Wismar family carries legacy of service across generations
After graduating from college, Eric spent three years as an elementary school teacher before moving to Tokyo, where he taught English for another three years and met his wife Miharu. During his time in Japan, he felt a calling to pursue ministry, which ultimately led him to move to St. Louis, Missouri where he attended Concordia Seminary. Although he was the first in his immediate family to serve in the military, he is part of a long tradition of Lutheran pastors in his family.
“I’m the first one to serve in my family.” Eric said,” However, I’m actually 15th-generation Lutheran clergy.”
During his third year of seminary, Eric entered the Air Force Reserve Chaplain Candidate Program with the intention of commissioning as an active duty chaplain. However, after graduating and becoming ordained, he ended up accepting a pastoral call at Lutheran Church of Good Shepherd in New Fairfield, Connecticut.
In 2008, Eric joined the Connecticut National Guard after serving as an Individual Mobilization Augmentee (IMA) at Hanscom Air Force Base. Eric and his wife, Miharu's, decision to live and serve in Connecticut was inspired by the community within his church and the opportunity to gain the necessary experience required to serve as a chaplain in the Air Force.
For generations, the family’s service was built around ministry, and now the Wismar family’s legacy will also include military service.
Jorge, the eldest of the four Wismar siblings, became the first of the children to follow his father’s footsteps into the uniformed services by attending the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. After graduating, he served aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Willow and worked at the Coast Guard Research and Development Center in New London, where his assignments exposed him to operational missions, project management, and some of the latest maritime technology.
“It feels good to be involved in a mission set,” Jorge said. “Once you’re trained up at your unit and you understand what your role is, it feels good no matter what you’re doing.”
Jorge’s experience helped set expectations and provided his younger brother Kai with some perspective on life and academics in the Coast Guard Academy and eventually within the Coast Guard.
“The choice to go to the academy was a few things," said Kai. “It was primarily my older brother being there, having good things to say about it.”
Kai entered the Coast Guard Academy directly out of high school, where he studied civil engineering before graduating and commissioning as an Ensign in 2024. Now he serves at Sector Southeastern New England in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he works as a response and logistics officer, coordinates search and rescue cases, stands watch in the command center, and supports law enforcement operations.
Although there was familial influence, Kai’s reason for serving was unique to him.
“Beyond that, it was the mission and it being more humanitarian focused. I think search and rescue was really what stuck out to me as a high schooler. What I thought of wasn’t really law enforcement. It wasn’t really going out on patrols and on the cutters. It was more so the search and rescue aspect.”
While both Jorge and Kai found meaning through their Coast Guard service, their younger brother Luke's service took a different route. Instead of commissioning, Luke enlisted in the Connecticut Air National Guard right out of high school and, until recently, served as a C-130 flight engineer. His path took him overseas on several operational missions where he helped manage and troubleshoot the aircraft systems that kept his crew in the air. At 21 years old, Luke has accumulated approximately 500 flight hours, completed 20 combat missions, and deployed to Djibouti. While deployed, he applied to the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) through the Leaders Encouraging Airman Development (LEAD) Program and was offered a position at the USAFA Preparatory School class of 2027, which he accepted.
Though each child's service had its own meaning and manifested differently, a common influence to service was the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). CAP is an Air Force auxiliary program that introduces cadets to aviation, military customs, and leadership. After Jorge joined the program as a teenager, Eric became involved as a senior member and later served in leadership chaplain roles. While each of the Wismar children embarked upon a different path, the program helped make military service a familiar pathway for the family.
Mia, the youngest of the Wismars, has also begun her path through the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, following the path set by her older brothers Jorge and Kai. Before joining the academy, Mia graduated from high school, following the pathways set by her older brothers, and just recently completed “Swab Summer,” the Coast Guard Academy’s cadet indoctrination program.
As each of his children navigates their military service, Eric and Miharu also experience the demands of supporting a family while actively serving the country in the armed forces. While the military provides a lot of opportunities, it also comes with responsibilities that may include missing weekends or traveling for extended periods due to assignments or deployments.
“I’m thankful to Miharu, as I think all of us who serve are thankful to our families, because it is a sacrifice,” Eric said. “It’s a sacrifice for the service member, but sometimes even more for the family.”
As someone who has experienced the realities of operational military service, Eric is someone who truly understands the sacrifice and courage it takes to serve. His experience as a chaplain has placed him in the position to witness service members' toughest moments firsthand, including a deployment to Honduras in 2017 where he witnessed a fatal aircraft incident and helped to deal with the aftermath.
Now that all of his children are service members, his understanding reached a higher level of perspective. “It reinforces that each day is a gift of God,” said Eric, “you never know what’s going to happen.”
What started with one Lutheran pastor looking to fulfill his call to service has now grown to the entire family bringing forth a new legacy of service. Though each person has their own reason for choosing the path that they chose, their legacy is focused on a tradition of serving others, whether that is in the church or in a uniform
“Service is about protecting others,“ said Kai. ”And knowing who you’re fighting for.”
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