United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

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Visit to Buddhist Temple. Chaplain Stephen G. Horvath talks to a Buddhist priest at a Korean temple a few miles from a forward airbase of the lst MAW. 1952, his citation mentions his faithfulness in minis- tering to the spiritual needs of his men and cites his outstanding work with the orphanages in the Pohang vicinity. A diligent and tireless worker, he traveled regularly to hold services and consultations with men stationed at a remote camp. Chaplain Stephen G. Horvath's Letter of Com- mendation, covering the period 19 July 1951 to 18 June 1952, noted that his excellent cooperation with chaplains of other faiths was such as to gain him re' spect and popularity. The chaplain was commended also for work with orphanages at Pusan, Kangnung, and Pohangg he had raised over a thousand dollars for the Roman Catholic orphanage in the latter place. The Letter of Commendation awarded Chaplain Edward R. Weidler for service from 22 August 1951 to 19 May 1952 singled out for special praise his work with Korean civilians, including North Koreans who were enduring the hardships of a severe winter with inadequate means of subsistence? The citation concluded: Lieutenant Weidler's activities throughout were completely dedicated to the humanitarian principles embodied in the precepts of Christianity and in the Charter of the United Nations and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. Chaplain Parker was cited by the Republic of Ko- rea. This citation in part reads, Despite the tremendous hardships Chaplain Parker de- voted much of his time to organizing specific aid projects and allocating the vitally needed relief goods for those lost children. The sympathetic concern exhibited through the establishment of an orphanage at Pohang on May 10, 1952, for alleviating the suffering orphans confronted with the threat of disease, starvation, and exposure has made sub- stantial contribution to our relief works and has materially raised the standards of care in the institution. -158-

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mit through which all replacement and rotation personnel are processed. Itami Air Force Base is also the facility used as a meritorious rest and recreation center for personnel of the First Marine Aircraft Wing. Approximately 65 officers and 385 enlisted men from units in Korea are temporarily attached at all times in addition to the regular complement. In view of these factors it is highly desirable that proper religious guidance be available. The situation is aggravated by problems involving relationships with Japanese women. Since the Air Force chaplain aboard was also a Prot- estant, Roman Catholic ministrations continued to be furnished by American missionary priests. Relief Work With the Wing headquarters now located near Po- hang, Chaplain Parker took an active hand in the affairs of the Marine-supported orphanage begun there with the help of Chaplain Cleaves. Cleaves had joined with American Presbyterian missionary William B. Lyon and the Pohang Presbyterian ministers to ini- tiate the project. With money given by Air Wing Marines some land and a few buildings were pur- chased, a board of directors organized, and the insti- tution incorporated in the name of the Presbyterian holding body as the Marine Memorial Orphanage. After a few months 50 children were being cared for. The directors were soon faced with a choice be- tween seemingly endless expansion on a day-to-day basis or an attempt to make the home self-sustaining while caring for fewer children. The solution was a compromise: limited expansion little by little, and at the same time the purchase of productive rice land. Less than a year after its start, the orphanage owned over 2,000 pyong fa plot 6 feet squarel of rice land. On one occasion, as he presented the latest Marine contribution!four and a half million won fS750j-- Chaplain Parker commented, Much of the food on which orphans will live this winter will be harvested by the older children off their own paddies. By this time next year, if donations do not fall off, there will be enough rice to feed them all year and perhaps some left over to marketf' MAG 12 moved to Pyongtaek, on the west coast, some 250 miles from the Wing headquarters and MAG 33. There Chaplain E. R. Weidler was instru- mental in establishing a new orphanage. In his reply to the Corps historian's questionnaire of March 1954 he noted that before the home was set up, children had been living in caves and trenches. He added that Commander Lederer had contributed S550 from what he had received for the story he had written about the work of MAG 12 with Korean orphans. Three chaplains of the lst Marine Aircraft Wing were cited during the period under review, one re- ceiving the Bronze Star and two, Letters of Commen- dation. Chaplain Edward M. Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star for service from 9 April to 15 August Marine Memorial Orphanage. Gifts of clothing, shoes, and dishes are left by the wing chaplain for the orphans. l--1 y F -157-

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USS HAVEN In addition to these individual awards, the hospital ship HAVEN, which has Hgured in our account on several occasions, received the Presidential Unit Cita- tion of the Republic of Korea for distinguished serv- ice from 18 October 1950 to 25 June 1952. Chap- lains serving in the HAVEN during those dates were the following: Paul K. Potter, .... METH September 1950eDecember 1951 john J. Reardon . , . RC September 1950-September 1951 Edwin R. Howard.. CONG December 1951HOctober 1952 Francis J. Klass ,... RC October 1951-December 1952 Perspective on Korea At the invitation of the Chiefs of Chaplains of the Army, Navy, and Air Force the Reverend Dr. Joseph R. Sizoo, professor of religion, George Washington University, and formerly minister of St. Nicholas Col- legiate Church, New York and dean of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, made a month's visit to Japan and Korea in October 1952. He held conferences with line and staff officers and with chap- lains, met the troops and talked with them and in other ways attempted to study American involvement in the Far East that he might help the churches in- terpret it back home. The following lengthy quotations are from a digest of the address that he gave to denominational repre- sentatives at the General Commission on Chaplains Chaplains, Memorial Building in Washington soon after his return. What I saw and heard has deeply moved me. I'm not here as a lecturer reciting a travelogue. Ilm here as a min- ister to read you a footnote to the Acts of the Apostles. There is much we shall have to learn and unlearn. I learned that this is no phony war. I had to unlcarn that this is just a regrettable, unfortunate minor holding opera- tion which we had to go through with until, sooner or later, when they got around to it, the political leaders of the world would declare peace on earth, good will toward men. That's not true. It's war! I was in an area where there were 1,200 casualties in 1 day. I talked to a general who had just come down from a hilltop where they had counted 2,000 enemy dead. I've been on the side of a ridge when a helicopter came down out of nowhere and men strapped the wounded in baskets on both sides and flew them back to the hospital. Ilve been in a hospital where there were 1,500 of our wounded men. When you have 125,000 casualties in our ranks and over a million casualties in the enemy's, you can hardly speak of a minor holding operation You get a feeling that our men are embittered. After all, so much of what is happening should not have happened, could have been otherwise. The truce talks have left them bitter. We kept our word and didn't build up our army ex- cept to provide replacements for those who returned. The enemy built up an army of one million who've had military training for a whole year. Whatis more, these million men have had a year to be indoctrinated. The old army was often glad of the chance to surrender. That's no longer true. There were on one occasion, when I was there, some- thing like 1,800 casualties of the enemy-and we took only 8 prisoners. Although this is a war that is grim and cruel and costly, our army is an army of peace, and our soldiers are men of compassion. To understand this you really have to see Korea: The most tormented country you can possibly imagine. Twenty- two million people go to bed hungry every night. Since I've been back, sometimes I think of it and I can't swal- low .... General Van Fleet told me the day that I saw him that we were feeding that day 2 million Koreans to keep them alive. There are three scourges in Korea today: tuberculosis and cholera and smallpox. Our doctors and medical corps, when they are through with their chores, will go out to some nearby village and they'll vaccinate 700. They'll build little hospitals. Iive seen what the enemy did to Korea. But our men are not plunderers. Our men are helpers. They are not de- stroyers, they really are saviors. I preached in a chapel one Sunday morning with a hand- ful of men. The chaplain told me they were accustomed to take up a voluntary collection and send it to some Korean enterprise. For many months at the end of a month they had sent a check for S500. Just a handful of men! I was with a certain Corps where they took up a collection of S84-,000 for the hospitalization of Korean refugee children. You can't explain our army and you can't explain its ex- pression of compassion without talking about the chaplain. After all, because he is what he is, that army is what it is. Ilve met with chaplains in groups. I've walked with them, slept with them, eaten with them, prayed with them, and Ilve come to know them as men. They are a very superior corps. One thing which impressed me was the way the Protestant and Catholic and Jewish chaplains worked together, with a great sense of comradeship of the Spirit. Now I want to make a few observations about these chaplains: 1. They preach what is central in our religion and they stick to it. They do not indulge in trivialities. They do not take the thing that is in the center and push it beyond the circumference or take the thing that lies on the circum- ference and put it in the center. 2. These chaplains practice what they preach. They live it. They don't give men an argument, they give them the example of a Christ-filled life. I have never . . . seen anywhere a more completely dedicated group of men. 3. These chaplains have quickened the sense of compas- sion. They keep alive in our troops a concern for the people in whose land they are fighting. Wherever you go in Korea, -159-