[5][6] He served as an enlisted man in the Naval Reserves during High School, then after graduation from NROTC at Dartmouth College served in the rivers of Vietnam (and a short time in Cambodia as well, when his ship became the first U.S commissioned vessel to cross the border)[7] as part of "Operation Game Warden," the operation aimed at keeping the rivers free from Viet Cong, and then with Naval Intelligence in Europe before leaving the Navy to attend rabbinical school.

From 1992-1994, Resnicoff served as Command Chaplain for Recruit Training Command ("RTC"), Orlando, Florida, where he was part of the team headed by Captain Kathleen Bruyere that integrated men and women into basic training for the first time,[9] and created a new chaplain message for the recruits: "Chapel helps you make it through Boot Camp; Faith helps you make it through life.

"[12][13] On October 23, 1983, while a chaplain for the United States Sixth Fleet, Resnicoff was present in Beirut, Lebanon, during the suicide truck bomb attack that took the lives of 241 American military personnel, and wounded scores more.

He had arrived on Friday, Oct 21, to lead a Memorial Service for Sgt Allen Soifert, a Jewish American Marine killed by sniper fire.

[22] This story was also quoted by some military leaders who had previously opposed the uniform policy change, but now supported it, including the Commandant and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.

[24][25] In 1984, Resnicoff's efforts to convince the United States Department of Defense to participate in the national annual program for the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust (DRVH) were successful.

[26] In 1984, the first official year of military involvement, Resnicoff coordinated a meeting between Rabbi Seymour Siegel, Executive Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, and Vice Admiral Edward Martin, Commander, United States Sixth Fleet,[27] and then conducted the first shipboard Holocaust Days of Remembrance Ceremony, on board USS Puget Sound, the Sixth Fleet Flagship.

[34] During the time of American involvement in Bosnia and Kosovo, he worked with U.S. and NATO troops, civilian relief workers, political and military leaders, religious representatives, and refugees, and represented the military in the first conference of religious seminary students from Kosovo, Bosnia, Albania, and Macedonia;[35] and led a delegation representing the four official religions of Bosnia—Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Muslim, and Jewish—on an historic visit to the U.S.[36] In 1983, Resnicoff held the first interfaith service (and first service jointly attended by men and women) held at the Western Wall since it came under Israel's control, conducted under the supervision of the Israel Ministry of Religious Affairs, as part of a special welcome for the U.S. Sixth Fleet.

Rabbi Resnicoff has lectured on pluralism, religious freedom, and ethics and values, at many civilian and military forums, including the Northeastern Political Science Association;[42] the International Society for Military Ethics (ISME);[citation needed] the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute;[43] the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Clementsport, Nova Scotia[44] and the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, in Israel's Bar Ilan University.

video On June 24, 2023, Resnicoff delivered the prayers for the commissioning of the guided-missile destroyer USS CARL M. LEVIN (DDG-120), the first US Navy ship named for a Jewish member of congress.

[62] The book, Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy Behind the Military Mind[63] quotes his position that "We don't want our people just to come home physically; we want them to come back as close to the human beings they were before they went in.

"[63] Resnicoff believes chaplains have a role to play in the area of engagement: building ties and strengthening relationships with civilian religious leaders.

He believes that "NATO chaplains should have a greater role in supporting Allied troops with personal moral conflicts, and in reducing misunderstandings about foreign religious beliefs ... it is important to move fast and establish regional cooperative programs in such potential hot spots as Eastern Europe and South Africa "so that we are ahead of the power curve before another Kosovo explodes.""