This weekend marks 75 years since the death of a Kansas-native, Father Emil Kapaun; he passed away at age 35 during the Korean War in a prisoner of war camp in North Korea.
Fr. Kapaun, born in Pilsen, in Marion County, Kansas, is currently under the process of consideration for official sainthood by the Catholic church.
Capt. Kapaun served during World War II and the Korean War as a United States Army chaplain. He was captured by the enemy in early November of 1950.
Father Kapaun developed a blood clot in one of his legs, besides having dysentery and pneumonia.
While at the POW camp, Father Kapaun continued to minister and inspire American POWs until his death in captivity, May 23, 1951.
— U.S. Army (@USArmy) July 29, 2022
On Sept. 25, 2021, after @dodpaa identified and accounted for his remains, Kapaun was finally welcomed home with honors in Wichita, Kansas. pic.twitter.com/fKHVa145AD
He was so weak, the prison guards took him to a place in the Pyoktong camp they called the "hospital," where he died of malnutrition and pneumonia on May 23, 1951.
It was originally thought that Father Kapaun was buried in a mass grave near the Yalu River. But in 2005, one of Kapaun's fellow POWs, William Hansen, said he and other prisoners had buried Kapaun separately in a single grave on higher ground, marking the gravesite with stones.
NCA salutes @USArmy Capt. Emil J. Kapaun who died May 23, 1951 and awarded the #MOH in 2013. The #DPAA accounted for his remains, 3/2/2021. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing Memorials Wall at the Punchbowl. #PreservingVeteransLegacies Photo: wikipedia pic.twitter.com/QJiuz7h6R9
— National Cemeteries (@VANatCemeteries) May 23, 2021
Four U.S. Army chaplains were taken prisoner in 1950, all of whom died in captivity.
As part of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement, Fr. Kapaun's remains were among the 1,868 returned to U.S. custody, although they could not be identified. His remains were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP) in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the mid 1950s.
#OTD in 1951, #MedalofHonor recipient Capt. and Chaplain Emil Kapaun passed in a North Korean POW camp. Kapaun earned the #MedalofHonor tending to wounded American soldiers in a dire situation, even though it meant certain death or capture. https://t.co/0MnbZC8eWY pic.twitter.com/1VnhS8Jz5p
— National Medal Of Honor Museum (@MohMuseum) May 23, 2022
His remains were disinterred and identified as part of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s Korean War Disinterment Project, a seven-phase plan begun in 2018, to disinter all remaining Korean War Unknowns from the NMCP.
On March 4, 2021, U.S. Senator from Kansas, Jerry Moran, and the Catholic Diocese of Wichita confirmed the remains of Father Emil Kapaun were identified.
On Nov 1-2, 1950, #USArmy Chaplain (Capt.) Emil Kapaun was captured by Communist forces but chose to stay behind to care for the wounded. He risked his life to help fellow prisoners before passing away in 1951. In 2013, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. pic.twitter.com/2Ho9yERUUH
— National Museum of the United States Army (@USArmyMuseum) November 2, 2024
Father Kapaun's remains are now in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Wichita at Central & Broadway, where he was buried with full military honors inside the church.
FATHER EMIL KAPAUN#OTD, 23 May 1951, World War II and Korean War veteran, Chaplain (CPT) Emil Kapaun died during the Korean War. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on 11 April 2013 for his acts of heroism during the war. @USArmy @ArmyChaplains @USACHCS1 pic.twitter.com/Tla7OOIMcm
— U.S. Army Institute for Religious Leadership (@usairl2022) May 23, 2019
