Chaplain Emil J. Kapaun served the 3rd Battalion of the 8th Regiment, 1st US Cavalry Division in the Korean War.
On November 1-2, 1950 in Unsan, Korea, his unit was surrounded by Chinese communist forces. Father Kapaun was frequently seen dodging bullets and explosions, moving from foxhole to foxhole, encouraging the troops and dragging the wounded to safety. When he couldn’t drag someone (due to withering fire from the enemy), he would dig a shallow trench to provide some protection for the wounded.
The Chinese communists closed in for the kill, and some American troops managed to escape. But Kapaun steadfastly refused to leave in a breakout, choosing to stay behind with his men. He chose to stay with the wounded, and to endure imprisonment with them.
He and hundreds of other Americans were captured on November 2nd, and marched off to POW camps almost 100 miles away. Father Kapaun helped carry the wounded on their stretchers, and encouraged his men all along the way.
In the prison camp, he risked his life again and again, foraging for food and medicine. He would often give up his own rations for those who were weaker. He was often beaten for resisting the indoctrination attempts of the socialist Marxists. On one occasion Chaplain Kapaun was forced to sit outside, naked, all night in sub zero temperatures.
In defiance of the enemy’s “re-education” attempts, Chaplain Kapaun celebrated a sunrise service, in full view of his Marxist-socialist torturers, on Easter Sunday, 1951.
But the starvation and brutal unsanitary conditions took their toll, and Father Kapaun was carried to a “hospital” where he died alone on May 23, 1951. He gave his last sermon as the US soldiers were carrying him on a stretcher to the “hospital”: he made them promise to keep their faith.
For his conspicuous gallantry and selfless devotion to his men and country, for courage above and beyond the call of duty, Chaplain Emil Kapaun was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.