Church Calls First Two Women to Serve on Church’s Military Advisory Committee

 
For the first time in its history, two women have joined the Military Advisory Committee of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Army Lt. Col. Sonie Munson, media operations chief for U.S. Northern Command, and Sister Andrea Wagenbach, who works for the U.S. Department of Defense, joined the 11-member committee that advises Church leaders on military matters.

The two distinguished women add greater perspective to the Church’s Military Advisory Committee, said Todd Linton, director of the Military Relations Chaplain Services Division.

“For me, to have a more diverse and varied background makes the Military Advisory Committee stronger and better able to serve,” Linton said. “When you look at the population of the world and the Church, half of them are women. It’s great that we have their recommendations and perspective when we try to serve and minister to others in the military.”

The spirit these two women bring to the committee is also inspiring, Linton said.

“These women are both pioneers in their respective fields, as well as in service to their country, their communities and to their God,” he said.

Read this related Church News story Making history: Church endorses its first female military chaplain

The Church’s Military Advisory Committee was established by the First Presidency during World War II to help support and minister to military members, chaplains and their families, according to Linton.

Both women traveled to Utah to attend the Church’s Annual Chaplain Training Seminar over general conference weekend and sat for interviews with the Church News to tell about their faith and life experiences.
 

Lt. Col. Sonie Munson

Munson’s mother died of lung cancer when she was only 4 years old. Her father remarried and she said her stepmother was an abusive alcoholic.

Eventually her father and the woman divorced. Her father realized something was missing in their lives and began taking the children to different churches. One day Latter-day Saint sister missionaries knocked on the door of their Kearney, Nebraska, home.

The sister missionaries were able to answer many “hard questions,” and the family was baptized.

Over time, the rest of the family went less active, but Munson said her faith grew because she was given a calling, had faithful Young Women leaders and seminary teachers who supported her and helped her understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“They saved me, especially with all the things we had gone through as kids,” she said.

Munson wanted to go to college but funds were tight, so she joined the Army Reserves and enrolled at Brigham Young University. There she signed up for the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. She found she appreciated the culture of the Army and the people with whom she associated.

“While I initially joined to help my financial situation, that’s not why I stayed,” she said.

While at BYU, Munson prayed to know if she should serve a mission and felt impressed to serve the Lord through the military. The prompting motivated her to go on active duty.

For the first half of her career, she was an engineer officer and served four combat deployments — 43 months overseas — with three of those in Iraq and the other in Kuwait. She served as a platoon leader, an executive officer and a company commander. What scared her the most as a leader was the thought of not bringing one of her people home.

“Before each deployment, I would pray and I got the same answer every time — ‘If you are faithful to your covenants, you will bring everybody home,’” she said. “And I did. Four deployments — not a single person gone.”

 
During her second deployment, as executive officer, she was in charge of maintenance and supply. She felt a distinct impression to have a specific plate of armor installed on the trucks. It took some persistence, but she made it happen.

Later as the convoy was traveling, a roadside bomb exploded at the exact spot on the vehicle where the extra protection was placed. Everyone survived.

Munson has spent the second half of her career working in public affairs.

Munson met her husband in the military. He wasn’t a member at the time and said there was something different about her.

“It’s probably my faith,” she said with a smile. “We ended up getting married five years later after he had gotten out of the Army and he’s followed me around my entire career. It has been wonderful to have a man that is willing to support my career.”

Munson and her husband recently moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her husband stays at home and keeps a watchful eye on the couple’s son, who has autism. She is grateful for how the Army has taken care of her family.

Munson has earned a bachelor’s degree and two masters’ degrees. She has lived all over the world, including Hawaii, Germany and Japan. She looks forward to serving on the committee and helping to mentor female chaplains. She knows the unique challenges that women serving in the military face, such as sometimes not being able to partake of the sacrament or feel the fellowship of other Latter-day Saint sisters.

What did it mean to her to be called to serve with the committee?

“It explains my mission,” she said with tears flowing. “I went through a lot, but if I can help somebody else, and I can help our service members or military families or civilians have the comprehensive religious support that they they need, that is what it was for.”

Munson brings a wealth of experience to the committee, Linton said.

“Sonie is active duty military, and not only is she a leader in the military, but she’s also a mother, an active servant of the Lord in the Church,” he said. “Her perspective of trying to manage her family, her career and her service in the Church is something I think every woman has to deal with. She is someone that has brought tremendous energy, enthusiasm and experience.”

Learn more in this Church News podcast Church News podcast, episode 110: The first 2 women appointed to the Church’s Military Advisory Committee discuss serving Church and country

Andrea Wagenbach

Wagenbach, a lifelong Latter-day Saint, grew up on the East Coast.

While her four sisters all attended college in Utah, she studied at the University of Virginia.

“I paved my own path,” she said. “I have a wonderful family but I’ve always kind of taken a different path and I’ve been out here on the East Coast in D.C.”

After serving a full-time mission to Russia, Wagenbach made a pivotal decision that would influence her career. She wasn’t sure about returning to Virginia because there were few active Latter-day Saints. She had missed the financial aid deadline and wasn’t sure how she would pay her tuition. Her parents were also temporarily out of work.

Wagenbach prayed and asked the Lord, “If there’s a reason for me to stay here, please help me find the money or I’m going.”

Her parents paid their tithing and the next day in the mail the University of Virginia offered the returned missionary enough money to cover her tuition.

“I took that as my answer to stay on the East Coast,” she said. “There have been these moments in my path that have kept me in this space, and I’m grateful for that because I felt I was on the right path.”

Wagenbach went on to earn a graduate degree at Georgetown University and found employment with the Department of Defense. She was there on September 11, 2001.

“I had friends and someone on my board that was killed, but at the same time, I think you really see the amazing people inside the military,” she said. “This is one of the things that I think I’m blessed to see. ... When I see things like that and being able to serve alongside them and see how much they work to protect our country. I’m glad I’ve been able to see it.”

Another crossroads came when Wagenbach lost her job because a contract ended. Other things were going wrong in her life and she began to question her path.

She went to the temple and the temple president promised blessings to everyone there for serving in the house of the Lord that day.

The next day she had 12 job offers and ended up having an interview at a professional hockey game that night that led to new employment.

“I was very blessed,” she said.

Wagenbach, 51, is not married. When she was in college she prayed for direction with dating and received a strong answer that the Lord had a specific path for her and advised her to “be patient.”

“My challenge, my strength and my position in life has been to go to my Father in Heaven and trust in Him,” she said. “We go through a challenge and it hurts, and we have faith and we’re blessed. ... The Lord has been with me. What I do hope is that I can offer the compassion and the wisdom and what I have seen as a single person in the Church. I can share what I’ve learned.”

As the Church’s director of public affairs and communication for northern Virginia, Wagenbach started working with the Church’s Military Advisory Committee at the beginning of the year in preparation for the Washington D.C. Temple open house. A few months later they called her to be part of the committee, which both surprised and delighted her.

“I’ve worked for the Department of Defense my entire life and I have deep respect for the men and women in the military,” she said.

Wagenbach’s experience and expertise will be a blessing to the committee, Linton said.

“Andrea Wagenbach is one of those faithful Latter-day Saints that brings her own perspective, having worked in the Department of Defense, and doing all the things that she has done on the Coordinating Council as director of communications for the Washington D.C. south area,” he said. “She is someone that not only has the outreach, but has the connection to make great recommendations and then to bring the right people together to solve the problems.”