Hawaii ceremony honors Army chaplain awarded the Medal of Honor
Triple paraplegic Vietnam War veteran and American Battlefield Monuments Commssion secretary Max Cleland holds a letter from President Barack Obama which he presented to Gene Castagnetti during the annual Veterans Day Ceremony on Sunday, November 11, 2012 at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl in Honolulu.
A ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl will honor an Army chaplain from Kansas who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
In April, President Barack Obama awarded the nation’s highest military honor to Capt. Emil Kapaun, who risked his life dodging gunfire to provide medical and spiritual aid to wounded soldiers before dying in captivity more than 60 years ago during the Korean War.
Because the Catholic priest’s remains were never recovered, his name is listed at the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Commission Secretary Max Cleland and the vicar general of the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii will preside over the ceremony at the Punchbowl cemetery.
A separate effort is under way seeking sainthood for Kapaun.
