Emil Kapaun Emil Joseph Kapaun ( April 20 , 1916 – May 23 , 1951 ) was a Roman Catholic priest and United States Army chaplain who died as a prisoner of war in the Korean War . For his wartime activities , the Roman Catholic Church has declared him a Servant of God , the first stage on the path to sainthood , and on April 11 , 2013 , President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to Captain Chaplain Kapaun . Early life . Emil Joseph Kapaun was born on April 20 , 1916 , and grew up on a farm three miles southwest of Pilsen , Kansas . His parents were Enos and Elizabeth Kapaun , Czech immigrants . He graduated from Pilsen High School in May 1930 . Kapaun graduated from Conception Abbey seminary college in Conception , Missouri , in June 1936 . He then attended Kenrick Theological Seminary ( now Kenrick - Glennon Seminary ) , St . Louis , Missouri . On June 9 , 1940 , Kapaun was ordained a priest at what is now Newman University in Wichita , Kansas . He celebrated his first Mass at St . John Nepomucene in Pilsen , Kansas . In 1943 , Kapaun was appointed auxiliary chaplain at the Herington Army Airfield near Herington , Kansas . In December 1943 , Kapaun was appointed pastor to replace Fr . Sklenar who had retired . After serving in the Pilsen area under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita , Kapaun joined the army in July 1944 . U . S . Army service . Kapaun began his military chaplain cy at Camp Wheeler , Georgia , in October 1944 . He and one other chaplain ministered to approximately 19 , 000 service men and women . He was sent to India and served in the Burma Theater . Kapaun was promoted to captain in January 1946 and returned stateside in May 1946 . Kapaun was discharged in 1946 . He earned a Master of Arts degree in education at the The Catholic University of America in 1948 . In September 1948 , he re - joined the Army and resumed his chaplaincy at Fort Bliss , El Paso , Texas . Kapaun left his parents and Pilsen for the last time in December 1949 . In January 1950 , he was stationed near Mount Fuji , Japan , as a military chaplain . In July , Kapaun was ordered to Korea , a month after North Korea had invaded South Korea . Kapaun ' s unit , the 8th Cavalry Regiment , 1st Cavalry Division , from Fort Bliss , participated in the fighting on the Pusan perimeter . From there , he was constantly on the move northward . His main complaint was lack of sleep for several weeks at a time . He constantly ministered to the dead and dying while performing baptisms , hearing first confessions , offering Holy Communion and celebrating Mass from an improvised altar set up on the front end of a jeep . He constantly would lose his Mass kit , jeep and trailer to enemy fire . He told how he was thoroughly convinced that the prayers of many others were what had saved him so many times . He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal in September . He was captured near Unsan , North Korea , in November 1950 . He and other prisoners of war ( POWs ) were marched to a prison camp near Pyoktong , North Korea . Kapaun was able to persuade some prisoners , who had ignored orders from officers , to carry the wounded . At the camp , he dug latrines , mediated disputes , gave away his own food , and raised morale among the prisoners . He was noted among his fellow POWs as one who would steal coffee and tea ( and a pot to heat them in ) from the Communist guards . He also led prisoners in acts of defiance and smuggled dysentery drugs to the doctor , Sidney Esensten . Kapaun developed a blood clot in his leg , dysentery , and pneumonia . Weakened as the months passed , he managed to lead Easter sunrise service on Sunday , March 25 , 1951 . He was so weak that the prison guards took him to the hospital , where he died of pneumonia on May 23 , 1951 . He was buried in a mass grave near the Yalu River . He was played by James Whitmore in the " Crossroads " TV episode " The Good Thief " , which aired on November 25 , 1955 . Awards and decorations . Kapaun received the following awards : ( ribbon bar , as it would look today ) Medal of honor . In 2001 , U . S . Representative Todd Tiahrt began a campaign to award the Medal of Honor to Kapaun . Before leaving office on September 16 , 2009 , Secretary of the Army Pete Geren sent Tiahrt a letter , agreeing that Kapaun was worthy of the honor . Admiral Michael Mullen , Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , also agreed . The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 ( Senate Bill 1867 , Section 586 ) contains an authorization and a request to the President to award the Medal of Honor to Kapaun posthumously for acts of valor during the Battle of Unsan on November 1 and 2 , 1950 , and while a prisoner of war until his death on May 23 , 1951 . President Obama presented the medal to Kapaun ' s nephew at the White House on April 11 , 2013 . His Medal of Honor citation reads : Possible canonization . The following is a general narrative from the many reports of Kapaun ' s ordeal as a prisoner of war given by many repatriated American soldiers after their release from prison camps . He was most remembered for his great humility , bravery , his constancy , his love and kindness and solicitude for his fellow prisoners . " He was their hero . . . their admired and beloved " padre . " He kept up the G . I . ' s morale , and most of all , allowed a lot of men to become good Catholics . " Reports received noted that Kapaun ' s feet had become badly frozen , but that he continued to administer to the sick and wounded . He continuously went out under heavy mortar and shelling to rescue wounded and dying soldiers at personal risk of being captured or killed . Many accounts have been given of the many creature comforts he provided his comrades of the 8th Cavalry Regiment during imprisonment . They were both spiritual and physical . He provided endless hours of prayer and what nourishment he could find to all he could to keep them from starving to death . A detailed account of Kapaun ' s life is recounted in Fr . Arthur Tonne ' s " Chaplain Kapaun : Patriot Priest of the Korean Conflict " : In a very definite sense , we are all beneficiaries from the life of Fr . Kapaun . He has left us a stirring example of devotion to duty . He has passed on to us a spirit of tolerance and understanding . He has given us a share of dauntless bravery – of body and soul . He has transmitted to every one of us a new appreciation of America , and a keener , more realistic understanding of our country ' s greatest enemy – godlessness , now stalking the world in the form of communism . He has bequeathed a picture of Christ - like life . What Fr . Kapaun willed to us cannot be contained in memorials , however costly or beautiful . It is a treasure for the human soul – the spirit of one who loved and served God and man – even unto death . When Kapaun was assigned to the Eighth Cavalry regiment – which was surrounded and overrun by the Chinese army in North Korea in October and November 1950 – he stayed behind with the wounded when the Army retreated . He allowed his own capture , then risked death by preventing Chinese executions of wounded Americans too injured to walk . In 1993 , Kapaun was named a Servant of God by the Roman Catholic Church , the first step toward possible canonization . Also , the Vatican is now examining whether a medical healing that took place in Sedgwick County , Kansas , can be considered a miracle . Possible 2008 miracle . On June 29 , 2008 , the Opening Ceremony which officially opens the Cause for Sainthood for Kapaun was made on Father Kapaun Day held at St . John Nepomucene Catholic Church in Pilsen , Kansas . On June 26 , 2009 , Dr . Andrea Ambrosi , the Roman Postulator for Kapaun ' s cause for canonization arrived in Wichita in order to interview doctors in relation to alleged miraculous events . Among these is the claim of 20 - year - old Chase Kear who survived a severe head injury last year in part , he and his family claim , because they petitioned Fr . Emil Kapaun to intercede for them . Kear , a member of the Hutchinson Community College track team , fell on his head during pole vaulting practice in October 2008 , but , it is said , was miraculously healed despite being near death . The Rev . John Hotze , the judicial vicar for the Diocese of Wichita , and trained in Canon Law , will assist in investigating Kear ' s case . Fr . Hotze has spent eight years investigating the proposed sainthood of Kapaun . The Catholic Church has considered canonizing Kapaun ever since soldiers were liberated from Korean prisoner - of - war camps in 1953 and told of Kapaun ' s heroism and faith . The Wichita diocese has continue to receive reports of miracles involving Fr . Kapaun . He is being considered for possible designation as a martyr . Possible 2011 miracle . On May 7 , 2011 , Nick Dellasega collapsed at a Get Busy Living 5K race in Pittsburg , KS ( honoring the memory of Dylan Meier ) . Due to a series of coincidences , Dellasega survived , even though he had seemingly died on the scene . His childhood friend , EMT Micah Ehling , is quoted by " The Wichita Eagle " as saying " I know what a face looks like when the soul leaves the body . And that ' s what Nick looked like " . Some bystanders attribute Dellasega ' s survival to the devotion of his cousin , Jonah Dellasega , who fell to his knees at the scene and prayed to Kapaun . In a strange coincidence not reported by " The Eagle " , Dylan Meier , in whose memory the 5K was being held , was slated to teach English in Korea at the time of his death . Skeptics point out that Kapaun ' s spirit could not possibly have orchestrated the bizarre coincidences that saved Nick ' s life because some of them were set in motion long before Nick collapsed ( including a visit by Nick ' s uncle , Mark , a medical doctor from Greenville , N . C . ) . However , believers insist Kapaun intervened to save Dellasega ' s life . " The Eagle " reported , " The coincidences are strange enough and the prayer notable enough that a Catholic church investigator has reported Nick ' s story to the Vatican , which happens to have a representative in Wichita again , sizing up Father Emil Kapaun for sainthood . "