LETTERS: Kapaun's story told in new book
To the Editor:
David Halberstam's book on the Korean War, "The Coldest Winter," covers many heroic acts that took place during that conflict. His stories are based on the first-hand interviews of survivors of that war and people who had known them.
Captain Emil Kapaun was one of those heroes and a number of books have been published about him. Chaplain Kapaun was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his work in support of his fellow soldiers both on the battlefield and in the harsh conditions of communist prison camps. He died helping his fellow prisoners in those camps. The Catholic Church has named him a Servant of God.
There are at least three books which exclusively cover Father Kapaun, but having key parts of his ordeal in a book written by a best-selling author and one of America's most distinguished journalists and historians is something special.
The following are excerpts from "Part One — A Warning at Unsan" of that book.
This opening chapter of the book describes the ordeal our military faced when hundreds of thousands of Chinese hoards unexpectedly came down on them just below the Yalu River in North Korea. Lt. Ben Boyd, a platoon leader in Baker Company of the Eighth Cavalry's First Battalion, had his unit attacked and overrun by the Chinese Army.
"As he was trying to organize a convoy of trucks for the retreat, he ran into Captain Emil Kapaun who was tending a number of wounded. Boyd offered to assign the priest to one of the trucks, but Father Kapaun refused. He planned to stay with the wounded men who would not be able to get out on their own. They would have to surrender. He was sure, but he would do all he could to offer the wounded some modest protection."
A page or two later the story continues with the battalion command post described as a disaster.
"Americans were mixed in with Chinese. You could pass a Chinese soldier right in front of the CP at that moment and he would do nothing. A medic told Richardson (of Love Company) they had created a small position where they were protecting about 40 wounded men. Dr. Anderson (the battalion surgeon) was there along with Father Kapaun."
Another page or two later the account tells about Sergeant Herbert "Pappy" Miller being wounded by a Chinese grenade.
"He tried to cover himself with dead enemy bodies. About 2 p.m. on the afternoon of Nov. 2, five or six Chinese soldiers, moving through the battlefield, methodically checking American and Chinese bodies, found him. One pointed a rifle at his head. Oh, he thought, I've finally bought the big one. Just then, Father Kapaun rushed up, pushed the Chinese soldier aside, and saved his life. Miller waited for the Chinese soldier to shoot both Kapaun and himself, but Chaplain Kapaun had been so audacious that the soldier seemed in awe of him. Ignoring the enemy solider, Kapaun pulled Miller up and hoisted him on his back: perhaps they would both be prisoners, but he was going to carry Miller as long as he could."
Another page later the story of badly-wounded Lt. Kies (his legs were useless) and other wounded continues: "He had already cut off his boots because his feet were swelling so badly. The Chinese separated the prisoners into two groups, putting men like Dr. Anderson and Father Kapaun, who were ambulatory, in one group and the others in a group to be borne on litters. Five of the men died of their wounds the first night. During the next few weeks they kept moving from house to house. There was almost nothing to eat and they had the scrounge for water. There was no medical care, not even a Band-Aid or iodine."
Finally: "Pappy Miller, wounded and then carried north by Chaplain Kapaun, was in a small group of prisoners being moved further north each night. He was on his way to more than two bitter years in a prisoner of war camp in which he would be beaten regularly, denied elemental medical care, and given the barest of rations."
Father Kapaun died in that prisoner of war camp doing the best he could to help his fellow prisoners.
I was inspired to write this because my wife, Mary, was born and raised in the same south central Kansas community that Father Kapaun came from. Mary attended the same small rural school as Father Kapaun at about the same time he was there.
This book also described how poorly our country was prepared for the invasion of South Korea. Our military forces had been cut back severely. Fortunately we still had a military draft and were able to bring in enough forces soon enough to eventually drive back the communist North Koreans as the result of brilliant strategy by Douglas MacArthur.
The MacArthur intelligence people then failed our troops by not believing the information being reported about the hordes of Chinese coming in from above the Yalu River. If action would have been taken a week or even a few days sooner Father and many of those who died might still be with us today.
I am very concerned that our political leaders today are leading us into other dangerous situations that we will be unprepared for. I would hate to see the battlefields of the future on the streets of America.
— Cliff Doubek
Anaheim, Calif.
