The Graybeards - KWVA - Korean War Veterans Association

Korea before his inauguration. But the War
continued through its third bitter winter as
the new Chief of Chaplains, Ivan Bennett,
asked religious leaders for more chaplains.
By then, 175 Army chaplains had received
218 decorations in Korea, including 22
Silver Stars. Chaplain William H. Weitzel,
Episcopalian, had even received the Marine
Commendation Medal with “V” device for
his voluntary work among front-line
Marines while assigned to an Army ordnance
unit.
It was obvious by now that the chaplains
in Korea were facing a different ministry
than those in World War II. While the fearful
environment of the battlefield was the
same, the attitude and morale of the soldier
— deeply affected by the debates over the
value of his sacrifice — had slowly
changed. Severely wounded on the battlefield
with the bodies of his friends lay the
idealism of many soldiers. The interminable,
on-again, off-again negotiations
while blood was continually shed over the
same terrain, made many feel like little
more than political pawns.
Fortunately, perhaps due in part to the
death of Joseph Stalin on 5 March 1953, the
Communist position softened somewhat.
Surprisingly, at the end of that month, they
agreed to a previous proposal by General
Clark to exchange sick and wounded prisoners
while resuming the talks. Operation
“Little Switch” in April returned 684 U.N.
personnel and 6,670 Communists. With the
149 Americans came the stories of many
deaths — including those of the four chaplains
who would never return.
But the political-football aspect continued
in a war that seemed to refuse to die.
ROK President Syngman Rhee would not
agree to a divided Korea and the subsequent
discussions among the allies became
as difficult as those with the enemy.
General Clark later remarked, “Never, it
seemed to me, was it more thoroughly
demonstrated that winning a satisfactory
peace, even a temporary one, is more difficult
than winning a war. “
Beginning in April 1953, and reaching
its peak in June and July, renewed fighting,
mostly against CCF forces, tested the abilities
of Lieutenant General Maxwell D.
Taylor, who had replaced Van Fleet as
Eighth Army Commander in February.
Chaplain Parker C. Thompson, Southern
Baptist, was among many who would have
sworn that the War was nowhere near an
end. Serving from November 1952 until
May 1953 in the 7th Regiment, 3rd Infantry
Division, and then in the 10th Combat
Engineer Battalion, he was wounded three
times and suffered a severe back injury during
those 6 months. In one of his awards for
combat bravery, he was cited for giving his
armored vest to one of the wounded he was
helping to evacuate. First used extensively
in the latter part of the War, the vest was
considered the most important possession
of the infantry soldier next to his weapon.
The intensity of the last 4 months of the
War is reflected by the statistics: the combined
total of dead, wounded, and missing
from both sides was more than 200,000,
and the artillery rounds expended by them
during the same period totaled an incredible
8 1/2 million.
For organizing the evacuation of the
wounded under withering fire — personally
carrying many of them himself —
Chaplain Cormac A. Walsh, Roman
Catholic, 180th Regiment, 45th Infantry
Division, received his third Silver Star.
That incident took place only 2 days before
the negotiations resumed for the last time,
and 9 days before the final Armistice was
eventually signed on 27 July 1953.
Like some horrible monster dying after
one final, violent convulsion, the Korean
War had come to an end. For a moment, in
the tension-filled silence that followed,
only the quiet utterances of thanksgiving
drifted with the smoke toward heaven.
One author of the period had written:
The man least attuned to what Bernhardi
has called “the biological necessity” of war,
Death Notice of a Member of KWVA
and than whom there is non deeper
enmeshed in it, is the chaplain. By vocation
he is committed to an optimism of the spirit
which believes and preaches that a man is
capable of settling his differences by means
other than war. Yet he accepts the commission
to walk in the midst of it, to work in
the thick of it, and to pray for the successful
prosecution of it.
To many people, perhaps, it was an
inconsistent philosophy. To most chaplains
it was an inescapable call to instill an
ancient conviction: “Whither shall I go
from Thy Spirit: or whither shall I flee from
Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven,
Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell,
behold, Thou are there.” To that end, scores
of them had shed their blood, 13 had given
their lives, and hundreds were committed
to a continuing ministry among American
soldiers.
(I have removed some of the detail prior
to June 1950 due to space and that most of
us know how and why the Korean War
started. There were 4 long pages of history
of our chaplains serving the troops in
Korea. The final page has been printed in
this issue.
This story by no means wishes to diminish
the heroics of any other unnamed
Chaplains from any branch of service in
war or peacetime. They were and still are
the special people we looked up to keep our
sanity in order to do our Duty to God and
Country. May God Bless them all. If you
want to read all pages go to
http://www.usachcs.army.mil/Korea/
BattleforKorea.htm Editor.)
The following notice is submitted for publication:
Name of deceased __________________________________________________
Date of death ______________________________________________________
Department/Chapter__________________________________________________
Home of record ____________________________________________________
Army Navy Marine Corps Air Force Coast Guard
Other ____________________________________________________________
Primary Unit of service during Korean War
Submitted by ______________________________________________________
Relationship to deceased ______________________________________________
Send to: Membership, P.O. Box 10806, Arlington, VA 22210
Page 12
The Graybeards