United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

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Ulm uns., inn.. N 1, la! .l , . Absent Rabbi. In the absence of a jewish chaplain, Lt. Qjg.j William Jasper leads the services on the ANTIETAM. surely unusual ceremony, that former enemy was buried at sea. Eight sailors acted as pallbearers, and the ship's Marine detachment and band provided military honors. Both chaplains read prayers. Hanukkah There are usually only a limited number of Jewish chaplains on active duty, assigned to large bases. The T! O also allowed a Marine division one Jewish chap- lain. Those who served in the 1st Division in Korea had been Garson Goodman, Elihu Rickel, and, in the period here under review, Reuben Siegel. In No- vember 1951 Arnold Wolf was ordered to Fleet Activities, Yokosuka to minister to Jewish personnel in units under Commander Naval Forces, Far East. Often other chaplains encourage Jewish men to conduct their own services and sometimes they do so on their own initiative. One such group was to be found in the ANTIETAM. Composed of 25 ofhcers and men, the congregation was organized in Septem- ber 1951 shortly after the ship sailed for Korea. Jew- ish religious afTairs tend to be democratically organ- ized and the presence of a rabbi is not necessary for the conduct of worship. It is, however, customary to have a president -in this case Lt. Qj.g.j William Jasper, a dental officer. Some of the men were from Conservative back- ground, others Reform, and still others Orthodox. The problem of what type service to hold was settled by encouraging a different person to conduct worship each week, so that from week to week the service would reflect first one tradition and then another. Probably the Jewish congregation in the Flying Al' was the First to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, 5712 C 1951 J . The ship had just crossed the date line, and thus its service really began the New Year for the Jewish world. Only 14 hours later would the hour of usher- ing in the New Year have arrived in New York, and 21, in Hawaii. On Yom Kippur the ship was docked at Yokosuka, and arrangements were made for the men to attend Day of Atonement services in the Army chapel at Yokohama. Sukkoth fFeast of Boothsj found the ship in the Sea of Japan, so the congregation held their own service. -117-

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the chaplain was detached by Commanding Officer Q Rear Echelonj, at Camp Lejeune, and proceeded to join his ship. He was, he wrote the Chief of Chap- lains, received most cordially by Chaplain Herbert W. Buckingham, Bapt. CAD , who had been aboard already since January. During service in the war theater the chaplains kept busy. Kapalczynski reported that during General Quarters he took his battle station on the bridge. It was his practice to pronounce a General Absolution and the Lord's Prayer over the I.M.C. fan internal communication system operating directly from the bridgej. Like so many others, he offered his services to ships without a chaplain. Even during opera- tions, on and off the Korean bombline, Sunday Divine Services were conducted for destroyers. Transporta- tion was by helicopter or highlinef' Cardinal Spellman came aboard during Christmas- tide, arriving by helicopter, and was greeted by Vice Adm. H. M. Martin, Commander 7th Fleet, whose Hag had been transferred to WISCONSIN. During a day of touring the ship he chatted with officers and men, delivered a Christmas message over the ship's radio station, WHIZ, and offered to send a personal message, when he returned home, to next-of-kin of any personnel desiring it. fMore than 600 took him up on the ofTer.j Next day, following an early Mass, the Cardinal returned ashore. Chaplain Buckingham reported that occasionally members of ship's company were wounded by enemy fire and sometimes others brought aboard for treat- ment. In December an unidentified North Korean prisoner of war, severely wounded, was transferred to WISCONSIN. A hospitalman, Harold Berger, do- nated blood for use during an operation but strenuous efforts to save his life failed. The next day, in a Casualty Coming Aboard. Helicopter approaches the landing platform of the CONSOLATION with a casualty. W -116-

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Hanukkah came while the ship was again at sea. Air operations made it impossible for the Menorah fthe traditional eight-branched candelabrumj to be lighted on each of the eight nights, but on the Hrst night the first one was lighted and a discussion of the meaning of the festival followed. A strong feature of ANTIETAM's Jewish religious program was a weekly discussion held after the Sab- bath eve service. Topics included differences in the three American Jewish communities, as well as such as the following: the American Jew and the State of Israel, religion by television fbased on an article in the New York Timerj, and jewish post-Biblical literature. Division Roster On 1 January 1952 Chaplain Peck sent to the Chief of Chaplains the roster of chaplains then serving with the lst Marine Division in Korea. With the excep- tions of Chaplains Power, Jolly, and Schneck there had been a complete change from that given for 1 August 1951. Peck, W. S., Jr ...... CDR Div Chaplain. PRESBY CUSAD Brooks, W. E .... LCDR 1st Marines. . . BAP CAD Ecker, L ..... LCDR Hdq Bn ....,. RC Starnper, R. L ...... LCDR llth Marines. . PRESBY CUSD Felder, G., Jr. . . LCDR lst Eng Bn .... LUTH Schneck, R. . . LCDR 7th Marines. . . LUTH Pipho, E. W ........ LCDR lst Marines. . . LUTH Ruleman, R. N ...... LCDR 5th Marines. . . METH Oliver, A. M .... LCDR Hdq Bn ...... METH Vierling, W. J ....... LCDR 1st AmTrac Bn. LUTH Lonergan, V. ,I ...... LCDR 11th Marines. . RC Gallagher, J. P. F .... LCDR lst MoTr Bn. . RC Follard, F ...... . . LT Med Bn ...... RC Curtis, L .... LT Serv Bn ...... BAP QSJ jones, B. L .... LT lst Ord Bn. . . METH O,Neill, J. ,I ........ LT 5th Marines. . . RC Fenning, R. C ....... LT lst Sig Bn .... LUTH CMOSYD Power, B. S ..... LT Sth Marines. . . METH Spohn, A. P .... LT 7th Marines.. . LUTH Jolly, E. W .... LT lst CmbSerGp. PRESBY ' CUSD Forney, J. F .... LT 11th Marines. . DISC Torstrick, M. F.. . LTJG lst ShParBn. . BAP KSD Gibbons, A. R ...... LTJG 7th Marines. .. RC Siegel, R ....... LTJG Hdq Bn ...... JEWISH Duncan, H. C ....... LTJG lst Tank Bn. . METH Hoar, M. J .... LTJG 1st Marines. . . RC Wolfe, B. N ..,...,.. LTJG 11th Marines. BAP CSD Korean Wint 67 There was no significant change in the pattern of ground hostilities during the first 4 months of 1952. Peck wrote to Chaplain Salisbury on 4 January: There is no change in the military situation, except the knowledge that the enemy can now bomb us if they desire Therefore our foxholes have been dug a bit deeper thar before, and many rear area chaplains fincluding mell whc formerly hadn't bothered have now what might be called an alternate residence, in case of necessity. Since November, in fact, the Chinese had begun tc show unusual activity in the air. Intelligence reports indicated their possession of 1,400 planes, about half ol them Russian MIG jets.5 For the first time the enemy began seriously to challenge United Nations air supremacy in Korea. As the front lines dug in and became more and more stable, there was less need of close air support. Air Force B-29's continued their smashing of supply and communications lines behin the enemy front, but more and more F-86 Sabre jets were needed to escort them. The area from the Yal River south to the North Korean capital at Pyongyan in northwest Korea was dubbed MIG Alley by UN aviators. In February more than 3,500 sight- contacts of MIG's were made and at least 51 were shot down or damaged in aerial combat? At sea naval units of nine nations maintained a coastal block- ade, and naval bombardment joined artillery and air bombing to reduce enemy logistic support. Enemy guerillas continued to harass the UN forces back of the front lines, larger patrols were sent out into no-man's land , the weather during January and February remained cold, sometimes going to ten or twelve degrees below zero, artillery duels continued. Writing on 25 January Peck told Chaplain Salisbury: One company area received over 600 incoming rounds in one day alone .... So far none of the chaplains has been hit, but it is becoming routine for them to get pinned down a part of each day. In January Peck issued another memorandum con- Combat Service 7 cerning chaplain supplies. The Group chaplain was continued as Division Supply Chaplain. It was noted that an order had been placed with the Chaplains Division, Bureau of Naval Personnel, for certain items of field equipment. The Supply Chaplain was to secure supplies from Navy channels f Chaplains Division, as well as Pacific Fleet Chaplain, FMF Pac Chaplain, or COMNAVFE Chaplainj as possible, and from the Army Chaplains Warehouse, 2d Logistical Command, at Pusan. Fur- ther, each chaplain was furnished a list of all items available to him through his unit S-4 fsupplyj sec- Brita1mica Book of the Year, 1952, article, Korean War? Ibid., 19535 article, Korean War. 'Cagle and Manson, op. vit., pp. 3305. Con Hseaborne artillerynjg pp. 2545. fnaval air missionsj. 118-