"It's been my experience that a believing soldier has fellowship in his church. And there are soldiers from different churches. So he just takes the military chaplain as kind of a little benefit - I have a kindred spirit there. But otherwise, I can solve all my problems with the civilian chaplain. An unbelieving soldier feels like he's alone in the problems he has in the military. He doesn't have a confidant; he can find someone among his buddies, but sometimes it's a big risk to tell someone in that unit about his worries, or they can't keep it a secret. If it's a leadership position, he'll think, 'I shouldn't be having these problems, I can't admit that.' At the lowest position, on the other side, he'd be considered a wimp. The moment he has any worries, he is free to come confidentially to the chaplain. The chaplain is a great encouragement to him, and it seems to me that everyone should have his chaplain, everyone should have his cleric."
"The U.S. Army had several chaplains at that base in Camp Doha; they had a chapel there, air-conditioned, we went there in March, and it was 42 degrees. The temperature went up to 55 degrees by August. Then it got colder. The Americans had air-conditioned rooms, they had different services there, and we were assigned one time on Sunday for the Czech services. Then there were Evangelical, Catholic, Charismatic, Muslims on Fridays, Jews on Saturdays, and we were able to enjoy all the benefits. I built relationships with the chaplains, and the whole unit was able to live off of that. One American chaplain said, 'I've taken you in charge, I'm going to pray for you.' So he was going to our soldiers as well, and one day, they said to me, 'There was a black chaplain here and he was here to see you, so we showed him around.' And he said, 'Well, I'm praying for you, Czech boys.'"
"My stager went into civil service and had to choose a successor for the post of teaching block administrator, he said, 'Who else will be as responsible as the parish priest? Let him be it.' But paradoxically, I was given the opportunity again to be in charge of one floor on the staff, to make sure that there was order, that everything was properly kept. I issued the keys to the classrooms where the radios of the various units were, I had my room there, and I had the opportunity to read or study the Bible there. I had the opportunity to give asylum there, secretly, of course, to people who either wanted to study or were concerned and wanted to talk. But we had the opportunity to have secret services there, for example. That was extraordinary for us, even though it was very guarded, there were contras underneath us (VKR). And we never knew if they were at work or somewhere else, so we treaded very carefully. But all that second year, Sunday after Sunday, we would gather for services if I was there. People from different churches met. One time, there were as many as fourteen of us. We had it arranged with the guard of that building, and the moment somebody was coming, he would give me an echo; we had an exact sign arranged, and we would all go quiet. Sometimes they raided me, they found a Bible, Palacký, I had a lot of time, so I was reading there. Most of the time, it was no problem: 'Well, the parish priest needs a Bible, so we'll let him have it.'"
"Of course, I had to make the case for why I didn't want to be in SSM, and I said, 'According to the bylaws, there's an atheist education enshrined in there. I'm a believer, and I don't think you yourself would want me to be in the Youth Union as a religious person if I had to put on some kind of show there.' That basically I agreed with the atheist propaganda and that therefore it should be better that way. When the deadline to say where I wanted to go to study approached, the pressure intensified, with all sorts of threats, subtle ones, even from the headmaster. It was much more obvious there, of course, I was on the carpet several times. Sometimes it was so hard, why and what do you want to prove? Sometimes it was gentle: 'We mean well, these old people are going to die off and you're going to be left alone in that church, we mean well, you should reconsider.' Sometimes it was a bit tougher: 'And what about those SS men who wore Gott mit uns on their belts, is that the God you want to serve?' So we had these debates that I don't serve that God, this God didn't lead them into the war, this is the God of love that leads to reconciliation. But of course, the headmaster saw it differently, and I realised that I had heard the call several times to serve the Lord God in my life and to serve Him full time."
Miloslav Kloubek was born on 23 September 1960 in Kladno to Miloslav and Jaroslava Kloubek. His father was a typesetter, his mother a music teacher, both believers in the Church of the Brethren. He spent his childhood in Buštěhrad. In 1979, he graduated from the grammar school in Kladno, from where he headed to the Comenius Evangelical Divinity Faculty in Prague despite the opposition of his teachers. He graduated in 1984. Before the war, he worked in mining and geological exploration of coal deposits in Slaný. He had to serve two years of basic military service with the radio operators in Beroun, where he was a soldier of the second category. He was not allowed to be promoted, given a weapon or go on guard duty, and at the same time, he was under constant surveillance. However, thanks to his position as administrator of the teaching block, he had the space to hold secret masses where up to 14 soldiers met. He became the official minister of the Church of the Brethren after his basic military service in 1987. He worked in Benátky nad Jizerou, Písek and Prague - Horní Počernice. In 1998, he was recruited into the Army of the Czech Republic (AČR) as a military chaplain and participated in the building of the military ministry in the contemporary Czech army. As a chaplain, he went on short-term missions to the Czech troops in Kosovo or the chemists who protected the 2004 Olympics in Greece. From 2002 to 2003, he was chaplain of the Czech contingent stationed at Camp Doha in Kuwait as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2004, he retired to civilian life, serving as a preacher, as well as an external advisor to the Minister of Defence and as an active reserve chaplain. In November 2012, he was reactivated, became chaplain of the garrison headquarters in Prague and since 2016, chaplain of the Agency of Personnel of the Czech Armed Forces. At the same time, he was deputy chief chaplain of the Czech Armed Forces. He and his wife Eva had three sons. In 2021, he lived in Nejdek in the Ore Mountains.
