SWAMPSCOTT -- When Msgr. John McLaughlin was asked to serve as the Archdiocese of the Military Services' first-ever vocations director, he took the assignment for "guys like my guys."

Msgr. McLaughlin's "guys" were the wrestlers he coached at Woburn Public Schools before answering a call to the priesthood. Many of the wrestlers went on to join the military. One wrestler he knew was killed in Afghanistan. Msgr. McLaughlin was in the seminary when he found out.

"He was a good kid," he recalled. "I think he had just had a new family. It was sad."

Msgr. McLaughlin thinks of that young man, and "all these guys," whenever he talks to military chaplains. They have all experienced similar tragedies.

"Too many," he said. "Too many stories. ... We believe in eternal life, but it's still young people. When young people die, it makes you look at the world a whole different way."

Msgr. McLaughlin served as the Archdiocese of the Military Services' vocations director from 2008 to 2011.

"It gave me an opportunity to help them in a time of war, that was Afghanistan and everything," he said.

Though he is back in the Archdiocese of Boston as pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Swampscott and St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Nahant, he remains close to priests who tend to the spiritual needs of the Armed Forces.

He gave a retreat to U.S. military chaplains in Frankfurt, Germany, from May 11-15. The priests attending the retreat were stationed in Germany, Italy, and South Korea. Those stationed in the Middle East could attend.

Msgr. McLaughlin knows priests who are currently in war zones, but he cannot say any more than that. At the retreat, he got to see chaplains he had formed while serving the Archdiocese of the Military Services.

"It was great to see them, great to be part of their lives again, watching them grow in their faith and the priesthood," he said. "That was something special."

During the retreat, Msgr. McLaughlin would preach to the chaplains once or twice a day, celebrate Mass, hear confessions, and "just be there if they needed to talk." Msgr. McLaughlin said that the military is "a hotbed for evangelization," filled with young men who are separated from everything they once knew.

"It's important to have chaplains to help them to see what God is in their life and how they can help them," he said. "Help them to see God, to love God, and know that they're not alone."

He preached to the chaplains in Frankfurt about evangelization and "ministry burnout."

Cardinal Edwin Frederick O'Brien, then Archbishop of the Military Services, reached out to Msgr. McLaughlin to become vocations director because the military was in need of Catholic chaplains. It still is. Like parish priests, a single chaplain must often take on the workload of two or three men. They need time off, but can't get it because there's no one to take their place. In times of crisis, they have no brother priests around to lean on. Retreats are a rare opportunity for the chaplains to be in each other's company.

"A priest can do spiritual things," Msgr. McLaughlin said. "We're not therapists or psychologists, but we can bring the spiritual realm into it to try to assist those who are working with them."

Chaplains on military bases are surrounded by young families who are constantly uprooted and sent across the world. They regularly interact with service members who have lost their jobs, been separated from their families, are heading into combat, or have just returned from it. The chaplains suffer alongside them. Like the troops, some priests who serve in combat zones struggle with PTSD afterward.

"I was honored to go there to give the retreat to these men who are selfless in their ministry, who chose this, knowing that they could be in the field of battle," Msgr. McLaughlin said.

He said he has learned much from the chaplains he has met.

"I learned everybody has different challenges," he said, "and sometimes when you appreciate, you think things are difficult, or whatever, but then you put your feet in other people's shoes, and all of a sudden there's a whole different set of problems they deal with."

The chaplains he talks to are not afraid, even when they're in harm's way. Msgr. McLaughlin said they are less reluctant to take on dangerous assignments because they do not have wives or children to care for. The troops a priest goes into battle with are his family, his people.

"Catholic chaplains are ready to give their life for their servicemen and women," he said.