Monks and Students Meet the Monks - St. John's Abbey

Cyprian Seitz served in Liverpool
and in France in 1944. He recounted
German planes fi ring upon his ship
crossing the English Channel and
a harrowing three-day box car ride
through France.
Casimir Plakut was in northern
France under General Patton. German
bombs were falling close by while he
celebrated Christmas midnight Mass
during a black-out. Bede Michel was
assigned to the Asiatic-Pacifi c theatre
in New Guinea. After the successful
invasion of Luzon, he went to Manila
and visited confreres Owen Tekippe
and Boniface Axtman, who had been
prisoners of the Japanese occupation.
Oliver Kapsner went to England and
the Normandy beachhead and was an
interpreter of German government
broadcasts. After the war he had a
front seat at the Nurenberg trials of
Goering and Hess.
Dunstan Tucker was
the only Navy chaplain
among the Saint
John’s Abbey
chaplains.
Dunstan
Tucker, the
abbey’s only
Navy chaplain,
served aboard the
U.S.S. Point Cruz
which landed in
Japan fi ve times
and transported
planes and pilots
for the invasion
of the Philippines
and Japan.
Aldrich Huhne
was sent to France
where he was
part of the march to Saarbrucken. He
visited Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in Bavaria
and many Benedictine monasteries of
Germany.
Aloysius Michels, with the 7th Cavalry
Regiment in the invasion of Japan,
found the Japanese very open to learning
about Christianity. Two Benedictines,
Hildebrand Yaiser and Joseph Schmerbach,
were well established among the
native Japanese and Aloysius saw these
monks as a core upon which Saint John’s
could build a Benedictine monastery in
Japan. Athanase Fuchs, while in the
Philippines, began to evangelize the Japanese
prisoners and had the catechism
translated into Japanese.
Korea and Vietnam
With the outbreak of the Korean War,
Aelred Tegels served as an Air Force
chaplain in Japan. Malachy Murphy,
an Air Force chaplain, was assigned to
the Pentagon in Washington and then to
West Germany and England.
Stephen Wagman served in Korea,
Germany, Vietnam and the Panama
Canal. He was also stationed in seven
different bases in the United States and
was awarded numerous medals including
the Bronze Star.
Conan Mawhorr, serving in the Air
Force, was part of the pacifi cation program
in Vietnam. He called it “hustling
for the poor in Vietnam.” Conan served
in Korea, Alaska and Turkey as well as
state-side. He eventually left Saint John’s
Abbey to join the Diocese of Little Rock.
FEATURE
Chaplain Aubrey Zellner, l., with two Indian soldiers
and an American at an airbase in India during WWII.
Peregrin Berres, stationed with
a helicopter unit in Vietnam for
one year, received the Bronze Star
for his service there and completed
duty in South Carolina.
Stanley Roche, along with
Father Cosmas, is one of only
two living Saint John’s monks
who were military chaplains.
Father Stanley served eleven and
a half years in Korea, Germany,
Thailand, Vietnam and Holland.
He also served six various
camps within the United States.
He retired as lieutenant colonel
with many honors, including the
Bronze Star.
David Klingeman is the archivist of
Saint John’s Abbey and University.
The Abbey Banner Fall 2003 page 11