To Honor a Hero

Frank Keegan is as busy in retirement as he ever was in his working days. The truth is, the 86-year-old Malvern, PA, resident doesn’t feel comfortable not being busy. He never did. From growing up in Philadelphia, to a stint in the U.S. Army between the Korean and Vietnam Wars, to raising five children with his wife of 63 years, Ronnie, to coaching Little League baseball, to working multiple careers over the course of 69 years, Frank has been driven by three passions: faith, family, and country.

I first met Frank in 2019 when I joined my parish’s Knights of Columbus council. As chairman of the council’s Diaper Drive parish-outreach program, he has led the effort to provide more than 146,000 diapers (and counting) to needy women in suburban Philadelphia. Though small in stature, when reporting to the council, Frank exudes indefatigable energy, passion, and enthusiasm. He has the grace and demeanor of a man living with purpose. “God sends these beautiful babies to us,” he often says with a grin, “but He doesn’t send them to us potty-trained.”

There is another cause in which Frank has invested the same energy and passion: to posthumously honor a priest, an Army chaplain, and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, Father Emil J. Kapaun. The Catholic Church calls Father Kapaun a Servant of God because he is being considered for official recognition by the Pope and Church as a saint in Heaven, for his life and works. Since hearing Father Kapaun’s story, Frank has been on a mission to have the priest awarded Knighthood into the Knights of Columbus, the fraternal service order he has long served.

“There are times and people who are truly bigger than life,” Frank said. “I have been committed to spreading the story of Father Kapaun since we first learned about him through a great Brother Knight, Frank Shanahan.”

I had breakfast with Frank to learn more about Father Kapaun and why he is so passionate about this cause.

Priest. Chaplin. Soldier.

Collins: Emil J. Kapaun was a diocesan priest in small-town Pilsen, Kansas, before graduating from Army Chaplaincy School and serving briefly in Burma and India at the tail end of World War II. When he got to Korea, it didn’t take long for him to experience the horrors of war.

Keegan: No, it didn’t. When the communist North Korean forces stormed into South Korea to start the war, Father Kapaun was serving in the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, in Japan. They were sent to the front line almost immediately.

What were Father Kapaun’s duties?

Well, he was the regimental chaplain, so he celebrated mass and did other “regular” priestly duties. But he did so much more than that. Father Kapaun was a man who performed his duty as a priest without hesitation on the battlefield. He was fearless. He prayed with soldiers in foxholes, celebrated mass—sometimes using a Jeep hood as an altar, anointed the dying, comforted the sick, and risked his life countless times to bring wounded men to safety. The Army recognized his heroism by awarding him the Bronze Star Medal for bravery in action.

I read that he wasn’t pleased with the recognition.

No, because he was so humble. Father Kapaun felt that he was only doing his duty. But he was pleased that the medal helped lift the spirts of the men he served. It was always about those men, “his boys.”

Martyr.

In accounts of Father Kapaun’s service, he seemed to demonstrate a rare peace and calm, even under the worst of battle conditions.

He did, and his example helped to sustain the troops’ morale on the battlefield and even after they were captured.

Tell me about the prisoner-of-war camp.

It was horrible. The North Koreans forced the captured American soldiers to march more than 60 miles to get to the camp—after the exhaustion of battle. If a soldier was too weak or injured to march, they shot him, or just left him to die. Father Kapaun went up and down the line of troops, picking up those who fell, carrying soldiers who couldn’t walk, and encouraging the men to keep going and help their comrades.

At one point, when a North Korean soldier went to shoot an exhausted and wounded GI, Herb Miller, Father Kapaun pushed the gun aside and picked up the man. The North Korean was so shocked by the priest’s bravery that he let them both live.

And when they finally got to the camp?

Father Kapaun worked each and every day for his men, well beyond his priestly duties. He would sneak out of the camp at night to find food. He gave aid to the sick and wounded, washed clothes, melted snow to give them clean water, and told jokes to lighten the mood. He gave everything of himself for his friends.

But it finally caught up to him…

Yes, it did. He developed pneumonia and nearly died. But when he fought back and started to recover, the Chinese captors running the camp took him away. They saw Father Kapaun as a troublemaker because he kept the troops’ morale high. They took him to a “hospital,” which meant the death house, where they would leave men to die.

How did the men react to this?

They were livid and tried to stop the Chinese. But Father Kapaun, always looking out for his men, told them to stop. He said he was going where he always wanted to be and, when he got there, he would pray for them.

The thing is, even when he was basically sentenced to death and the men carried him to the “hospital,” Father Kapaun held no bitterness. He asked the camp guards for forgiveness if anything he had done had brought harm to them. He even blessed them. The people who were about to execute him—he blessed them.

He died a few days later, at only 35 years old. He literally gave his life for his boys.

"Life is a journey, a climb upward, and we must all make the climb. In this life, we need heroes—those who have climbed to the top of the mountain. We who are still in the valley—climbing, seeking—need to see what we can be."

Hero. Servant of God.

Chaplin Kapaun has already received our country’s highest and most prestigious military decoration. Why honor him with Knights membership 71 years after his death?

Life is a journey, a climb upward, and we must all make the climb. In this life, we need heroes—those who have climbed to the top of the mountain. We who are still in the valley—climbing, seeking—need to see what we can be.

Those of us in the Knights who help our parishes and communities need heroes—men we can emulate. Here is a man who embodied the principles we are called to espouse as Knights: charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism.

Father Kapaun, like the Knights, sought to serve all—not just the Catholic soldiers. He served Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim men in that camp.

Here’s a wonderful story. Shortly after Father Kapaun passed, a new prisoner arrived at the camp, a Marine pilot named Major Gerry Fink. The pilot immediately noticed the morale at this camp was higher than his previous POW camp. After the men told him stories about Father Kapaun, Major Fink, who was a gifted artist, hand carved a four-foot-tall crucifix as a tribute to the martyred priest and a gift for his fellow prisoners. Think about it: a Jewish Marine was so moved by the story of the brave Catholic chaplain that he carved a crucifix. What a beautiful tribute.

When the men were finally liberated, they carried that cross with them out of the camp to honor their chaplain. The cross is now on display in Kapaun Mount Carmel Catholic High School in Wichita. It serves to remind the students of Father Kapaun and the legacy of service that is being passed to them.

What is the issue with bestowing Knights membership to Father Kapaun?

The Knights’ Supreme Council has refused to bestow posthumous membership for Father Kapaun because, in their words, Knighthood “is earned and not awarded.” We were also advised that there was no precedent to allow the awarding.

Can you imagine saying a man who saved the lives of dozens of American soldiers and ultimately gave his life in their service hasn’t earned Knighthood?

In fact, there is precedence for posthumously awarding Knighthood. A young man who aspired to one day be a Knight, like his father, was shot and killed while defending his classmates from a shooter. This was a truly heroic and selfless act, worthy of the posthumous recognition. We feel the same about Father Kapaun’s life and service.

What are you doing to convince the Knights’ Supreme Council?

Everything possible. I started by reaching out to them directly—writing letters, making phone calls. I even wrote to the Supreme Knight. My efforts have seemed to fall on deaf ears. So, for the past 12 years, we have followed all the rules and made contact at every level of the order. Working with other men from Knights’ councils in southeast PA and beyond, we have been building a grassroots coalition. There are hundreds of men nationwide who have learned of Father Kapaun’s story and have rallied to the cause. We will have our petition presented again at the Knights’ National Convention this year.

We will continue to do everything in our power to change minds and attitudes regarding Father Kapaun. Slowly, but surely, we will prevail. I feel we owe it to Father Kapaun to keep trying. We must remember that, in the middle of the hell he was enduring, he never gave up—and that is why there were survivors from that death camp.

Homecoming.

On September 26, 2021, when Father Kapaun’s remains were returned home to his native Kansas, Frank was one of thousands there to greet him. Given his ten-year-long effort to honor the hero priest, Frank was invited by the Father Kapaun Guild to attend the homecoming and funeral mass.

“It was one of the most moving experiences of my life,” Frank said, “to see an American hero and a truly good man come home and be laid to rest with full honors; it gave me even more energy and purpose to make his case to the Knights.”

“I would be truly remiss if I failed to pass on the words of my friend Grant Grissom, who was with me in Kansas,” Frank added. “Grant is not a Catholic but is one of the finest Christian men you will ever be blessed to know. His words perfectly sum up our thoughts: ‘The highest honor you can give the dead is not grief, but gratitude and imitation.’”

Collins: You attended the vigil and funeral, which were held at Hartman Arena in Park City, Kansas.

Keegan: I did, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium as his nephew, Ray Kapaun, gave the eulogy. Over 5,000 people attended the Mass. There were seven bishops on the altar at the service, hundreds of priests, and choirs from the Air Force Academy and West Point. The soldiers serving in the Honor Guard from the 1st Cavalry Division, Father Kapaun’s division, deserve special thanks. Their dedication to the service for Father Kapaun was incredible. It was as though we were transported to Arlington National Cemetery.

The men who served with Father Kapaun, also POWs, spoke movingly at his funeral. All said he was the bravest man they ever knew.

"In our lives, is there anything more rewarding than helping someone in need? Doing something that really matters and that positively impacts someone, all without seeking praise for ourselves—that was Father Emil Joseph Kapaun."

Quest.

Frank’s passionate and ongoing commitment to the hero priest are best illuminated in Father Kapaun’s own words: “Christ’s works testify to what he was; our works will testify to what we are.”

To Frank, these words are both a profound teaching and an impassioned calling. “Chaplin Kapaun’s works gave his fellow soldiers the greatest of gifts, hope. He gave them hope. In our lives, is there anything more rewarding than helping someone in need? Doing something that really matters and that positively impacts someone, all without seeking praise for ourselves—that was Father Emil Joseph Kapaun.”

Indeed, scripture tells us, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” For Father Kapaun, giving his life for his brothers in arms was an emulation of Divine love. For Frank Keegan, it is a call to duty—because the job isn’t done. Frank will continue the fight to honor Father Kapaun.

Priest, chaplain, hero, Servant of God, and, soon-to-be Knight—because, like the good man he honors, Frank’s works testify to the type of man he is. I wouldn’t bet against him.

~~~

A note from Frank: I strongly suggest reading the accounts of the prisoners who held onto Father Kapaun’s words and prayers, and who later wrote about his dedication to them. There is so much more to his story than we can cover here.