Medal of Honor Soldier killed in Korean War to recieve heros burial 63 years later

[BlueGin]

The remains of a soldier awarded the Medal of Honor after being killed in the Korean War will be returned to his relatives for burial with full military honors after they were identified 63 years after his death, officials announced Wednesday.

Army Lt. Col. Don C. Faith Jr., of Washington, Ind., will be buried April 17 in Arlington National Cemetery, officials from the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office said.

Faith, a veteran of World War II who continued to serve in the Army during the Korean War, was seriously injured by shrapnel on Dec. 1, 1950, and died a day later from those injuries. But his body was not recovered by U.S. forces at the time.

He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest military honor recognizing personal acts of exceptional valor during battle.



Read more: Medal of Honor soldier killed in Korean War to receive hero's burial 63 years later | Fox News

 

[waltky]

Army chaplain to get posthumous Medal of Honor...

Soldier priest to get ultimate medal
April 10th, 2013 - Capt. Emil Kapaun served in the U.S. Army in World War II and Korea but he didn’t carry a rifle and never fired a shot. His weapons were a Bible and his faith.

Capt. Kapaun was also Father Kapaun, a Roman Catholic chaplain who will be awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday, 60 years after his death while a North Korean prisoner. The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in the U.S. military. Kapaun was born and raised in Pilsen, Kansas. After high school he attended Conception Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Missouri. After the abbey, he studied for the priesthood at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis. Kapaun was ordained in 1940 and that same year became a U.S. Army chaplain. After serving at several posts in the United States and India, he left the Army and went to the Catholic University of America in Washington to earn a master's degree in education. After getting the degree in 1948, he returned to the Army.

In June 1950, Kapaun was ordered to Korea as the war was in its earliest stages. Supporting the soldiers of the 8th Infantry Regiment, Kapaun found himself in the heavily contested Pusan perimeter. Army documents supporting his nomination for the medal say he would bike from position to position so he could minister to soldiers, hearing confessions, performing last rites or administering Holy Communion. Army photos from the war show he often celebrated Mass using the hood of a Jeep as an altar. Three months after arriving in Korea, Kapaun was awarded the Bronze Star for valor for running through enemy fire to carry wounded soldiers to safety.

In November 1950, his unit went on the move. But Kapaun stayed behind to minister to the wounded soldiers, knowing he was putting himself in danger of capture by the enemy, his nephew Ray Kapaun said. That is exactly what happened. North Korean and Chinese troops marched Kapaun and the other captured troops nearly 100 miles north in the bitter winter weather. When Chinese soldiers tried to kill wounded POWs who were slowing the march, Kapaun risked his own life to stop them, and then persuaded unwounded POWs to help the wounded, according to his nephew.

Kapaun was imprisoned with 200 other soldiers at a camp near Pyoktong, North Korea. While there he would sneak through the camp ministering to other prisoners. "He would come around saying hot coffee and give hot water to all of us,” said Mike Dowe, a fellow prisoner at Pyoktong. “That may not sound like much today but it sure meant a lot under those circumstances.” To keep his fellow POWs from starving, Kapaun would break out of the camp at night, steal food and sneak back in to give it to those who needed it the most, his nephew said. That earned him the nickname “The Good Thief” from the other POWs. Eventually, the people who ran the camp took action to move him to a nearby hospital. Whether it was for treatment for an injured leg or to remove his influence over the prisoners will never be known, but Dowe and others tried to stop the North Koreans from taking him away.

More Soldier priest to get ultimate medal – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

 

[BlueGin]

Glad they could bring Army Lt. Col. Don C. Faith Jr home and give him a proper burial. Hope someday they can for Capt. Emil Kapaun and the other soldiers he is buried with (sounds like they know where they are). The first article said that there are still over 7,000 POW's out there somewhere. I like hearing that even 63 years later people are still looking and working to bring them home.

 

[whitehall]

Thanks to DNA technology there are no "unknown soldiers".