United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

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Commission Visitor. Dr. Steward Robinson Ccenter, first rowj, Chairman of the General Commission of Chaplains meets with the Protestant chaplains of the lst Marine Division in Korea. Standing Cleft to rightjc Chaplains Oscar Weber, First Medical Bat- talion, Robert H. Willets, lst Battalion, 7th Marine, Ernest A. Wolfram, Jr., lst Engineer Battalion, Alexander W. Boyer, lst Motor Transport Battalion, Alla W. Robertson, lst Tank Battalion, Thomas A. Newman, Jr., lst Service Battalion, and Carl W. Herrick, 2d Battalion. Sitting Cleft to rightj Ward D. McCabe, 2d Battalion, lst Marines, F. E. Morse, deputy Army chaplain QEUSAKM Dr. Robinsong A. D. Prickett, assistant chaplain of the division and John H. Muller, lst Shore Party Battalion. 0 Leave requests are extremely tight here. In the event that he is granted leave our G-1 intends to request his detachment. We have orders for his detachment in July, his reporting date here was 20 December 1951. Will you be kind enough to alert the proper desk for such a con- tingency and perhaps send out a replacement for him quicker than anticipated? We will be able with a little juggling to cover the Protestant services he has been handling. Wolfe's leave was denied, but upon further assurance from Slattery that the situation in the Division could be adequately covered, Salisbury ordered him de- tached on 23 June. Wolfe left, as Slattery wrote, deeply grateful for your consideration in sending or- ders for detachment earlier than Julyf, On 5 August he wrote: Perhaps you have heard that Chaplain Callahan's mother died on 26 July. In accordance with policies then in effect the chaplain was denied emergency leave. On Saturday, 2 August, the Catholic chaplains went to Callahan's battalion where we sang a Solemn Requiem Mass assisted by Pat Adams and Gus Mendonsa. The rest of us sang the Mass and were a little bit pleased with our memory of the music, as many of us have not been at a Solemn Requiem in some time and had neither notes nor organist to accompany. The results were neither lugubrious nor ludicrous and I am sure Chaplain Callahan's spirits were lifted consider- ably. Due to Dr. Robinson's tour our fellow chaplains were not able to attend. One consoling note was the turnout of enlisted men of the battalion. Protestant lads stood the outposts for the Catholic lads who came to kneel in the rain and mud, garbed in full battle dress of helmet and armored vest. A month later Slattery was writing to the Chap- lains Division, Chaplain Weber's father died on 10 September. He received the telegram notifying him of the death but no further details have arrived as yet.', Unless the servicemanls presence was adjudged

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On 11 june Chaplain Willets received a slight wound on the chin. He was about to conduct a service at Company level when a round came in. After his wound was dressed he returned to conduct the service. 5 JULY 1952. The chaplains' reports for the month of June indicate how completely devoted most of them are to their religious duties. A total of 1,298 Divine Services were held during June: 392 Sunday, 495 daily, and 411 special services. The chaplains here celebrated July Fourth by having a softball game. Due to our advanced yearsi' we only played five innings but found that sufficient to discover a few unused muscles .... After the game we all went for a swim in the Imjin River. The Southern Baptists were intent on duck- ing the rest of us, on the grounds that our baptisms needed some amplification. The Rabbi must have suspected that we would all try to baptize him as he stayed on the river bank to heckle us. 15 JULY 1952. Our Catholic chaplains have sent over 31,300 to the Chaplain's Aid Association. General Selden gave his ap- proval to the collection, which was requested by Bishop Griffiths of the Military Ordinariate Office. On 29 July Slattery wrote further about the situ- ation in the lst Combat Service Group. In order to pin down the picture . . . I asked for TAD for 5 days and went by train from Seoul to Pusan. There I conferred with the Second Logistical Command which handles our supplies .... By convoy I went to Masan. Convoy is required due to guerilla activities. The situation there is now well in hand. You may refer to my letter of 5 May for Chaplain Stamper's estimate of the situation there. A reformation has been accomplished, however, by a very alert CO. The chaplain flew from Masan to Pohang for a conference with the Air Wing chaplains, finding it a treat to sleep between sheets for a change. From there he flew to Taegu, to visit at 8th Army Head- quarters. We are not accountable to 8th Army, but since we take care of some Army units and they in turn service some of our Marines, I thought it advantageous to visit them .... Eighth Army is very pleased with Marine chaplains' co- operation and our high standards of personnel and pro- duction? These letters often contained pleasant comment as well as businesslike assessment of the work of his chap- lains and the needs of the Division. For instance, earlier in the summer: The weather is fine, dry, and warm. The nights cool off to the point where a sleeping bag is a most welcome refuge. As we wake in the morning we are greeted by the sound of coo-coos in the valleys. At first we thought we were hearing ourselves crack up! Washington should import a few to go along with the atmosphere. His return to the Division CP after the journey just described was reported in a letter containing the following: The weather has turned precipitously, if I may play on words. Roads have become greasy, dangerous ways, topped by a. few inches of what resembles melted chocolate ice cream. lHe then reported accidents to Chaplains Jones and Mendonsa.j Both are with outfits on the line, but we have plugged the gaps by having a couple of the Padres triple in brass. They have already been doubling in brass. On 1-2 August the Division was visited by Dr. Stewart Robinson, Chairman of the General Commis- sion on Chaplains. After protests from Slattery his visit had been extended from the few hours which I Corps, in charge of arrangements, had first allotted. Accompanied by Chaplain Morse of 8th Army and his own son, a lieutenant in Combat Service Group, the visitor was given the plush treatment by General Selden, who ordered 'copters to hop Dr. Robinson about. Included in the itin- erary were two visits to General Harrison at Base Camp and a tour to a front line company in Chaplain McCabe's sector. The details of the visit here were handled most ef- ficiently and courteously by Chaplain Prickett. fMaj. Gen. William K. Harrison, an Army officer with a long record of interest in the work of chap- lains, had succeeded Adm. C. Turner Joy on 22 May as senior delegate of the United Nations Command at the Panmunjom truce talks.l Chaplains' Chaplain Among the standard items of social small talk to which chaplains are routinely subjected is the tired old question, Say, 'padref who do you take your troubles to? No chaplain will, of course, give the answer that rises first to his mind, for such occasions are hardly appropriate for a serious rejoinder. The answer ought to be obvious to anyone who knows what a chaplain is, like all sincerely religious men, he takes his troubles to the Lord. Still, human mediation is as frequently helpful to the servant of God as it is to his lay brethren. The ideal supervisory chaplain is one who can be at the same time Hrm enough not to overlook the needs of the service and sympathetic enough to be of aid and comfort to his colleagues. He should be, in the traditional sense of the term, the bishop of his brethren. Three chaplains in the Division were called upon to face difficult personal situations during the summer of 1952. Early in May Chaplain B. N. Wolfe was informed that his father was in the terminal stages of a grave illness. He requested information via the Red Cross and asked for emergency leave. Slattery wrote to Chaplain Salisbury: -144-

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n positively necessary that he might attend to family matters, emergency leave was not 'normally granted in the case of the death of a parent. On this entire matter Slatery wrote on 17 October: Speaking of morale, we have a new directive from the Marine Corps Commandant, which is much more humane, on emergency leave requests, and a new Chief of Staff who is not quite so adamant as was the former Chief of Staff. The proper balance beween a man's own assessment of his personal needs and the command's judgment concerning his usefulness to the military service is not one always easily arrived at. At this point chaplains often are able to be of service both to 'the command and to its members g and sometimes, as this account shows, a chaplain was himself involved in the dilemma. Bunker Hill Reduced for the most part to trench warfare this summerls lighting was only occasionally punctuated by violent combat. Such were the furious episodes which occurred in August over two hill outposts, dubbed by the Marines Bunker Hillv and Siberia.,' Directly involved in both were units of the lst Ma- Prelude to Bunker Hill. Chaplain Oscar Weber holds communion services for marines before they join in the fight for Bunker Hill. rines. Writing soon afterwards, on 17 August, Slat- tery told the Chief: Two of your chaplains distinguished themselves by their devotion to duty .... Chaplains McCabe and Callahan stood by their men through the long nights. At one time McCabe was at an aid station which was surrounded .... Neither suffered any wounds, though both looked extremely weary when I went up to see them on Wednesday. And he went on: Chaplains Weber and Guillaume backed up their efforts by working at the front, although both their battalions had been in reserve. Tex Robertson followed his Tankers right into the thick of it too. At the medical companies an outstanding job was done by Chaplain Barlik, who shifted from the Operating Room to the Admission Ward, saw wounded off in the 'copters and at the same time managed to sandwich in his services with the Korean Marine Corps unit nearby. The Korean Marines, incidentally, expect the assignment of a Korean Catholic chaplain shortly, which will relieve us of the responsibility. Flying over the 3d Battalion, lst Marines, com- mand post during the Bunker Hill holocaust was a green brocade banner depicting the Archangel Mi- chael, his feet resting on the vanquished hammer and sickle of Communism. Lt. Col. G. T. Armitage, bat- talion commander, deciding that his men needed to be reminded of the dependence of their cause on God, secured permission from Headquarters, Marine Corps, to fly the banner. Designed by Capt. B. Ord, a company commander, it was embroidered by Korean children in the Star of the Sea Roman Catholic or- phanage at Inchon. On 25 July the Roman Catholic personnel of the battalion were dedicated to the protec- tion of St. Michael, and each company furnished a burgee of the banner. Capt. H. J. O'Conner, a com- pany commander, commented: 4'Regardless of their creed, our men felt the banner to be a very personal in- centive. Flown for the first time at Bunker Hill, the flags accompanied the battalion in subsequent ac- tions and were still flying when the guns at last grew still across Korea. When the original had become bat- tleworn beyond repair, it was duplicated by wives of Korean Marines and the tattered relic sent to Marine Corps Headquarters. Siberia Siberian was a hillcrest in the Panmunjom corri- dor where a terrible, indecisive 24-hour battle took place. During the darkness a United Nations outpost manned by ten Marines was overrun by a reinforced company of Chinese 5 two were killed and seven of the remaining eight wounded. An undersized platoon attempting a counterattack was quickly beaten back. With morning close air support was brought into play -146-