Casciato ministered to troops for 2 decades
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Long before Gabe Casciato was the senior pastor of Crossway Church in Fort Dodge, he was ministering to an entirely different type of congregation.
Everyone in that congregation wore a military uniform. Often they were working under extreme stress that would be unimaginable to civilians. And Casciato did not get to provide pastoral care to any of them for very long, because everyone was constantly being transferred from one place to another.
Those were the challenges Casciato faced during more than 20 years as a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve and the Iowa Air National Guard.
He experienced firsthand how valuable the service of a chaplain is to airmen.
"There are people who will talk to a chaplain who will never darken the door of a church," he said.
And during his career he said he learned one essential truth: "A service member wears the uniform, but it's the family members who serve."
Casciato said he could not have accomplished anything as a chaplain without the support of his wife, Wendy, and the rest of his family.
Casciato is a native of Iowa City. His stepfather was an Army soldier who served in special operations, so the family moved a lot. He said he attended four high schools in four years.
After graduating from high school, he enrolled in the University of Iowa in Iowa City. While a student there, he enlisted in the Iowa Army National Guard.
He was sent to boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He said he went to boot camp thinking it was all "a mind game."
He recalls laying in his bunk one night during the first week thinking, "What have I done? It's not a mind game. They're really going to kill me."
He said all the yelling and physical work of boot camp is designed to get soldiers to pay attention to little things while under extreme stress, which is a trait that can keep someone alive in combat. He said the drill sergeants who scream at troops doing pushups "are the meanest people who love you the most."
After basic training he was sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for training as a clerk/administrator.
Then he was assigned to the 185th Combat Sustainment Battalion.
Military training wasn't the only thing Casciato was doing while still a student at the University of Iowa. He went on a mission trip to Japan, and as a result he felt God calling him to ministry.
After graduating from the University of Iowa, he enrolled in the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.
While there, he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 202nd Air Defense Artillery of the Illinois National Guard.
As a student in the divinity school, he heard about an Air Force chaplaincy program that really interested him. He applied for it and in 2002, he transferred from the Army National Guard to the Air Force Reserve.
His first assignment was at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. He would later serve at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas.
He deployed to Saudi Arabia, where he was the only American military chaplain in the country.
He worked with members of all branches of the military of all faiths. This meant finding ways to meet the needs of troops from faiths different from his own. For example, he set up an online confession with a priest for a Roman Catholic service member.
In 2008, he joined the 132nd Fighter Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard in Des Moines. That unit has since transitioned from fighter planes to drones. He retired from that unit in 2022 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
At the same time he was pursuing his civilian career as a minister, first serving in Dallas Center, then in Huxley for nine years as a youth pastor. He came to Crossway Church, then called First Evangelical Free Church, as a family pastor in 2016. He became senior pastor in 2021.