Valor Friday

Longtime readers will know I have a penchant for those with interesting names (Galusha Pennypacker for example) and chaplains. Some of those chaplains I’ve highlighted are;

• Emil Kapaun, MoH
• John Whitehead, James Hill, and Milton Haney, Civil War Medals of Honor
• Francis Hall, Civil War MoH, and Joseph O’Callahan, WWII MoH
• George Rentz, WWII Navy Cross 
• Charles Watters, Vietnam MoH
• Charles Liteky, Vietnam MoH (also the only man to ever return his MoH)
• Vincent Capodanno, Vietnam MoH
• Albert Braun, WWI and WWII
• Augustus Gearhard, WWI and WWII
• How Forgy, WWII
• The Four Chaplains

So when I came across the name Joseph Verbis Lafleur and found out he was a heroic chaplain, well I had to share the story.

According to Military Times;

Joseph Lafleur was the fourth of seven children in a troubled family; his father deserted the family when Joseph was only about twelve years old. His mother was forced to take odd jobs and grow a garden to feed her family. At an early age he begged his mother and parish priest to allow him to study for the priesthood, and his priest made arrangements for him to enter Saint Joseph’s Minor Seminary in Saint Benedict, Louisiana in 1927, when he was only 15-years-old. After eleven years of preparation he was ordained a Catholic Priest in 1938, and celebrated his First Solemn Mass at his home parish, Saint Landry Catholic Church in Opelousas, Louisiana, on April 5, 1938. He volunteered for service in the U.S. Army prior to the beginning of World War II, and was stationed at Clark Field in the Philippine Islands when war began. When offered the chance for evacuation, he declined, refusing to leave his men, and accompanied them into combat. On one occasion, he crawled on his stomach through a hail of bullets to rescue a wounded officer. Captured and interned as a Prisoner of War at the fall of the Philippine Islands, he died while being transported in the Japanese POW ship Shinyo Maru, which was attacked and sunk by American aircraft in September 1944. One of the 82 survivors of the incident stated that he last saw Chaplain LaFleur standing in the hold by the ladder helping others to escape.

I talked last week about the horrors of the hell ships. They were used to transport Allied prisoners towards the Japanese home islands as they steadily lost the war. The ships were notoriously over crowded, with little or no food, water, or medical care. The Japanese didn’t mark the vessels as carrying PWs, so they were frequently attacked by Allied forces, with several of them sinking. While the treatment of PWs by the Japanese was notoriously bad (little food, no medicine, and frequent beatings or summary executions), the conditions in the hell ships stand out as particularly bad.

While Military Times list the loss of Shinyo Maru to American aircraft, she was actually sunk by American submarine USS Paddle on 7 September 1944. Paddle had been sent out to locate Shinyo Maru specifically. Intelligence had reported the ship was carrying Japanese troops. Unknown to the crew of Paddle, when they found her a few days later she was laden with 750 Allied prisoners (almost all of them Americans that had been captured in the fall of the Philippines more than two years previously.

After Shinyo Maru was hit with two torpedoes in quick succession, she was pulled alongside one of the other ships in the convoy. That ship in turn was also hit with two torpedoes from Paddle. Aboard Shinyo Maru, guards opened fire on those who survived the initial torpedo blasts, but some of the men fought their way out of the hold.

For those that made it past the machine guns trained on the hatch doors, they were then attacked by the crews of the other Japanese convoy ships. Boats were sent out to rescue the Japanese survivors. Those Allied prisoners who were pulled from the water were executed for having the gall to try to escape.

Only 83 Americans made it off Shinyo Maru and swam the mile or two back to the Philippines.

Before dying tragically in the sinking of the hell ship, Lafleur earned two Distinguished Service Crosses. The first was earned on the first day of the war, 8 December 1941. The second was awarded posthumously for his bravery in the face of the enemy while interned as a prisoner. The citations are;

Distinguished Service Cross
World War II
Service: United States Army Air Forces
Rank: First Lieutenant (Chaplain’s Corps)
Batallion: Headquarters Squadron
Regiment: 19th Bombardment Group (H)
Division: 5th Air Force
Action Date: December 8, 1941

Headquarters, Office of the Department Commander, South West Pacific Command, General Orders No. 2 (February 15, 1942)
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Chaplain’s Corps) Joseph Verbis LaFleur (ASN: 0-413997), United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Chaplain in Headquarters Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group (H), FIFTH Air Force, in action against enemy forces during the first Japanese attack on a Philippine Island airport on 8 December 1941. Chaplain LaFleur worked among the wounded, removing them to safety, and comforting the dying. First Lieutenant LaFleur’s intrepid actions, personal bravery and zealous devotion to duty exemplify the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself, the 5th Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces.

Distinguished Service Cross
World War II
Service: United States Army Air Forces
Rank: First Lieutenant (Chaplain’s Corps)
Division: Prisoner of War (Philippine Islands)
Action Date: December 30, 1941 – September 7, 1944

Headquarters, Department of the Army, General Orders No. 2017-32 (September 11, 2017)
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a Second Award of the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to First Lieutenant (Chaplain’s Corps) Joseph Verbis LaFleur (ASN: 0-413997), United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism from 30 December 1941 through 7 September 1944. While evading capture aboard the S.S. MAYTON, Chaplain LaFleur was instrumental in saving three men who jumped overboard during an attack from a Japanese bomber. After the three men were rescued, he then assisted Soldiers into lifeboats until he was the last man on the ship, denying his own chance to escape to Australia. As a Prisoner of War after 1 January 1942, Chaplain LaFleur constructed a chapel at the prison camp to minister to men of all faiths. He continuously advocated for food and medicine for the prisoners often intervening on their behalf, resulting in beatings at the hands of his captors. Later, while aboard the “hell ship” SHINYO MARU bound for Japan, he organized distribution of the meager rations allotted to approximately 400 prisoners and was observed giving his rations to others. On 7 September 1944, the submarine U.S.S. PADDLE, believing the ship was transporting Japanese Soldiers, sank the SHINYO MARU. Chaplain LaFleur was last seen aiding prisoners to escape in spite of Japanese guards firing small arms weapons and throwing hand grenades into the ship’s hold. Chaplain LaFleur’s personal valor and self-sacrifice in the face of grave danger are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the Army of the United States.

Lafleur also received a Bronze Star Medal w/ “V”, two Purple Hearts, and appropriate service medals. In 2020 a case for his beatification (the process for one to become a saint) had been opened, and as such the padre is known as “Servant of God” by the Catholic Church.

Category: Army, Distinguished Service Cross, Historical, POW, Valor, We Remember