Thank You both for today's thread, Honoring the Chaplain Corps, excellent. As always, my Thoughts and Prayers are with our Troops and Veterans.
Posted on 06/02/2002 1:34:56 AM PDT by Snow Bunny
Thank You both for today's thread, Honoring the Chaplain Corps, excellent. As always, my Thoughts and Prayers are with our Troops and Veterans.
Enjoy the thread xzins. Thank you for your service to our country and also to the Lord. I very much admire your since of duty and the great love you have for our heavenly Father.
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Chaplain's Reflection.
Years ago, the chaplain of the Notre Dame football team was a beloved old Irish priest. At confession one day, a football player told the priest that he had acted in an un-sportsman-like manner at a recent football game.
"I lost my temper and said some bad words to one of my opponents." "Ahhh, that's a terrible thing for a Notre Dame lad to be doin'" the priest said. He took a piece of chalk and drew a mark across the sleeve of his coat.
"That's not all, Father. I got mad and punched one of my opponents." "Saints preserve us!" the priest said, making another chalk mark.
"There's more. As I got out of a pileup, I kicked two of the other team's players right in the sensitive area." "Oh, goodness me!" the priest wailed, making two more chalk marks on his sleeve.
"Who in the world were the poor souls we were playin' when you did these awful things?"
"Southern Methodist."
"Ah, well," said the priest, wiping his sleeve clean, "boys will be boys."
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Chaplain Says So..
Two privates stationed at Fort Campbell were handed shovels and told to bury a large, dead animal. While digging they got into an argument about what they were burying.
'This here's a big mule!'
'Tain't no mule, this here's a donkey.'
'Mule!'
'Donkey!'
Well, this went on for a while until the camp Chaplain came by. 'What are you boys doing?' he asked.
'We're diggin' a grave for this mule.'
'Donkey, dammit!'
The chaplain cut in, 'Boys, you should stop your shouting. I grew up on a farm, and I know this isn't either one, it's an ass.'
An hour later, the camp commander came up and said, 'What are you men doing, digging a foxhole?'
'No sir. We're diggin' an asshole.'
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Congressional Chaplain
Summer is the season for countless tourists to visit The District of Columbia, which is just a few miles distant from Virginia. Not long ago a group arrived on the Mall, whereupon their guide began listing the attractions.
In the midst of this discourse the guide paused and pointed to a tall, benevolent gentleman, identifying him as the congressional chaplain.
One lady inquired, "What does the chaplain do? Does he pray for the Senate or the House?"
The guide reflected for a moment and then replied solemnly, "Well, he meets with and talks to the members of Congress, then goes back and prays for the country."
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God bless our military
God bless the veterans
God bless Our families
God bless President Bush
God bless America!
I can do this as a retiree. If you'd like to support the work of the chaplain corps, send a donation to the "Consolidated Chaplain Fund" c/o The Chief of Chaplains, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
Better put the service on there depending on which service's chaplain corps you wish to support!
The Consolidated Chaplain's Fund c/o Chief of Chaplains, US (insert service here) Pentagon Washington, D.C.
I'm sure it'll get there. I don't have the zip off the top of my head.
It's a pleasure to meet you xzins, Welcome to the Canteen. Thank You for your service to our Great Country.
Thanks for posting this beautiful, touching picture Snow Bunny.
The chaplains were truly in the minority among the Dorchester’s dead, just four men out of 404 soldiers, 111 civilians, 104 Merchant Mariners, 26 Coast Guardsmen, 14 Navy Armed Guards and 13 Danish citizens who perished that night. Of the 902 names on the SS Dorchester’s wartime manifest, 672 would never be heard from again.
The first honor accorded the Four Chaplains was a Postage Stamp released in 1948, while a Medal of Valor, ordered by Congress, was issued on July 14, 1960. Then, on January 18, 1961, congress also awarded a Special Medal of Heroism to these four brave men; and it is to this day the only one ever authorized.
Four chaplains: Clergymen who were immortalized on a U.S. postage stamp for giving their life vests to others on the torpedoed U.S. Army transport Dorchester in the North Atlantic in February, 1943.
They were: George L. Fox and Clarke V. Poling, Protestants; John P. Washington, a Catholic priest; and Alexander D. Goode, a Jewish rabbi.
Each chaplain was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by the Army.
God Bless Them
Joseph Timothy O'Callahan was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 14 May 1905. He joined the Jesuit Order of the Roman Catholic Church in 1922, after graduation from preparatory school, and subsequently received degrees from several institutions of higher learning. He was ordained in 1934, and was a Professor of Mathematics, Philosophy and Physics at Boston College in 1929-37, Professor of Philosophy at the Jesuit Seminary of Weston College in 1937-38 and Director of the Mathematics Department at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1938-40.
Father O'Callahan was commissioned as a Lieutenant (Junior Grade) in the Naval Reserve Chaplain Corps in August 1940. He was assigned to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, in 1940-42, to the aircraft carrier Ranger in 1942-44 and to the Naval Air Stations at Alameda, California, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, into early 1945. Lieutenant Commander O'Callahan joined the the aircraft carrier Franklin in early March 1945. A few weeks later, when his ship was badly damaged by a Japanese air attack, he distinguished himself comforting the injured and leading damage control and ammunition jettisoning parties. The ship's Commanding Officer described O'Callahan as "the bravest man I ever saw". For his heroism on board Franklin, Lieutenant Commander O'Callahan was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Promoted to the rank of Commander in July 1945, O'Callahan served at the Navy Department and at the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island, until October 1945, when he reported on board the new aircraft carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1946, he served as Escort Chaplain as the body of the late Philippines President Manuel Quezon was carried from the United States to Manila. Released from active duty in November 1946, Commander O'Callahan returned to Holy Cross College as Professor of Philosophy. Upon his retirement from the Naval Reserve in November 1953, he was advanced to the rank of Captain on the basis of his combat awards. Joseph T. O'Callahan died at Worcester, Massachusetts, on 18 March 1964.
The escort ship USS O'Callahan (DE-1051, later FF-1051), 1968-1994, was named in honor of Joseph T. O'Callahan.
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Chaplain on board the U.S.S. Franklin when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy Japanese aircraft during offensive operations near Kobe, Japan, on 19 March 1945. A valiant and forceful leader, calmly braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal to aid his men and his ship, Lieutenant Commander O'Callahan groped his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets and other armament. With the ship rocked by incessant explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led fire-fighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them. Serving with courage, fortitude and deep spiritual strength, Lieutenant Commander O'Callahan inspired the gallant officers and men of the Franklin to fight heroically and with profound faith in the face of almost certain death and to return their stricken ship to port."
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