'Shepherd in combat boots' awarded Medal of Honor for Korean service
By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Catholic Korean War chaplain who selflessly pulled wounded men from enemy fire and helped his fellow prisoners of war keep a sense of hope was honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor, in an April 11 White House ceremony.
In paying tribute to Father Emil J. Kapaun, an Army captain, President Barack Obama told multiple stories of the "shepherd in combat boots" from Kansas who voluntarily stayed behind with the wounded to face certain capture, rather than evacuate when his division was overrun at Unsan, Korea, in November 1950.
(full story)
By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Catholic Korean War chaplain who selflessly pulled wounded men from enemy fire and helped his fellow prisoners of war keep a sense of hope was honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor, in an April 11 White House ceremony.
In paying tribute to Father Emil J. Kapaun, an Army captain, President Barack Obama told multiple stories of the "shepherd in combat boots" from Kansas who voluntarily stayed behind with the wounded to face certain capture, rather than evacuate when his division was overrun at Unsan, Korea, in November 1950.
(full story)
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| U.S. Army chaplain Father Emil Joseph Kapaun, who died a prisoner of war in North Korea in 1951, was honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor April 11. He is pictured celebrating Mass from the hood of a jeep in South Korea in October of 1950. (CNS/The Catholic Advance) |