United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

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:oastal Hanks of the enemy frontline, directed by for- Nard reconnaissance upon enemy troop, armament, nd supply concentrations. And Hnally, along the nemy's exposed coastline, bombardment was main- :ained unremittingly against all major military targets, nflicting both physical and psychological damage. Seaborne Padres Illustrative of the difhculties under which chaplains arried on their ministry during this period are sev- ral paragraphs from the questionnaire reply of Chap- ain Oscar Harris, who was attached to Destroyer quadron 16 from August 1950 to September 1951. e wrote, in part, as follows: On a destroyer in the combat area Divine Services were iot conducted according to schedule. A time might be set, out chances were the schedule would be interrupted. In nany instances the chaplain would have to wait until after :he evening meal .... Attendance was good considering the difficult routine the nen had to endure. Their rest periods were interrupted by :onstant general quarters and watch-standing. Every op- oortunity they had to sack in' they took full advantage of. In one instance the chaplain was conducting a service when general quarters sounded. The sonarmen thought a submarine was lurking in nearby waters. After a 2-hour :hase and discharging several depth charges, it was discov- :red that a few whales had been playing havoc on the sonar gear. Result: no Divine Service. Duty of a different sort is illustrated by the following xcerpts from a letter to Chaplain Salisbury on 15 ebruary 1951, in which Chaplain Edward E. Helmich told of his work in the amphibious flagship MOUNT MCKINLEY. We have just completed a very successful campaign for the March of Dimes and the Ship's Company and Staff re- sponded with a total of 31,422 collected and sent via chan- nels to the national foundation. The average came to 31.74- per person. Attendance at Divine Service has showed a marked in- rease, and what pleases me especially is the large percentage bf officers attending .... There has also been a definite upswing in attendance at the Sacrament of Holy Communion. .Then too, a Sunday Bible Class, recently organized with an verage attendance of 27 thus far, indicates a definite interest End appreciation for such a class, Several weeks ago I was able to secure the Korean Navy nformation and Education Music Groupfa 45-piece sym- hony orchestra and 60-voice choral group-for a series of concerts. All of us were more than pleased with the enditions. The Bridge of Toko-ri Diverted from their attack upon Yalu River bridges, arrier planes of Task Force 77 were employed from he end of January 1951 in attempting to disrupt the railway network in eastern Korea over which rein- forcements and supplies were moving to the front.13 Three main lines running south from Manchuria pro- vided plenty of targets: 956 bridges and 231 tunnels, an average of 1 bridge every 1.2 miles of track, 1 tunnel every 5. On 2 March a PRINCETON pilot spotted the nearly perfect target: a six-span bridge 600 feet long and sixty feet above the floor of what the flyers came to call Carlson's Canyonf' a tunnel at each end, an-d paralleled by a partially completed second bridge. It was this which became James Michenerls Bridge of Toko-ri. Exactly a month was spent bombing it, again and again the Reds desperately repaired it, until finally they took the only alternative and built a by- pass through the canyon on low ground. Involved in this struggle to strangle were the carriers VALLEY FORGE, PRINCETON, and PHILIPPINE SEA. On 27 March Old Faithfulf, the VALLEY FORGE, was relieved by the BOXER, aboard which was the first carrier air group composed of organized Naval Air Reserve Squadrons to see duty in Korea. The LEYTE had left the Korean theater on 19 January. Concerning her skipper Chaplain C. A. Frame later recalled: The captain of our ship was Cand isj a fine man. If he had a problem troubling him, he would call the chaplain in and ask for spiritual guidance. We usually ended by having prayer together. I felt that those talks and prayers helped in some way to clarify his mind and make it easier for him to carry on his difficult mission. Needless to say, it always made the chaplain fecl very humble and inadequate. PatRons The necessary but largely routine activities of sup- port groups tend to get lost in the backwash of the ushootin' war. Everyone recalls the poignantly hu- morous efforts of Mister Roberts to get a transfer from his rusty supply ship to the firing lines of World War II. In the Korean War, as always, various units devoted themselves to the faithful performance of duties almost guaranteed never to make a stateside headline. Among such were the Navy patrol squadrons CPat- Ronsl whose vigilance added greatly to the effec- tiveness of 7th Fleet operations in the Far East.14 Surveillance of merchant shipping, antisubmarine patrol, weather reconnaissance, aerial mine spotting and destruction, occasional Haredrops for Marine night-fighting planes and naval gunfire target spot- ting, and even logistical transport-such were the U Ibid., pp. 229-236. 1' Ibid., ch. 10 and app. V. 535332 0--6016 - 67 -

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various squadrons came under direct Air Force con- trol, and were no longer immediately at the call of Marine ground units in accordance with Navy-Marine Corps close air support doctrine. By March first six squadrons were in combat, four operating from Pusan, one from Pohang, and one carrier-based. During the UN counterofifensive they supported other 8th Army units as well as the 1st Marine Division. The lst Marine Aircraft Wing was awarded a Re- public of Korea Presidential Unit Citation for its support of the United Nations effort, from 3 August 1950 to 26 February 1951. The earlier date marks the lst Marine air strike over Korea, by eight Cor- sairs of VMF-214, operating from the SICILY. Air Wing Chaplains Concerning the chaplains Wing Chaplain John P. Murphy wrote to the Chief of Chaplains on 18 April as follows: Since the middle of February MAG 33 has occupied a field near Pohang and Chaplains Uohn H.j Markley and ICharles E.1 Webb are stationed there. The Wing and MAG 12 have been together near Pusan and Chaplain IGeorge W.1 Cummins and I have been there. While we have provided fair coverage we have not done as good a job as we should and would if we were up to TXO strength. There has been a great increase in the number of personnel attached to Marine Tactical Air Control Squadron and their TXO calls for a chaplain. They are scattered all over and it is tough not to be able to care for their small groups. This has left the Marine Wing Service Squadron at Itami with Marine and Naval personnel numbering one thousand to be cared for by Catholic civilian clergy and an Air Force Protestant chaplain. Now a couple of squadrons of MAG 12 have been sent to Seoul and I have not yet decided how best to cover them. It was because of this pressure that the Commanding Gen- eral on 22 March sent the following dispatch to BuPers. From: C. G. 1stMAW To: BuPers Infor: CMC Table organization lst Marine Air Wing presently under- strength two chaplains X Wide dispersion units this com- mand necessitates complement X one Catholic one Protes- tant needed to accomplish mission. Far be it from me to attempt to say what is going to hap- pen in Korea and what future disposition the Air Force is going to make of the lst MAW, but with the present setup there should be, as the TXO provides, two chaplains with each MAG, one with MTACS, and one with the Wing. Further there should be one more chaplain to take care of MWSSI, the Wing's service squadron at Itami . . . There are several Army hospitals in the Osaka-Kobe area and a number of Marine and Navy casualties are sent there. Liai- son work as well as taking care of our own will keep a chaplain as busy as a cat on a tin roof. At Pohang the chaplains of Marine Aircraft Group 33 secured from their Commanding Officer two Quonset huts to be erected into a chapel. There was one hitch: assembling a Quonset hut requires the use of no less than 5,500 screws! Two Quonset huts, 11,000 screws! Chaplain Webb wrote in his ques- tionnaire: About 20 Marines cooperated without hesitation or com- plaint in this thankless task during their off duty hours. fBoth Catholics and Protestantsl, they had been subjected to the very poor acoustics of a large and holey hospital tent and realized its deficiencies in contrast to the relative solidity of the Quonset hut for Divine Services. Noting that these Marines sacrificed their time and energy ungrudgingly, he added: While this kind of spirit endures, we chaplains know that there will always be a definite, concerted core of strength on the side of God. He concluded: I did not remain long enough in Korea to witness the finished product but have heard that Chaplain Cleaves carried the project to a suc- cessful completion. Seaborne Artillery While UN ground and air forces continued their assault against the Chinese Communists, naval forces prosecuted their assigned missions with vigor and suc- cess. According to the authors of The Sea War in Korea 11 there were Hve ways in which the Navy kept the Communists on the run after UN forces resumed the offensive following the forced withdrawals of De- cember and early january 1951. Amphibious demon- strations were made again and again 5 mindful of the decisive nature of the Inchon landing, the Reds were sensitive to the danger of surprise attack and of course never knew, until the critical moment had passed, whether such movements were feints Qas they werel or the real McCoy.U Further contributing to keeping the enemy off- balance were frequent commando raids put ashore and covered by naval gunfire. Heavy bombardment was utilized to lay siege to important Communist ports, notably Wonsan, there round-the-clock interdiction began on 16 February and continued to the beginning of the armistice, on 27 July 1953, the longest such operation in modern American naval ihistory.12 Be- sides Wonsan two other east coast ports, Hungnam and Songjin, in the far north, were besieged. A fourth technique was naval gunfire against the Cagle and Manson, op. cit., pp. 305f. 1' Ibjd., Ch. 12.

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duties of men rarely in the limelight except when rare encounters with Chinese aircraft or surface vessels momentarily emphasized their continuing contribu- tion. Under overall control of Fleet Air Japan, the PatRons, both land and seaplanes, were grouped in two headquarters. Fleet Air Wing Six at Itwakuni, Japan, with three to five squadrons plus seaplane tenders, was responsible for operations in the vicinity of Japan and Korea, from Siberia south to Okinawa. Fleet Air Wing one, consisting of one land-based squadron fat Naha, Okinawaj and one Seaplane squadron aboard a tender, exercised surveillance of the international sea lanes south through the East China Sea and the Straits of Formosa to the Philippines. Its tender anchored off the Pescadores Islands except when typhoons forced them to sea. Based in the Pescadores were some 40,000 Chinese Nationalist troops. No Americans had been seen there since World War II. There were nothing but squalid villages ashore and consequently no liberty for naval personnel. Chaplain William W. Parkinson served in the seaplane tender PINE ISLAND, first at Iwa- kuni and after June 1951 off the Pescadores. In an interview with the author Parkinson recalled the situa- tion. Swimming was prohibited, though occasionally the men were allowed ashore long enough to play baseball. It was naturally difficult to maintain espril. The men were bored, their work was monotonous, and like many others they wondered why they were there at all. As the only Navy chaplain in the F ormosan area, Parkinson ministered to the ship's company and the fiyers who were running daily patrol missions, try- ing to meet some of their needs with daily religious services and by regular, sustained contact with all personnel.- Parkinson was followed in the PINE ISLAND by Robert L. McCachran in May 1952. The SALIS- BURY SOUND had as its first chaplain Daniel M. Jordan, after October 1950, and then Richard P. Chase, after August 1952. MSTS At the outbreak of Korean hostilities George W. Thompson was Stafi' Chaplain, Deputy Commander, Military Sea Transport Service, Pacific, in San Fran- cisco. In assigning Thompson to this new billet Chief of Chaplains S. W. Salisbury had written on 30 Sep- tember 1949: We will keep you informed of developments but you can know that it will be your responsibility to insure perfect in- tegration of Navy chaplains into this new type work as we take over from the Army between 1 October 1949 and 1 April 1950. The Military Sea Transport Service had been or- ganized in 1949 as part of the unification program, to handle all ocean transportation of both personnel and materiel for all the Armed Forces. The responsi- bilities of the Chaplain Corps in this development were set forth by Chaplain Salisbury in a Memoran- dum of 3 October 1949 to all Fleet, Force, and Dis- trict Chaplains, from which the following extracts are taken. In accordance with this policy, present plans call for a chaplain to be attached to the Staff of Deputy Commander, MSTS, Atlantic Area fNew York Cityj, Deputy Com- mander, MSTS, Pacific Area fSan Francisco, Calif.D, and Deputy Commander, MSTS, North Pacific Area tSeattle, Wash.l. Chaplains being nominated for these billets are: Chaplain George W. Thompson for San Francisco, Chaplain Daniel S. Rankin for New York, and Chaplain Seth E. An- derson for Seattle. It is planned to cover the Gulf Area fNew Orleansj by giving additional duty to the District Chaplain, 8th Naval District. A chaplain from the Chap- lains Division, BuPers, will have additional duty on the Staff of Headquarters, MSTS, in the Navy Department. All other chaplains assigned to the MSTS will serve aboard the vessels of this service. At least one-tenth of our Corps will be in this given field at all times. The whole rotation schedule may have to be revamped with a return to the old days when there was more Sea Duty than Shore Duty. All chaplains assigned to MSTS will have the responsibility of not only doing their immediate job, but also of setting a pattern that will con-l tinue the high standard of service for which the Navy isl noted and in which our Corps takes pride. The transfer of ships and embarkation facilities from Army to MSTS took place during the following months with less difficulty than might have been the case, and fortunately so, for midsummer 1950 brought skyrocketing dlemands upon sea transport. Of Chap- lain Seth E. Anderson, Staff Chaplain, MSTS, North Pacific, the Army Port of Embarkation chaplain had written to the Chief : This transfer . . . could prove to be a difficult project should understanding and cooperation be lacking by any par- ties concerned. Chaplain Anderson's fairness, sincerity, and enthusiastic willingness to cooperate makes a difficult prob- lem easier to solve. If all Navy chaplains assigned to MSTS measure up to the high standard which Chaplain Anderson has already es- tablished lherej, there will be no occasion for the least con- cern on your part about the success of chaplains who are un- dertaking this new project under your supervision. Chaplain Anderson was relieved by Chaplain Edgar C. Andrews, who reported 14 September 1950. Chaplain Thompson served in San Francisco from October 1949 to October 1952. By 1 March 1950, M681