United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

Page 195 text:

Thomas H. Waddill is given communion by Chaplain Vaughan Lyons at Freedom Village. Waddill was captured by the Communists in the Reno action. ,they said we don't know what you are doing. Since there are captive priests admittedly, and these could have been made available to the Catholic men, it is apparent that these men were deprived of an essential element of their religion-namely, the administration of the sacraments by legitimately ordained priests. Some of the men made their own crosses and cruci- Fixes by melting down the metal from their toothpaste and shaving cream tubes. There are a number of per- sonal accounts given by chaplains. Chaplain Rice tells how, One man really touched me. He sat down at the coffee table, I introduced the Protestant chaplain and then my- self as the Catholic priest. He told us that he had not been to the Sacraments the whole 2 years in prison. He said his rosary had been taken from him. He asked for a rosary and also to go to confession and communion. He then looked around, his eyes twinkled and he said: Gee, I'm free. And then he filled up, sobbed heavily, and after a few sobs said Gee, Father, Ilm sorry I'm cryingf, I said That's all right-I'm with youf, And I'm sure those others sitting at the table with him were crying too. The Division chaplain, Chaplain Meachum, stepped up behind the man, braced the manls shoulder and said: i'All right son, come along and you'l1 be all right. We all stood up and directed him to the chapel. I took him by the arm and led him to the chair for confession. He was then ready for communion. As he sat down to make his thanksgiving I gave him a rosary. He asked me to put it around his neck. I suppose his feeling was: On my neck it's more my own. Also, the rosary is an- other one of the signs we use to indicate the members of the union of communion of saints. As he stood up I put my arms around his shoulder and led him to the man who was to take him to the Army hospital just outside our tent. I hope to see you back in the Statesf, I said in farewell. Other Roman Catholic Chaplains were also serving. Chaplain Elmer F. Ernst was with Chaplain Rice. Chaplain Andrew J. Barry was on hand to as- sist where the British Commonwealth men were being processed. Chaplain Thomas Edwards assisted with other UN troops. Two other chaplains, Edward Kelly and John T. Moore participated. The Jewish chaplain attached to the Division at this time was Chaplain Murray I. Rothman. I-Ie worked along with the other chaplains in both g'Little and Big Switchf' Chaplain Lyons adds this story, About a month before Marines of the 5th Regiment were engaged in a heavy battle for three forward outposts. Out- post Reno and Vegas were completely overrun by the Com- munist forces. A few Marines were recovered from Vegas, -177-

Page 194 text:

Scenes From Little Switch Chaplain Lonnie Meachum serves communion to Billy Penn shortly after his repatriation from the Communists. Chaplain Richard W. Shrefiier prays for Pfc. Reggie A. Sul- livan shortly after the latter's release and arrival at Freedom Village. scribes his experiences in a paper entitled Rebirth in Freedom Village? He affirms that, In the Marine tents we chaplains were placed in an ideal location. After the men had been given a military briefing, had been interviewed by the press, had changed from their blue Chinese uniforms of repatriation into the uniforms of free peoples, they were brought to the nourishment section. Here we chaplains were invited to meet them. In the four lines of tents each line was terminated by a visit to a little chapel. In this part of the tent a Protestant altar was set in one corner, a Catholic altar was in the other corner, and the Jewish chaplain was called when needed. The men with whom I talked touched me deeply. They came in various conditions: some healthyand trim looking fwith a wind burn from their long ride of several hundred milesj, some just skin and bones. Some had stumps of legs left, some had withered arms .... Some looked as though they were TB cases, some looked emotionally aroused and confused. In some cases their hearing was impaired. Our job as chaplains was not so much to question them on what had happened in general but to make them feel at home, to get them to relax a moment, to direct their thoughts along a religious line, and then to see if they wanted to make an act of thanksgiving to Almighty God. In general, most of the men did want just that, ASKED for it, and the greater majority of them wanted to receive Holy Communion. When we met them at the coffee table usually a Catholic priest and a Protestant chaplain seated themselves with the man. We asked if they had been to church. They usually said: On Christmas and Easter yes, but not most Sun- days. One man showed us some pictures he had taken with a camera up there-and some pictures of what he said was -176 a religious ceremony. They told us that sometimes a man was allowed to keep his New Testament with him. I know of only one Catholic man who had an English missal with him on his return-although they had them when captured. Chaplain Lyons records, A very large percentage of the returnees requested com- munion, it was the first time that some of them had received the sacrament for 2 or more years. While prisoners they were permitted to hold religious services. At least that was true in the later months of their imprisonment. In the early days of the war, services were prohibited. Since there were no chaplains in the camps the men or- ganized their own services of worship. They sang hymns which they remembered. A few of-them managed to keep New Testaments or Bibles, but most of them were con- fiscated when they were taken prisoner. The men reported that Chinese guards who understood English were present for each service and the scripture lesson as well as the hymns and sermon had to be cleared in advance of the service. Chaplain Lyons gives testimony to the fact that, The privilege of distributing the sacrament to these men will long live in my memory as one of the great thrills of my ministry in the service. Participating in these individual communion services I gained a new appreciation of the meaning and significance of the sacrament. Chaplain Rice speaks of the reports concerning worship, Some Protestant men told me the Catholics would gather for devotions. Other men tell us that when the rosary was said the Communists would break up the meeting because

Page 196 text:

but there was no indication of what had become of the men on Reno. It was known that many of them had been killed and that perhaps a few had been captured. Among the men on Reno was a Navy Hospital corpsman from Fort Worth, Tex., named Thomas Waddill. About 2 weeks after the engagement Mrs. Waddill wrote to the regimental chap- lain of the 5th Marines stating that she had received a tele- gram from the Navy Department informing her that her her son was missing in action. Since there were no survivors from Reno it was not known what had become of any of the men. It was believed that most or all of them had died, although this information was not conveyed to her. The chaplain's closing sentence of his reply was, We unite with you in our prayer for peace and for safety of your son. Again Mrs. Waddill wrote a beautiful letter to the chap- lain in which she said, While we still hope, it is good to know too that Tom enlisted in the Navy, and also volunteered to go with Marines to Korea because he considered it his duty, that he had hospital training to offer. He believed the war worth while. In closing she stated, Our faith is in God, and in the ultimate goodness of his plansf' The chaplain was amazed to see Corpsman Thomas Wad- dill walk through the line on Thursday as a returned pris- oner of war. Even though Mrs. Waddill was immediately informed that her son was returned, the chaplain wrote to assure her that he was well and on his way home for a happy day of reunion. Such are the experiences of the chaplains at Freedom Village. Each man has his own story to tell. Chaplain Rice concludes, To hear them tell that they did try to gather for Divine Service, that many of them did pray every day shows that these men have the elements of free men in them. They have initiative in them: for even now they feel that others worse off than they should have been released before them land they so told the Commieslg that they wanted to make use of confession and communion, receive a new rosary, say a psalm of thanksgiving, or pray with their Rabbi- these are real men . . . These are the men whose eyes lighted up when the chaplain would tell them: This is 'Operation Little Switch'-We hope it is the start of 'Opera- tion Big Switch,-and the still bigger switch to the ways of Peace. Chaplain Rice seems to express it for all the chap- lains when he says, ult was the most touching thing in my life. Chaplains of the Division observe the Sabbath on every day of the week. Among the accounts of Con- tinuous Sabbath is the one given by Chaplain Rich- ard G. Hutcheson, Jr., which he calls Sunday Comes on Wednesday in Korea. Sunday comes on Wednesday at Easy Battery. The Prot- estant chaplain is a jeepborne circuit rider, with scheduled services at 13 different places each week. So Protestant church-goers at E Battery, 2d Battalion, 11th Marines, congregate at 3 o'clock on Wednesday afternoons. It makes little difference to them. Manning the 105-mm howitzers, light artillery workhorses of the lst Marine Division, is a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week job. Days pass in nameless succession for men at war. A jeep, identified as that of the chaplain in appropriately ecclesiastical Old English script, rolls into the Battery area. The time is 1415 on Wednesday, 22 April 1953. For Chap- lain R. G. Hutcheson, Jr., one of the four chaplains serving the 11th Marines, this is the fourth stop of the day. He started the morning with an early, unscheduled visit to a Rockets Battery, where night before last one man was killed and several others injured in an operational accident. From there to D Battery for a 10:30 service and for lunch in the new mess tent Cincoming enemy artillery rounds showed an uncomfortable liking for the vicinity of the old one a couple of weeks agoll. Then on to Fw Battery for another service right after chow. And now UE. This will be thel chaplainis last service of the day, but there is a Bible classl tonight at the CP of another battalion. Easyis guns are quiet now, but the first glance shows that everyone is hard at work on the parapets and bunkers. Winter weather took its toll of sandbags. They were service- able as long as they stayed frozen, but now spring has thawed them and the rotten ones must be replaced quickly, the bunkers rebuilt. It is hard, backbreaking work. The chap- lain makes the round of the gun positions, stopping briefly to chat with the men as they work. If someone has a prob- lem to talk over with him an appointment is arranged after the service. At Gun No. 1 work on the parapet has been completed and several of the men are taking a break. The chaplain sits down to visit. S. Sgt. Stuart H. Floyd of Chester, Ga.-a member of the First Baptist Church there- wonders if the chaplain has heard how many sick and wounded Marines have been returned at Panmunjom so far. What about their physical condition? What have they said about the treatment they received from the Chinese? The talk goes on from there to a discussion of the possibility of a truce, and then to rotation. All topics lead eventually to rotation! It is 10 minutes till 3, and the chaplain walks up to the mess tent, now converted into a chapel. Sergeant Floyd, a regular churchgoer, says he will be on up in a few minutes. A look inside the tent shows that everything is ready. Pfc. Kenneth L. Terrell of Des Moines, Iowa, a future Baptist minister and now a very capable chaplain's assistant, has been hard at work. The portable altar kit has been brought in from the jeep and arranged on a mess table at one end. Benches have been placed in front of it, between the tables. The folding organ is open, in its place to the left of the altar. Hymnals are on the benches. Pfc. Edward J. Evans, of Trenton, NJ., has arrived early for a few words with the chaplain before the service starts. Last Wednesday Eddie was baptized, and a letter is now on the way to Ewing Township Presbyterian Church in Tren- ton, asking that he be received into membership. His wife is already a member, and he hopes, sometime after next Octo- ber, to walk into that church with a brand new baby to be baptized! Eddie has been reading his Bible regularly, and he has come across a passage in St. Matthew that he doesn't entirely understand. After a few minutes' discussion its meaning is cleared up. The congregation is arriving now. As the men take their seats rifles are laid aside, but kept close at hand as regulations require. Attendance is small today. Most of the regulars are present, though. S. Sgt. Philip L. Foss, of the Elm St. Methodist Church in South Portland, Maine . . . Phil was 178-