Kapaun’s nephew to speak

Father Emil Kapaun’s congressional medal of honor will be on display, and his nephew, Ray Kapaun, will present a tribute at 6 p.m. Saturday to those confined with his uncle in a Korean War prisoner-of-war camp.

The event will begin with a chili feed at 4:30 p.m. at the former Herington Army Airfield chapel that was moved to 106 Main St., Latimer, where it served as a Lutheran church until 2021.

Emil Kapaun, whose home church was in Pilsen, was a chaplain at the airfield before serving in Korea. His case for canonization as a saint in the Catholic church is progressing.

Ray Kapaun’s presentation, “The Boys of Camp 5,” will include performance of a song he wrote about the camp and a recounting of how camp prisoners met his uncle, who died there in 1951.

“This is a very emotional presentation for me,” Ray Kapaun said. “I have been so fortunate to have personally known many of those boys and even consider them family and second dads.”

Donations will go toward a project to preserve and restore the chapel.