The Police Chaplain Who Showed Up on Oklahoma City’s Worst Day
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Greg Giltner spent nearly three decades with the Oklahoma City Police Department and later served as a police chaplain. His role was not to preach or persuade, but to show up. On the worst days of an officer’s life, and on the worst day in Oklahoma City’s history.
Giltner shares how a mentor known simply as Chaplain Poe taught him that real ministry often means silence, presence, and compassion. From officer-involved shootings to line-of-duty losses, and from personal grief to the aftermath of the bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, this is the story of what it means to serve those who serve, and why sometimes just being there is everything.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:14.3 | And we return to our American stories. |
| 0:18.2 | Up next, a story from a police chaplain in Oklahoma City on the events and the mentor that changed his life. |
| 0:26.6 | Let's get into the story. |
| 0:28.6 | Very seldom do we get called to retirement parties, to birthday parties, to anniversary parties, unless alcohol is involved and there's a fight. |
| 0:39.3 | We don't get involved in good stuff, is what I'm saying. |
| 0:42.3 | We're always on a call that's the worst day for that person or that family. |
| 0:47.3 | Same thing happens in our police family. |
| 0:49.3 | As a chaplain, we respond to those incidents that are the worst day. |
| 0:55.0 | Police officer's son killed in a car wreck. |
| 0:58.0 | Police officer and his wife given birth to a stillborn. |
| 1:01.0 | I've had to be at the hospital when that's happened twice. |
| 1:04.0 | We're there when it's the worst time. |
| 1:07.0 | I didn't take this job to proselyte. |
| 1:09.0 | I did not take the job to add numbers to the church. |
| 1:12.6 | I took the job to give the presence of God at a time of difficulty. |
| 1:17.1 | Whatever their faith is or if they're not a believer, |
| 1:20.6 | as long as they wear a badge and a gun, |
| 1:22.6 | I'm there to try to give peace and comfort. |
| 1:29.3 | My name is Greg Giltner. |
| 1:31.3 | I'm currently the chief at Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City. |
... |
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