The Pierce County Sheriff's Chaplain is much more than a spiritual person ministering to the sheriff's deputies who work in the communities around Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Rick Bulman, a former combat Marine who served in Vietnam, now serves the residents of Pierce County in a variety of capacities. He is heavily involved in several veterans' groups dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and family matters.

Bulman has two priorities - the first is to the sheriff's department, and the second is to the people of Pierce County, which includes thousands of active-duty Servicemembers, veterans, and civilians who work on base.

For Bulman, the line between civilian and the military is often blurred. Police investigations often overlap jurisdictions. Whenever there has been a critical incident, usually a fatality, he is part of the Incident Command System (ICS) team and visits families to notify them of a lost loved one. He then provides emotional comfort or debriefing to the witnesses and participants. This all too frequently involves a member of the military and/or his or her family. Bulman has been involved with several cases of Soldiers hurting family members and then taking their own lives. He often then performs the funerals.

Bulman's career started as a Marine when he realized that he had issues after returning from Vietnam. This led him to involvement in Point Man International, a faith-based veteran's group that works with those suffering from PTSD. Later, he got involved with other veterans groups, some focused on Soldiers returning from the present conflicts. He also learned that PTSD often affects members of law enforcement. One might say he is the perfect man for the job, as he's ‘been there, done that,' and still at it for both communities.

The formal preparation for the job of Pierce County Sheriff's Chaplain consisted of hours of training to work with grief-stricken people as well as to debrief law enforcement officers, members of fire departments and search and rescue teams who had been a part of a critical incident - many of whom are veterans. The training Bulman received has been qualified under the auspices of various international accrediting agencies. His education is ongoing, reinforced by seminars, schooling and licenses.

Bulman is also part of the ICS, a program instituted by presidential order after the first attack on the World Trade Center towers. This program allows various agencies to communicate and form organizations to deal with crises with flexibility and appropriateness under the management of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

All of these positions put Bulman on call 24/7. He is not alone, however. He has Chaplain Alvie Robins of the Lakewood Police, Chaplain Russ Guppy of the Tacoma Police and others, all former military chaplains, with whom to work. They understand the military culture and thus are able to serve as another resource for JBLM and Pierce County. Bulman also performs marriages on his days off. All of this points to the fact that Bulman is a major asset not only to Pierce County, but also to the Servicemembers and families of JBLM.