Our first Military Rosary started in 2010 when Chaplain Kneemiller’s Army Reserve Unit was called up for duty in Afghanistan. As the unit Chaplain, I wanted to take just one thing with me in the combat
zone—a Military Rosary with and olive-wood Crucifix. I called a large Military Rosary org,
Ranger Rosary, located in Maryland, who told me their Crucifix was plastic, but just a mile down
the road from them was a rep from ‘Little Bethlehem’. So, they sent me the first Holy Land
Military Rosary! I suggested to the Ranger Rosary Board of Directors that they switch their
Crucifixes to olive wood, but they told me they supplied so many to basic training that they
could not afford this, so they said, “You do it!” I agreed, and thus was born the first olive-wood
Military Rosary!
PS—A few years after this, a rep from the Augustine Institute called me and asked me to help
supply 500 to 1000 Holy Land Military Rosaries to Chaplains ‘round the world. So, we’ve been
supplying this amount for the past half-dozen years. We are grateful to the dozens of Catholic
families that financially help us every year, and a few ‘Corporate donors.’
