Born into a family without religion, Father Michael Vaughan had no way of predicting the trajectory of his life when he enlisted with the U.S. military at 18 years old. Yet, it was his years in the Army that led him to conversion, and eventually to the Catholic Church and his priestly vocation.
The only child of Bill and Ida Vaughan, Father Michael moved often as a boy due to his father’s work with the state. As a lawyer, Bill encouraged his son to consider a similar field, however when the time came to choose a college, Father Michael did not have a strong desire to continue his formal education. Instead, he and a friend enlisted in the Army.
His mother immediately began praying for his safe return, and those prayers eventually led her to return to Catholicism, the faith of her childhood.
“She was praying for me to come back safe and sound,” Father Michael shares, “but God had other plans. So not only did I come back safe and sound, but I was baptized during the Gulf War in a garbage can.”
During his first two years in the Army, Father Michael was stationed in Nuremburg, West Germany. He had everything he could possibly want, and yet he felt empty.
“When I was in Germany, I was alone with myself and thought I was happy,” Father Michael says. “I had money, and went to the gym and had a girlfriend; all the things the world says are going to make you happy, but I had this deep emptiness, this loneliness. So, I started to ask myself existential questions: Who am I really? Why am I here? Does God exist?”
While asking these questions, Father Michael stumbled upon a 12-step, self-help book that contained spiritual principles. The book encouraged readers to “reach out to the God of your own understanding,” so Father Michael began to pray.
Father Michael was soon reassigned to El Paso, Texas, where he learned he would deploy for Operation Desert Storm. At 20 years old, he had to write a last will and testament.
“It was a big shocker for me,” Father Michael recalls. “As I was being prepared for deployment, I knew it was serious because we had never done anything so intense.”
Before deploying, he went to a bookstore to buy religious books in hopes of learning more about God. He bought five books — all were by Catholic authors and included spiritual classics such as Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis and Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen.
Arriving in the desert, Father Michael was given a pocket New Testament by the Army chaplain, who was a Lutheran pastor, and during his shifts on the night watch he began to read.
For the entire year that Father Michael was in the desert, he spent time reading the Gospels while in the foxhole.
“It was there, reading the word of God under the light of the moon, that I realized God was not just a being of my own understanding. God was slowly revealing himself, and he was Christ. I found my life in the Gospels.”
Between the books he had brought with him and the Gospels, Father Michael became convicted of two things: that God was calling him to be baptized, and that Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist.
“It was an amazing grace [to believe in the Real Presence].”
Learning of a Catholic chaplain and Sunday Mass at a camp near his own, Father Michael began walking a few miles through the desert each week to attend Mass. After Mass, he sat in the sand and made long acts of thanksgiving. The Mass and his daily morning prayer with scripture became his source of life in the desert, and when he learned the battle would soon begin, it is what sustained him.
“I was part of the first group to go out there, so it took some time to build up the troops needed for the operation. Soldiers arrived month after month, and higher ups began preparing us for the ground war and to make the ultimate sacrifice.”
At that point, Father Michael recalled his conviction to be baptized, and he approached the Lutheran chaplain.
“He asked me to make a profession of faith, so I gave my life to Christ and was baptized.”
Not sure that he would survive the ground war, Father Michael expressed gratitude that God had given him time to prepare himself. Once he entered the battle, Father Michael recalls the fighting being intense. Then, 72 hours later, the troops got word that the battle was over. Father Michael was amazed that they had so quickly achieved their mission, and that he would soon be going home.
Back home, Father Michael continued his search for God. First in the Lutheran Church, since it was a Lutheran pastor who had baptized him. In a conversation with another Lutheran pastor, he learned that what Lutherans believed about the Eucharist did not match what he had come to believe. He sought out a Catholic church soon after learning this and once he returned home to Sacramento, he began OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults), the pathway to joining the Catholic Church.
Not long after realizing God was leading him to the Catholic Church, Father Michael came to believe that he may have a vocation to the priesthood. At the time, he was taking classes at a community college, and he remembers a friend commenting on how distracted he seemed.
“I couldn’t get it out of my head that God was calling me to be a priest, even though I hadn’t received all my sacraments yet,” Father Michael continues, “One day, walking through a full parking lot with a friend, my friend gestured to the cars and said, ‘Look, you’d better step up your game, otherwise all these people are going to pass you up.”
Hearing this, Father Michael thought, “What if I don’t want to run this race? What if my race is something different?” God seemed to speak to him at that moment, and Father Michael sought out the vocations director for the Diocese of Sacramento.
After joining the Church, he became a priest with Regnum Christi — serving six years in Argentina and three years in Mexico before returning to the Diocese of Sacramento in 2011.
“Bishop Soto received me with open arms,” Father Michael recalls.
He has now served in our diocese for 15 years, and currently serves as pastor of Good Shepherd Parish in Elk Grove. Three years ago, while serving his current parish, Father Michael opened a new chapter with the military: as a chaplain for the National Guard.
“I’d already considered that if that door ever became available, I would try to knock, simply because of the chaplain that was there for me,” Father Michael says. “I felt in a mysterious way at my age, where I’m at, I had to pursue it.”
After gaining permission from Bishop Soto, Father Michael began the application process to become a military chaplain. It took some time to get the clearances and training necessary to fulfill the role, but he was fully commissioned in September 2025. Today, Father Michael is the only Catholic priest serving as chaplain for the California Army National Guard.
“They were like sheep without a shepherd,” Father Michael shares. “That’s why I wanted to throw my name in the hat, because I understand the life of a young soldier and some of what they are going through.”
Now, once a month, Father Michael travels to minister to the troops entrusted to his care.
“I’m a Catholic priest to those who are Catholic, but I’m a chaplain to everybody,” he says, explaining the non-denominational nature of the role.
His job as chaplain is unique. Caring for the needs of soldiers at home, but also doing funerals for fallen soldiers, caring for military families who’ve lost a service member, and being on call at any hour for a soldier in need.
“The work is pretty intense, and I have to do it while being pastor here [at Good Shepherd]. So, the people of this parish have supported me in this. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to do it,” Father Michael gratefully shares. “It’s kind of like we’re giving from our poverty.”
After being out of the military for 33 years, putting the uniform back on is a surreal experience for Father Michael. It takes him back to the day of his baptism, when the chaplain gave him a scripture verse that he has carried with himself every day since.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim. 4:7)