United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

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5.. .... ., 1. K .marie i I ' K - e .vw .1 ., e . as . KW: yi-,jf . J .gp Emergency Call. Immersion. When communications failed at a forward aid station during Chaplain John E. Hollingsworth conducts a baptismal service the fighting, Chaplain Joseph P. Trodd made a hurried at a Marine command post. trip over treacherous roads to call for a helicopter to evacuate two wounded men. Operation Polaroid. Chaplain Rickel takes a picture of Chaplain Trower talking with a marine wounded the day the picture was taken. The camera develops the print in just a few minutes and the print is given to the man. -31-

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get to him, but they flew him by 'copter to a rear medical company. Chaplain Quirk's citation for the Bronze Star con- tains the following further account of what happened: Despite his serious injuries, he attempted to crawl back to the burning truck in order to render aid to the injured la- borers. His bravery and complete disregard for his personal safety were an inspiration to all who observed him. Two days after Chaplain Joseph P. Trodd replaced Quirk in the 5th Marines, a shell landed outside his tent. The chaplain's clerk and a brother ofiicer were wounded by the explosion but, although Trodd was knocked to the ground and badly shaken, he was not seriously hurt. In this same letter of 5 June, Chaplain Kelly com- mented as follows on the military situation as it then existed: In my last letter I told you that we were pushing forward again. Well, we have really pushed forward. We are al- most up to where we were when things broke back in April. However, we are on the right side of the Hwachon Reservoir, whereas the first time we were on the left. The 5th and lst Regiments are moving up with the 7th ready to swing in on the right. Resistance has stiffened very much recently. The regiments have been taking a pounding. The enemy have been using a lot of mortars and some artillery. In a few days with some good breaks we may reach the line where we will defend for a while. That is good, because our men are getting awfully tired. Just climbing these hills day after day is enough to wear them out. The Marines suffered severe losses during the first 2 weeks of June 1951. Writing to Chaplain Salisbury, Kelly reported that in one 36-hour period, some 500 patients had been received at A Medical Company. The work there for the chaplains became so heavy that four attached to other units of the Division as- sisted the three chaplains who were serving with the Medical Battalion. By the middle of the month, however, the daily number of Marines listed as casualties began to decline. Regarding the tactical situation Kelly wrote to Chaplain Salisbury in this same letter of 15 June: The resistance in our area has been very stiff. The enemy have thrown a terrific amount of mortar and artillery. Since they have held high ground with good observation, the mortar and artillery has been very accurate, hence the terrific damage to our men. They must have our locations zeroed in. Up till Wednesday the weather was bad and made air support impossible. They also have the quaint practice of rolling hand grenades down the hills on top of our men coming up. They have heavily mined the area through which we are moving. We have lost 10 tanks to land mines in a very short time. One other award, and an unusual one, was given a chaplain at this time. Chaplain Joseph C. Fitz- gerald, serving with the 11th Marines, the Division's artillery regiment, had utilized every available means of transportation to reach his separated units. He was now cited for the Air Medal for making 21 flights over enemy territory, where the plane could have received fire from unfriendly forces. The period covered was 22 December 1950-9 June 1951. Comic Relief A lighter note in the story of the chaplains' activ- ities during these days of fighting is found in an ex- perience of Chaplain Richard T. Peeters, serving in the 7th Marines. One day a group of Marines were resting a short distance behind the front lines. Sud- denly they were alerted by a shout from Chaplain Peeters: Hey, look what I've got! To the amazement of the Leathernecks, there strode their chaplain up the dusty Korean road with four ragged enemy soldiers following him! In answer to the incredulous queries as to how an unarmed chap- lain happened to be taking prisoners, Chaplain Peeters explained. He was just looking through some empty Korean houses when the four Chinese soldiers ran out with their hands in the air and surrendered. Noticing the cross on his uniform, one of the Chinese kept shouting: You ding hao. You ding haof, In the Mandarin dialect ding haol' means very good. The Chinese may or may not have known of the existence of chaplains with the Marine units. How- ever, the very fact that they noticed the cross on the Chaplain's uniform is evidence that they knew he was a Christian and would undoubtedly exercise mercy in receiving them. After hearing Peeters' account of what must go down in the history of the Chaplain Corps of the U.S. Navy as an unprecedented experience., one of the listening Marines deflated any pride the chaplain may have felt in his exploit by saying: Everyone's takin' 'em today. Chaplain Kelly, reporting this incident to the Chief in his letter of 15 June, added: These lst Division chaplains are a rugged people. Chaplain Peeters, for devoted service from 10 May to 29 June, was awarded the Letter of Commenda- tion. Part of his citation follows: During that period, in which the battalion was constantly in contact with the enemy, Chaplain Peeters' untiring efforts on behalf of the front line personnel were a source of marked pride to the entire command. Time and again on every critical operation, under the most adverse physical conditions and under fire from the enemy, which included heavy enemy mortar and artillery fire of the most intense variety, he worked feverishly at the forward aid stations to help the wounded and minister to the dying. -801

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Ministry to Wounded It will have been noticed that one of the most fre- quently occurring references to chaplains' work con- cerns their ministry to casualties. Recalling the ad- vance to the Punchbowl, Chaplain G. A. Bingaman wrote: During June 1951 nearly 1,500 Marines passed through an emergency aid station we had set up in a 3-day period of crisis. Two doctors, two corpsmen, and three chaplains met a tremendous need in a situation described later as 'light action on the east-central front., Chaplain D. McDonald com- mented that, besides administering the last rites of his church to Catholic personnel, he prayed with men of all denominations when wounded or dying. Chap- lain Henry H. Hayes recalled that it was standard procedure in his battalion aid station to refer all men admitted with 'combat fatigue, to the chaplain before being evacuated or else returned to duty? Services Letters and reports from combat chaplains fre- quently referred to the Marines' appreciation for their presence. Many a brief religious service was held for a small group in a bunker or improvised shelter, when the chaplain would simply read a passage of Scripture and lead in prayer. Sometimes even in advanced sit- uations Protestant chaplains would administer the Lordis Supper, while Roman Catholic chaplains would hear confessions and say Mass. Chaplains re- ported numerous instances where the men themselves took the initiative in conducting devotional services. Many Testaments, prayer books, and items of devo- tional literature were distributed. Chaplain Jesse L. Swinson fa one time outfielder for the Boston Red Soxj reported: As Chaplain to the Tank Battalion I was invited by my men to ac- company them on patrols in enemy territory, which I did, and I felt it was appreciated by them. I always encouraged them to pray, and Holy Communion was available to them before and during each engage- ment. Chaplain Keene H. Capers, who was with the 1st Marines during some bitter fighting, wrote: The mere presence of a chaplain can have a tremendous influence on the fighting spirit of a battalion or a ship. For a man who has been on the line for some time the sight of the chaplain walking the lines specifically to talk to him, if he wants to talk, can affect that man's staying power. Act- ing as a mailman, carrying fruit juice, or any practical demonstration of the chaplain's abiding interests in the wel- fare of the men can give truth to the words he speaks to them in his sermons. A chaplain must be where he is needed regardless of personal inconvenience or danger. Hill 676 During the advance to the Punchbowl, the lst Ma- rines had its fiercest struggle assaulting the ridges over- looking the Hwachon Reservoir from the northeast. The battle raged most of June 9-10. A firsthand ac- count may be found in the following letter which Chaplain Henry E. Austin wrote several days later to some of his friends. CHills in this mountainous area were most frequently razor-sharp peaks, they received their names from their height, given in meters.j Aus- tinls letter is so vivid in its description and so revealing in its account of the work of combat chaplains that it is given in its entirety. OFFICE or THE CHAPLAIN 2D BATTALION 1ST MARINES F.P.O. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF., I3 june 1951. DEAR FRIENDS! Many thanks for your prayers and in- terest in my work. I received a backlog of 14 letters today- up on the top of bloody Hill No. 676-elevation: 2,000 feet straight up! Some time ago, I said that I honestly thought we had the best battalion in the lst Marine Regiment and in the entire lst Division for that matter. Yesterday we met the test and our men covered themselves with glory-via the time-honored Blood, sweat, and tears route. At the moment, I have my foxhole dug right on the top of 676 which we paid for with 261 men wounded and 16 men killed. Last night was our roughest night, since I joined the 2d Battalion, so I stayed up all night and helped the doctors. It was 4 a.m. before we could evacuate the first wounded, because we had to carry them over 2M miles along a mountain ridge under enemy fire in the drizzly-dark. I helped as stretcher bearer, prayed with the seriously wounded and dying, gave out cigarettes landl water, and tried to give some comfort to the men. Some of the wounded who walked in got lost in the dark. We had to observe strict blackout regulations, but all were eventually accounted for. Everyone cooperated and did a magnificent job. Col. Big Foot Brown personally came by the evacuation point and thanked both the doctor, the corpsmen, and the padre for seeing all the wounded. Four artillery shells hit the area at that moment, so both he, the Doc,', and I hit the deck at the same time. One thing that made Hill 676 tougher than any mountain I've seen since Suribachi on Iwo Jima was the fact that we had no air-support due to bad weather. Then, since the slope was very steep, the artillery could only continue to a certain point. The Chinese and North Koreans were really dug in and poured murderous concussion grenades, machine gun and burp-gun fire, plus mortars down our throats Clit- erallyj, so in the Marine tradition our battalion took the objective on blood and guts alone. In the face of what looked like annihilation, our men stormed up 676 and se- cured the same at 2115 19:15 p.rn.j Sunday, June 10. I never prayed more sincerely in my life and God blessed us, because most of the wounds of our men were clean, and -32-