President Obama posthumously awarded Korean War Army chaplain Emil Kapaun the Medal of Honor on Thursday, bestowing the highest military honor to an officer who as a non-combatant didn't even carry a weapon.
In a ceremony at the White House for Capt. Kapaun, who was a Roman Catholic priest, Obama told the story of Kapaun braving enemy fire to tend to injured fellow troops and comforting his fellow troops during soul-wrenching circumstances in prison camp.
After as many as 20,000 Chinese Communist Forces made a surprise attack on Kapaun's unit of a few thousand troops in November 1950, the young officer from Kansas walked through intense fire to give spiritual comfort and medical aid to the troops he ministered.
"In the chaos, dodging bullets and explosions, Father Kapaun raced between foxholes, out past the front lines and into no-man's land, dragging the wounded to safety," Obama said.
After the unit was surrounded by the enemy, those able to were ordered to evacuate, but Kapaun decided to stay behind with the wounded and continued to tend to his injured comrades.
As the combat continued for his outgunned unit, he continued to make the rounds. As enemy forces approached the American position, Kapaun noticed an injured Chinese officer among the wounded and convinced him to negotiate the safe surrender of the American forces.
After his capture, Kapaun pushed aside an enemy soldier preparing to execute an American comrade.
"Then as the soldier watched, stunned, Father Kapaun carried that wounded American away," Obama said. "This is the valor we honor today — an American soldier who didn't fire a gun, but who wielded the mightiest weapon of all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die so that they might live."
Kapaun's heroism didn't end there. Kapaun carried the wounded American 4 miles as their Chinese captors forced them on a death march. That soldier, now in his 80s, was among the Korean War veterans who attended Thursday's ceremony at the White House.
At the prison camp that winter, Kapaun and the others lived in brutal conditions — provided with a diet of millet and corn. Kapaun would sneak away to nearby fields to forage for rice and potatoes.
His Chinese captors ridiculed him for his Catholic faith, but at night, he led his fellow prisoners in prayer. Kapaun even led an Easter service where he used a small crucifix he made from small sticks. While guards watched, the soldiers sang the Lord's Prayer and America the Beautiful.
"They sang so loud that other prisoners across the camp not only heard them, they joined in, too — filling that valley with song and with prayer," Obama said.
Kapaun's health deteriorated, and he contracted dysentery and pneumonia. His captors saw an opportunity to rid the Americans of a source of inspiration and forced the chaplain to a "death house" where he was left to die.
"Then, as was taken away, he did something remarkable — he blessed the guards," Obama said. "'Forgive them,' he said, 'for they know not what they do.'"
Kapaun died two days later and nearly six months after his capture. His remains haven't been recovered.