‘There to cry with us’: As McHenry VFW chaplain, Ken Hauser helped members grieve commander’s sudden death

Chaplain Ken Hauser, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Vietnam, where half his unit was killed or injured, has prayed with countless veterans and civilians grieving or struggling with personal conflicts.

It is a role the 78-year-old Crystal Lake resident said is not about him, but is guided through the love of God.

Hauser is a chaplain with McHenry VFW Post 4600 and with the VFW’s Illinois 5th District, which includes McHenry and Lake counties and portions of Kane and DeKalb counties. Whenever he is called to comfort someone, he pauses, says a prayer, and asks “the Holy Spirit to give me the words, the guidance, the strength,” he said.

When the McHenry VFW unexpectedly lost their commander Ben Keefe, 50, the morning of Labor Day, Hauser was called upon again. Though he also was hurting, he said he stopped and prayed to God, then comforted members of his post.

God “is speaking through me – that is how I always feel. He speaks through me to whoever I’m talking to. Do I feel hurt? Yes,” he said of Keefe’s death. “I do it out of compassion, but they are hurting more than I am.”

He said on that day, as he prayed with fellow veterans as they absorbed the shock of Keefe’s death, “You could tell a veil went over the crowd. ... They were heartbroken, they were shocked and this is where the Holy Spirit gave me compassion and the right words and the right mannerisms.”

Larry Cannon, 78, vice president of the board of directors of the McHenry VFW, said Hauser “has always been there when somebody is in need. In times of distress, he is a calming voice which is really needed, unfortunately, too often.”

Cannon reflected on the hurt he and many others felt after Keefe’s death.

“Ken was there to lead us in prayer and cry with us,” said Cannon, a Marine veteran who also served in Vietnam. “It was a very important time. It helped, obviously, but we all grieve differently. It is important to have someone you can depend on to help say the right things to you. Ken is that kind of guy.”

When he is called to minister in such difficult times, Hauser said, “I get my direction from God, and through the Holy Spirit He gives the word and the conviction. ... Is it hard? Yes, but it is easy when you have the Holy Spirit working with you.”

Hauser served in the Army, where he became a senior helicopter mechanic, and since 1999 has been an “associate member” with The Illinois Marine, part of the Marine Corps League, a group that advocates for Marines and aims to keep Corps’ traditions alive. He’s been involved with Detachments 801, 1395 and now 1009, Hauser said.

One day, Hauser said he got a call from a Marine Corps general at the Pentagon. The general said the Marines were starting a new detachment in Gurnee, which was 801, and they were looking for a chaplain.

The first thing Hauser said was that he served in the Army. The general was aware of that but said he was looking at Hauser’s records and saw he is a certified chaplain as well as a combat vet who was honorably discharged. Hauser said the general told him, “Most importantly, your dad was a Marine, so you’ve got Marine blood in you.”

So, Hauser said yes. “It’s an honor to be an associate [Marine].”

Hauser said he has presided over about 50 veteran funerals and has sat, prayed with, and read scripture to infantries who lost members in combat and people in hospitals. He has ministered to veterans struggling with mental health. He has at times, when ministering to someone he feels may harm themselves, encouraged them to call the VA crisis hotline. He also has prayed with civilians who do not have a pastor or chaplain of their own.

Hauser has been a chaplain with the McHenry VFW for over 30 years. He stepped away for a few years in 2018 to care for his ailing wife, whom he’d known since the fourth grade. Nov. 6 marked two years since she died. He has created a memory garden in her honor at his home where he said he goes to pray and feel close to her. Even in his grief, he said: “If it wasn’t for the Lord, I’d be lost.”

For 28 years, up until about 2018, he was the chairman of Operation Christmas Cheer. Hauser collected donations and delivered hundreds of goody boxes to veterans hospitalized at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago. With high school kids in tow, he said, they would pass out the boxes and sing Christmas carols with the veterans.

“They really appreciated that,” he recalled.

For the last 10 years, he has been working with the Marine Corps League 1009 with Toys for Tots. The community should expect to see boxes around the county in November for which, he said, there is a particular need for items for boys and girls up to 3 years and girls over the age of 10.

This past July 4, after a Northwest Herald story ran in which Hauser was interviewed about Dan Obriot, a 100-year-old Korean War veteran and VFW member who hadn’t attended in recent years, Hauser reached out to him and brought him to the VFW for the holiday celebration.

Hauser said he ministers and does charitable work because he just wants to help people and there are “so many good people that are out there.”

He also does it because he loves his country and our country today is hurting, he said.

“I just want to try to bring God in the picture, love in the picture, put a smile on your face,” Hauser said. “There is hatred out there and it’s shameful. ... We need to be more positive.”