emil j kapaun

1916 born Emil J Kapaun
1946 commissioned US Army Captain
1951 died, the result of malnutrition and pneumonia, Korean War
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