Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 6:10am

POW Servant of God To Receive Medal of Honor

 

On April 11, 2012 Father Emil Kapaun, the POW Servant of God, will receive posthumously this nation’s highest decoration for heroism, the Medal of Honor:

The Pentagon is expected to invite several of Kapaun’s fellow former prisoners of war to attend the ceremony. They survived horrific conditions in the prison camp after they were captured in the first battles against the Chinese Army in late 1950, shortly after China entered the Korean War.

All of these soldiers, now in their mid- or upper 80s, have lobbied for more than 60 years to persuade the Army to award Kapaun the Medal of Honor.

They also have lobbied the Roman Catholic Church to elevate him to sainthood. The Vatican recently completed an extensive investigation and is considering the matter.

Soldiers like Mike Dowe, William Funchess, Robert Wood, Robert McGreevy and Herb Miller, most of them Protestants, have spent decades writing letters or giving interviews describing repeated acts of bravery by Kapaun. They said he repeatedly ran through machine gun fire, dragging wounded soldiers to safety during the first months of the war.

They said his most courageous acts followed in a prisoner of war camp, where Kapaun died in May 1951. They said he saved hundreds of soldiers’ lives using faith and the skills honed on his family’s farm near Pilsen.

Go here to read the rest of the good news in the Wichita Eagle.  When Father Kapaun receives his Medal of Honor we will have two Servants of God, the other being the Grunt Padre, Father Vincent Cappodano, who have earned Medals of Honor.  Please God we will soon have two saints with this symbol of their dauntless heroism.  Since the creation of the Medal of Honor on March 25, 1863, a total of 3,446 men have earned the Medal, 627 posthumously.  Few men in American history have deserved the Medal of Honor more.  Go here to the above post to see why I believe this.

 

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MaryMargaret
MaryMargaret
Sunday, February 24, AD 2013 7:49am

I am very pleased that Father Kapaun is finally going to receive the Medal of Honor. Reading his story never fails to bring tears to my eyes. He was a great man, a fine soldier, a faithful priest. We are very proud here in Kansas.

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Monday, February 25, AD 2013 12:01am

[…] Cthlc Wrld Rprt Pursuing a Meaningful Life: An interview with Author Randy Hain – K. Lowry POW Servant of God To Receive Medal of Honor – D. McClarey, The Amr Cth Big News: Parish Book of Chant is Ready for Shipping – […]

Richard
Richard
Tuesday, February 26, AD 2013 4:38am

What is perhaps more shameful for our American military (see “bureaucracy,” and “government”) is that the toughest group in the world to be admitted to, the recognized saints of the Church, seems to be more easily given than the Medal of Honor.

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