Eastwood High School graduate Chaplain (Colonel) David Bowlus has recently been appointed as the Senior Chaplain to the U. S. Military Academy, the institution from which he graduated in 1993.

Col. Bowlus is the son of the late Dr. Thomas Bowlus and Marilyn Bowlus of Pemberville and is a graduate of Eastwood High School (1989).

Col. Bowlus stated, “Serving our nation and the Cadets at West Point is one of the highest honors of my career. Spiritual fitness is a vital component of leader development and will equip our future military leaders for a lifetime of service to our country.”

He hopes his example will inspire other young leaders from Northwest Ohio to consider military service and aspire to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Col. Bowlus entered the Army in 1993 and served as an Armor officer for over five years. He separated from the Army in 1998 and attended seminary in Nyack, New York. Feeling called to serve as a military chaplain after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, he applied for and was accepted back into the Army. He began serving as an Army Chaplain in 2002 and has deployed numerous times to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2016. Some of his assignments include the 75th Ranger Regiment, United States Forces Korea (USFK), US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), 101st Airborne Division, and U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM).

Col. Bowlus is married to Meridee Bowlus and has two children, Andrew (25) and Savannah (20). Their son, 1 Lt. Andrew Bowlus, is also a West Point graduate (2021) and is currently serving as a Combat Engineer with the 24th Infantry Division in Hawaii.