Emil Kapaun

Early life Emil Kapaun was born on April 20, 1916, in Pilsen Kansas, to Enos and Elizabeth (Hajek) Kapaun. His parents were Czech immigrants from Austria-Hungary. Kapaun grew up on a farm southwest of Pilsen in Marion County. He received his first communion in 1924 and his confirmation in 1929. Kapaun attended a parochial school run by the Adorer of the Precious Blood of Christ Sisters until the tenth grade.

U.S. Army service World War II

Having enjoyed his work as a chaplain at Harrington Airfield, Kapaun in July 1944 asked Winkelmann for permission to enter the US Army Chaplain Corps. Kapaun entered the U.S. Army Chaplain School at Ft. Devens in Massachusetts in August 1944. After graduating in October 1944, he began his military chaplaincy as a first lieutenant at Camp Wheeler near Macon, Georgia. He was one of two chaplains ministering to approximately 19,000 servicemen and women.

After the surrender of Japan in 1945, Kapaun was promoted to captain in January 1946. He was sent back to the United States that May. In his letters home, Kapaun's main complaint was the lack of sleep for several weeks.

Advance through North Korea

On September 15th, US General Douglas McArthur launched an amphibious landing at Inchon, South Korea, north of Pusan. Fearing encirclement by UN forces, the KPA fled Pusan. The UN forces broke out of the Pusan perimeter and pursued the KPA northward. On October 9th, the 1st Cavalry crossed the 38th parallel into North Korea, capturing the capital of Pyongyang. The UN forces then advanced to within of the Chinese border.

Throughout the months of fighting, Kapaun gained a reputation for bravely serving the troops, rescuing the wounded and retrieving the dead. He baptised Korean children and heard confessions. Kapaun celebrated mass on an improvised altar set up on the front end of a Jeep. Several times his mass kit Jeep and trailer were destroyed by enemy fire. During one firefight, a bullet knocked his pipe out of his moth. In letters home, he shared that he was thoroughly convinced other soldiers' prayers helped him survive.

At Prison Camp 5, up to two dozen men died each day from malnutrition, disease, lice, or the extreme cold. Kapaun dug latrines, gathered woods for fires for the wounded, mediated disputes between the POWS, gave his food to other POWS and attempted to raise their morale. His fellow POWs noted that Kapaun would steal food for the men. He also stood up to communist indoctrination by his captors, smuggled dysentery drugs to the doctor, Sidney Esensten, and led the POWs in prayer. .

Death In the winter of 1951, Kapaun developed a blood clot in one of his legs, in addition to having dysentery and pneumonia. Kapaun was one of twelve chaplains to die in Korea. Four Army chaplains were taken prisoner in 1950, all of whom died in captivity.

With the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953, hostilities ended in Korea. In keeping with the terms of this agreement, North Korea in 1954 returned 1,868 unidentified remains of America soldiers to the Army as part of Operation Glory. However, the technology did not exist then to identify them. All the remains were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP) in Honolulu, Hawaii, around 1956.

With the advent of advanced DNA technology in the 21st century, it became possible to identify the Korean war remains. In 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began its Korean War Disinterment Project, a seven-phase plan to disinter and identify all the remaining unidentified remains in at the NMCP. On March 4, 2021, Kansas U.S. senator Jerry Moran and the Catholic Diocese of Wichita confirmed that the Department of Defense had identified Kapaun's remains.

On September 29, 2021, a Mass of Christian Burial was held for Kapaun at the Hartman Arena in Park City, Kansas. A horse-drawn caisson then carried his remains to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita, where he was buried with full military honors inside the cathedral.