News editor
He was honored at the White House two years ago, but the next honor for Army Captain Chaplain Father Emil Kapaun is much closer to his Pilsen home.
Marion VFW Post 6958 will dedicate a bronze plaque at 10 a.m. July 11 at the post home at 420 W. Santa Fe St. honoring Kapaun as the only Marion County service member to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
The event will include presentations by VFW representatives and speakers familiar with Kapaun’s service as a Roman Catholic priest, chaplain, and candidate for sainthood. The public is invited to attend.
A meeting following the presentiation will begin a campaign to create a county veterans memorial at Marion County Lake.
Post commander Warren Kreutziger said the memorial is intended to honor veterans of all foreign conflicts. The meeting is intended to solicit ideas for design of the memorial.
Kreutziger said preliminary discussions have considered two alternatives. One would list the names of all Marion County veterans on the memorial, while the other would have a dedication and list just the foreign conflicts in which Marion County veterans have served.
As the memorial would honor all veterans, the list of names would be large, Kreutziger said. Such a memorial would need more extensive updating as additional conflicts are added. That’s one of the questions Kreutziger hopes attendees will address.
Kreutziger can be reached at (620) 382-6125 or at warrenkreutziger@yahoo.com.