WASHINGTON – The US military said on Friday that it had identified the remains of an army chaplain who was praised by other soldiers for their selfless example in the Korean War, received the Medal of Honor and is being considered sanctified by the Roman Catholic Church. .
Rev. Emil Kapaun of Pilsen, Kansas, died of pneumonia on May 23, 1951, as a prisoner of war during the Korean War. An army chaplain in World War II and the Korean conflict, he was captured on November 2, 1950, near Unsan, North Korea, while helping wounded soldiers surrounded by Chinese forces.
Kapaun, who served in the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, treated sick and wounded among prisoners of war, carrying men who had faltered in a forced march, according to their fellow soldiers. His untamed spirit served as a meeting place for other captive men, Bob Wood, a fellow prisoner of war, told NBC News in a 2013 report.
“He was the best man I’ve ever met,” said Wood.
Mike Dowe, another former prisoner of war, said Kapaun saved men who otherwise would have died in captivity from cold and hunger. “A good number of those who survived, I would say that at least half of them, really owe their lives to Father Kapaun, myself included,” Dowe told NBC News.
Kapaun received the Medal of Honor posthumously in 2013, after a decade-long campaign by Korean War veterans from his unit.
According to the Medal of Honor quote, Kapaun “walked calmly through the flash of enemy fire” and hand-to-hand combat to provide medical help, words of comfort or prayers.
At the Medal of Honor ceremony in 2013, President Barack Obama called the chaplain “an American soldier who did not fire a weapon, but wielded the most powerful weapon of all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die as soon as they can live. “
In 1993, Pope John Paul II declared Kapaun a Servant of God, the first step towards holiness.
Kapaun celebrated a final Easter mass for prisoners of war in late March 1951 and was soon taken to the “home of the sick”, an old pagoda where he died at age 35, according to the Pentagon.
Before being taken and put in isolation by his captors, Kapaun said to Dowe: “Don’t cry for me. I’m going where I always wanted to go, when I get there I will say a prayer for each one of you, ”said Dowe.
Kapaun’s remains were identified on Tuesday, the Pentagon’s Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency said.
“His heroism and resilient spirit summed up our Army’s values of personal courage and selfless service,” said Acting Army Secretary John Whitley.