At the end of the Korean War in 1953, a group of POW's emerged from the darkness carrying a 4-foot high crucifix made from firewood and radio wire. Amazingly, it had been made by a Jewish soldier. More amazing was the man, Chaplain Emil Kapaun, in whose honor it was made.
As priest of a small Canadian parish, Fr. Kapaun felt called to the front lines and was assigned as chaplain to the American 8th Cavalry Regiment. The soldiers loved him. He drove hundreds of miles ministering to the fighting men all over the Korean battlefields, helping with the wounded and celebrating eucharist from the hood of his Jeep. He went weeks with little or no sleep, hearing confessions, baptizing, cleaning latrines and ministering to the sick and dying.
On Nov. 2, 1950, the Battle of Unsan pitted a thousand Americans against 10-15,000 communist Chinese. In the ensuing battle, Fr. Kapaun ran into "no-man's land" to minister to the dying. Even after the sound was given to evacuate, he stayed in the midst of the wounded doing his work of mercy. Among the men whose lives he saved was Sgt. Herbert Miller who was about to be killed. Fr. Kapaun pushed the enemy aside and went to Miller's aid. In the "death march" which followed, he carried Sgt. Miller and helped him walk over 80 miles, urging others to carry their fellow soldiers and giving them hope.
As a prisoner Fr. Kapaun kept up his ministry, giving his food to the starving, smuggling in needed drugs and boiling water in a bowl he'd made to help the sick ones . He cleansed their wounds, organized them to get wood and clean the camp and secretly led them in prayers and mass. At his Easter service the men sang so loudly they were punished.
The communists hated him for the hope he gave the men. They forced him to stand naked for hours in the bitter cold and tried in vain to "re-educate" him in communist doctrine. When he got very sick, communists took him to a "death house" hospital where no one who went in came out alive.
Soldiers wept as he was carried out, but he comforted them saying, "Boys, don't worry about me. When I get there I will pray for you." The final act they saw of him was blessing the enemy soldiers praying, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." He died May 23, 1951.
Fr. Kapaun is the most highly decorated military chaplain in history with fifteen medals and commendations . When he was posthumously given the Medal of Honor in 2013, nine of the men from that POW camp were there, including Sgt. Herbert Miller, the man whose life he'd saved 63 years before.
When the story of human history is over, it will not be the forces of evil, death and darkness which will have the final word. It will be God's love. God's love in Jesus Christ is what moves people such as Fr. Kapaun to share that love and to sacrifice one's self to make the world a better place. The wood and wire crucifix stands today in the Kapaun Memorial Chapel in Seoul, South Korea.
Psalm 23 says, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." God is always with us, no matter what kind of evil, through friends, family and even strangers. God is there, not with anger or hatred, not with revenge or death, but with His mercy and eternal life in Jesus.
Chaplain Emil Kapaun, a "Shepherd in Combat Boots."
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