Family affair: Kapaun brothers both served in cavalry units
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Much has been said and written about the heroic service of Father Emil Kapaun as an Army chaplain in the Korean War. On June 4, St. John Nepomucene Church in Pilsen is holding its fourth annual Kapaun Day in his honor.
Father Kapaun had a younger brother, Eugene, who also was a war hero. He served in the military in Europe during World War II.
Both men served in cavalry units which went on reconnaissance missions. They spearheaded operations, conducting hit-and-run missions and gleaning information about enemy positions.
Unfortunately, during the Korean War, Father Kapaun's unit became entrapped in a valley in North Korea, where he became a prisoner of war in 1950 and died in 1951.
Eugene Kapaun survived World War II, and he and his wife, Helen live in Colwich.
"My brother and I had similar missions but we didn't get to talk about it," he said.
As a 19-year-old Kansan, Kapaun was working at a defense plant in New York state when he and some of his fellow workers joined the Army.
He was trained in desert warfare in southern California, then learned jungle warfare in East Texas.
His troop was transported by train to the East Coast via Canada. On Dec. 5, 1943, they boarded ship and sailed to England, where they underwent more training.
Kapaun did not take part in the celebrated June 6, 1944, D-Day landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, but he was among those who landed on Utah Beach 10 days later.
It was dark when they went on shore, and the beach had been secured. Consequently, few casualties were recorded.
The next day was a different story. Kapaun said it was "a baptism of fire."
He was a rifleman in a six-man crew. The troops began moving inland and were met with small arms fire from all sides. Before long, they met with stiff resistance.
"When we were training, we thought we were the hot dogs," he said. "But we found out how good the Germans were."
The unit ran into anti-tank guns and lost two tanks.
Kapaun remembers coming upon an abandoned farmstead and running behind a farm building to protect himself from enemy fire.
The Americans were forced to retreat and go to a different area and try another advance.
They were met with artillery and rifle fire, and the driver of the radio jeep was killed.
Kapaun was ordered to replace him. He exchanged his rifle for a side-arm machine gun.
Sometimes, the troops traveled over open fields. Sitting in the open jeep, Kapaun had no protection and was an easy target for the enemy.
"I couldn't dwell on the danger too much," he said. "I just looked at it as a job to do and hoped I'd be lucky enough to get through it."
As they gradually drove the Germans back, occasionally they were met by French citizens who brought champagne in appreciation for liberating them from German occupation.
The young soldiers especially enjoyed seeing the young French girls. Kapaun said it was a big morale booster.
"With champagne to drink and pretty girls around, I got to thinking, 'I guess we can keep going,'" he said. It gave them something to look forward to after the war.
Sometimes, the soldiers slept in bombed out or broken down buildings. They weren't particular. Even horse barns were preferable to sleeping outdoors on the ground or in a foxhole.
They sometimes traveled at night, forging ahead in the dark, dusty night, not knowing what lay ahead. One time, they saw tracks from a German tank and immediately sought cover.
The troops were forced to retreat several times but gradually advanced, pushing the enemy back. Kapaun's unit was holed up near the Rhine River when the Germans surrendered in April 1945. The war in Europe was over.
"We had a few drinks and cleaned up our weapons, but we didn't celebrate all that much because the war was continuing in Japan," he recalled.
Kapaun clearly remembers one humorous incident which happened to him while the soldiers were waiting for further directions. He and some of his buddies decided to go swimming in the Rhine River.
They took off their clothes and dived in. Kapaun decided to swim across to the opposite bank, but when he got there, he found he had drifted downstream and was too exhausted to return.
Not knowing what to do, he sheepishly hung around for a while and finally was met by some men in boats who laughed at his predicament and took him back to his clothes.
Kapaun was sent to a base in Germany to train for transfer to the Japanese front, but Japan surrendered in August 1945, allowing him to ride out his two-year term of service in Europe.
On Dec. 5, 1945, exactly two years to the day he sailed for England, he returned to the United States at Norfolk, Va., and was honorably discharged.
He married Helen in Colwich in 1948. After training in welding and mechanics, he worked at Coleman Co. in Wichita for 10 years.
He spent the remainder of his working years as maintenance and grounds man at Kapaun-Mount Carmel High School.
Eugene and Helen raised seven children.
