WASHINGTON – The U.S. military said Friday it has identified the remains of an army chaplain who was praised by fellow soldiers for his selfless example in the Korean War, received the honor and is being considered for holiness by the Roman Catholic Church.
Rev. Emil Kapaun, of Pilsen, Kansas, died on May 23, 1951 of pneumonia as a prisoner of war during the Korean War. He was an Army chaplain in World War II and the Korean conflict. He was captured on November 2, 1950 near Unsan, North Korea, when he helped wounded troops surrounded by Chinese forces.
Kapaun, who served in the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, tended to carry the sick and wounded among the POWs, according to his fellow soldiers who faltered on a forced march. His untamed spirit served as a rallying point for the other men in exile, Bob Wood, a fellow prisoner of war, told NBC News in 2013.
“He was the best man I ever knew,” Wood said.
Mike Dowe, another former prisoner of war, said Kapaun saved men who would otherwise have died in captivity from cold and starvation. “A large number of those who survived, I would say, at least half of them, really owed their lives to Father Kapaun, including me,” Deaf people told NBC News.
Kapaun was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously in 2013 after a decade-long campaign by veterans of the Korean War from his unit.
According to the Medal of Honor quote, Kapaun “walked quietly through withering enemy fire” and hand-to-hand fighting to provide medical assistance, 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 gun, but who used the most powerful weapon of all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to was to die so. so that they can live. ”
In 1993, Pope John Paul II declared Capaun a servant of God, the first step toward holiness.
Kapaun celebrated a last Easter Mass for the prisoners of war at the end of March 1951 and was taken to the ‘sick house’ shortly afterwards, an old pagoda where, according to the Pentagon, he died at the age of 35.
Before being taken away by his commanders and placed in isolation, Kapaun told Deaf people: “Do not cry for me. “I’m going where I’ve always wanted to go, ‘when I get there,’ I’ll pray for each one of you, ” according to Deaf.
Kapaun’s remains were identified on Tuesday, the Pentagon’s POW / MIA Accounting Agency said.
“His heroism and resilient spirit demonstrate our military values of personal courage and selfless service,” said John Whitley, acting secretary of the Army.