When President Bush watched U.S. soldiers performing war games in the Mojave Desert recently, he warned them that despite plans to scale back forces in Europe and Asia, America must remain "prepared to fight."

"God bless you . . . and now, back to war," he told the Ft. Irwin troops as they paused briefly in their simulated battle between the United States and a Red Army brigade.

The President's remarks were reminiscent of another line: "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!" immortalized at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Chaplain Howell M. Forgy shouted the encouragement to a chain of men loading guns aboard the cruiser New Orleans.

The tradition of the U.S. military chaplain walking a fine line, upholding the principles of religion and peace in organizations geared to the rigors of war, dates to the Civil War, when Army chaplains ministered to soldiers on the battlefield.

And it continues today. In the latest U.S. military skirmish in Panama, chaplains from the 7th Infantry Division at Ft. Ord and the 82nd Airborne Division from Ft. Bragg, N.C.--testing their mettle in the throes of battle after a long period of peace--went along with the troops.

"The airborne chaplains parachuted right down with them," said Lt. Col. Dean Ruddle, chaplain recruiter for the 6th Army.

Lt. Col. John Wells, division chaplain for the 7th Infantry, compared the experience to Vietnam and said it was the first time since 1968 that chaplains and chaplains' assistants were deployed as a unit to a combat situation.

"I'm pretty proud of our division," he said of the 16 chaplains under him. "Battalion chaplains were as close to the front lines as possible . . . giving a spiritual presence and a calmness prior to battle."

The need for chaplains will decrease accordingly if U.S. troop strength and military installations are reduced decisively, as proposed by the Defense Department. More than 100 military installations around the world have been proposed for elimination or consolidation because of the relaxing of tensions in Eastern Europe.

But military chaplains are not now an endangered species. In fact, military recruiters predict that a shortage of Roman Catholic chaplains will continue for the foreseeable future. And despite the changing atmosphere, events such as the U.S. invasion of Panama could happen again.