United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

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Over and over again chaplains wrote to the Chief Worship at Sea. Chaplain Robert A. Vaughan conducts services aboard the DIXIE. ComDesRon 11 La Duca, P. JI. .... LTJG RC ComDesRon 16 Lee, E. ji. ..... , LTJG BAPT CSD ComDesRon 13 Moran, Ll. ..... LTJG BAPT CSD ComDesRon 1 . Powell, W. D. ---. LTJC BAPT C57 ComDesRon 5. Smith, L. C .,., . LT LUTH ComDesRon 7. Thomas, R ..... LT PRESBY CUSAD DIXIE ........... Vaughan, R. A .... LCDR METH PIEDMONT ..... Wolf, A. J! ....... LT RC PRAIRIE ........ Wren, L. J ,... . . LCDR RC 1 Ordered to report. 2 Ordered detached. The ships listed were destroyer tenders. Some notice has been taken already of the work of chaplains assigned to destroyers operating in Korean waters. Chaplain John R. Thomas reported amaze- ment on the part of tincan sailorsn when he first came aboard that the Navy was interested in them and that chaplains were willing to serve aboard destroy- ers! In 15 months of such duty he had made 23 transfers among the ships of DesRon 7. Chaplain Willie D. Powell reported extending his destroyer min- istry to three British ships, finding excellent attendance at Divine Service. tHe also reported holding services on a British hospital ship.j Powell served in Com- CruDesPac from February 1951 to January 1952. Many chaplains reported that they organized re- ligious schedules in each of the ships of their squadron so that, during the chaplain's presence in one of them, the personnel of the others would be prepared to carry on weekly Bible classes, Rosary services, and even Sun- day Protestant worship. This was of course part of an expanded emphasis upon lay leadership which was everywhere receiving attention during this period. Destroyers are often referred to as the 'fwork horsesn of the fleet. Certainly their chaplains worked as hard as the other tincan sailors, and by their efforts suc- cessfully pioneered one further area in which the Chaplain Corps was learning to carry on its mission. Why We Fought that an important part of their work was trying to give their men satisfactory answers to the frequently asked question, Why must I be here? Though it bore more urgently upon the men in the war zone and upon their families, it was a question on the lips of many others, especially Reserves whose peacetime lives had been interrupted by sudden recalls to active duty. And indeed it was a question the nation asked itself repeatedly. One answer, which may commend itself to some, was given in a memorandum by Col. W. S. Brown, Regimental Commander, 1st Marines, issued on 14 190.-

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L. C. M. Vosseler organized sightseeing tours in Japan for his men in the TOLEDO whenever the ship's schedule made it possible. The following are excerpts from a letter written by Chaplain Vosseler to the Chaplains Division, 4 August 19511. Since reporting to the ship we have been in the Far East much of the time. Is it anticipated that I'll be spending 2 years aboard? lHe had been aboard then for 1 year.l Recent months find Divine Services averaging over 100 per Sunday. Catholic Mass is arranged whenever possible. In the past 4 months six Catholic chaplains, some of them more than once, have come aboard for Confessions and Mass. I have conducted services aboard HELENA, MANCHES- TER, and ELDORADO. Other duties include editing the daily press-news fserving aszl adviser to the ship's paper lmembership on thel Recreation Council, and attending Enlisted Recreation Committee meetings. Bible studies are conducted Wednesday evenings. A daily radio program from the library is originated each day. The chaplain reads the daily news, asks the crew a sports question, and says an evening prayer .... Commendation. Chaplain Harold E. Meade, who served aboard the PHILIPPINE SEA from August 1950 to May 1951, received a letter of commendation award. His citation reads in part: He devoted himself tirelessly to daily contacts with the officers and men, being especially at- tentive to the embarked air group, and removed many of their personnel problems in order to allow their full attention to the operations. Among the activities Chaplain Meade had described in letters to the Chaplains Division was a March of Dimes collection in the astounding amount of S9,281. Upon hearing this Chaplain Mahler lMeade wrotel went off into grand, dramatic gestures. From the practical standpoint, I wish to suggest that the materials for ships afioat outside the continental limits for drives such as March of Dimes, Red Cross, and Navy Relief be sent as far as possible in advance. Our material arrived on board on 23 January. Meade had begun his letter, As Little Boy Blue said as he reached for his trumpet, 'I think I'll blow my own horn.' To which the Chief replied, I trust you re- member a famous sermon on the Sadduceesf' ComCruDesPac Circuit-riding destroyer chaplains are an innovation in the Chaplain Corps.16 After preliminary discus- sion initiated by the then Chief of Chaplains William N. Thomas, and fthenj Atlantic Fleet Chaplain S. W. 16Navy Chaplains Bulletin fFall, 19531, pp. 7-8, W. S. Peck, The Destroyer Chaplaincy. Salisbury, a trial run was organized in 1949. The years 1950 and 1951 saw the new program Hshaken downl' and put on a working basis. On 24 july 1950 billets were established for one chaplain on the staff of each destroyer squadron com- mander in the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, except for destroyer escort squadrons. One chaplain was as- signed to each Destroyer Force as staff chaplain, with the rank f after February 19511 of commander. The first chaplain to serve on the staff of Com- mander Cruiser Destroyer Force, Pacific fboth types were incorporated into one Force in the Pacific F leetj was Richard P. Heyl, a Roman Catholic, who was relieved in September 1950 by Raymond C. Hohen- stein, Lutheran. Hohenstein served with ComCru- DesPac until February 1953, when he was relieved by Chaplain F . D. Hewitt, Jr. The Force headquarters were in San Diego. Chaplain Hohenstein was the first to hold the Force Chaplain billet. He wrote in his question- naire reply: What made this duty somewhat other than ordinary was the fact that the specific work at hand was to establish the newly authorized program of placing chaplains in destroyers on the staffs of DESRON Idestroyer squadronl commanders landl of initiating activity in character guidance and lay leadership in the DD ldestroyerl and DE ldestroyer escortj type ships. This involved public relations work with the squadron commanders and commanding officers in connection with all three of these fields, training the chaplains themselves fthe first ones reporting direct from civilian life to which they had returned after World War IIB, and publicizing these activities to the personnel of the command. To accomplish the above, I personally conducted two Divine Services each Sunday aboard various type ships, and made periodic cruises in DDs, ADS destroyer tenders, and CAs cruisers-to Mare Island, Calif., Seattle, Wash., Pearl Harbor, T.H., and Sasebo-Yokosuka, Japan. It is of course impossible to mention for, indeed, at the date of this writing to discoverj every chaplain who served with destroyers in the war theater. The roster of chaplains issued by the Pacific Fleet Chap- lain in July 1951 listed the following under Com- mander Cruiser Destroyer Force, Pacific. Force Chaplain .... Hohenstein, R. C. . CDR LUTH CMOSYD BRYCE CANYON Ditrner, M. A ..... LT PRESBY CUSAD ComDesRon 8 .... Fay, P ..... . . . LTJG RC ComDesRon 16 .... Harris, O. J ....... LTJG BAPT CSD HAMUL ......... Hunter, W. M .... LTJG REF ComDesRon 3 .... Jeffers, H. W ...... LTJG METH PIEDMONT ..... Keefe, ll. M ...... LT RC -89-

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june 1951, summing up the regiment's operations dur- ing the preceding 2 weeks. Colonel Brown wrote: A lot of comrades, officers and men, have died or been injured in this police action.', I fear that more, very prob- ably, will be before it is over. But you are making tradi- tions of valor and professional skill that will rank alongside of, or outrank, the achievements of Marines of the First World War, the Second World War, and all our minor cam- paigns. And I urge you all to believe, whether or not you are, or have been, religiously inclined, that in this struggle for decency among men, we are fighting on the side of the Lord. The Communists who oppose us are fighting to deny His existence. One thing at least is plain: The Communist in- vasion of the Republic of Korea had shown itself a serious menace to the spirit of freedom 5 this was no minor police actionf, but full-scale war, and in the balance lay the future of, at the least, common decency among mankind. Just as plainly the balance had been tipped by the United Nations forces in the di- rection of victory. Truce Talks At this juncture the Communists made a new move. On 23 June 1951 Jacob A. Malik, Russian delegate to the United Nations, in a radio address in New York suggested the possibility of truce talks in Korea.17 Y' For brief introduction, see Cagle and Manson, op. fit., pp. 3103.5 includes extended quotation from Cthenl Rear Adm. Arleigh Burke, Deputy Chief of Staff, ComNavFE, the second Navy member of the UN delegation. Admiral Joy was, of course, head of the delegation. Two days later the Chinese Communist regime un- oiiicially endorsed the proposal. The United Nations Command immediately signified its willingness to dis- cuss preliminary terms, and on 8 July truce negotia- tions began at Kaesong, a site near the Parallel and just inside the Communist lines. This date marks the end of the 5th Korean Campaign. The first meeting of the main delegations was sched- uled for 10 July. Although the talks had begun, ac- tual fighting did not stop, though limited to minor skirmishing and patrol actions. Writing to Chaplain Salisbury on the 10th, Division Chaplain Kelly said: The best news that our Division received was the word that we are to go into Corps Reserve of the X Army Corps. The plan is that we are to pull out of the line and move down near Hongchon for rest and training. The boys really need the rest. It has been a long hard grind, and our casual- ties have been heavy. We have been attacking and being attacked since February. And during that time we stopped two major offensives. ' The move to the rest area was scheduled to begin 15 July. A little more than a year had passed since North Korean forces had crossed the 38th Parallel, the year of the heaviest fighting during the whole con- Hict. Five of the ten campaigns which would be rec- ognized by the Defense Department had taken place within this period. It remained to be seen whether a military truce might be arranged which would allow representatives of the contending powers to work out a settlement for the political future of Korea. .,.91m