1946 commissioned US Army Captain
1951 died, the result of malnutrition and pneumonia
2013 awarded Medal of Honor, 9th military chaplain recipient
2021 returned home, body accounted for
Excerpts from a report by Martina Moyski, Oct 1, 2021:
- A priest at 25 and a chaplain shortly after, he moved from Kansas to the Burma Theater, then to the 38th parallel, around which the fame of his service to others grew.
- He dragged the wounded from the battlefield, comforted the dying, and celebrated Mass on an improvised altar on the front end of a Jeep.
- Instead of retreating to safety, he stayed with the wounded, carrying an injured soldier 30 miles during a march to a POW camp during Korea's coldest winter.
- He picked lice from soldiers' bodies when they lost the will to live.
- All the men said if it hadn't been for Fr. Kapaun, they probably wouldn't have made it out of the prisoner of war camp alive.
- After Fr. Kapaun's death, the POWs kept his memory alive.
“There will come a time when we must make a choice between being loyal to the true Faith or giving allegiance to something else ... O God, we ask of thee to give us the courage to be ever faithful to Thee.” - Kapaun