gen. J. Daniel Brantingham, the deputy chief of chaplains, who had been in the post for about a year, was removed at the end of January, officials said.
As deputy chief of chaplains, it fell to Brantingham to provide "spiritual care” for airmen and their families and opportunities to “exercise their constitutional right to the free exercise of religion,” the Air Force said.
The deputy chief, who ranks second only to the chief of chaplains, supervises about 2,100 chaplains and religious affairs airmen and is one of six people who also serve on the military-wide Armed Forces Chaplains Board.
“Our military leaders are held to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct and are accountable for their actions when falling short of those expectations,” Maj. Gen. Randall Kitchens, the chief of chaplains, said Friday.
Neither Kitchens nor the Air Force elaborated on the details of Brantingham’s removal. They said only that it was “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to serve effectively in a leadership position.”
“A pattern of leadership shortfalls contributed to the decision,” an Air Force spokeswoman added.
Brantingham became the Air Force’s 27th deputy chief of chaplains when he assumed the post in December 2021. He entered the service in 1990 as a chaplain candidate and 1994 as an active-duty chaplain, according to his Air Force biography. He was promoted to brigadier general not long before he was named deputy chief.
The Air Force has not yet announced who will succeed Brantingham as its deputy chief of chaplains.
