Valor Friday

In last week’s article I discussed three US Army chaplains who received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Civil War. I missed including one name on that list. I’d like to discuss him first as we continue our series on valorous chaplains.

Francis Hall was just a few weeks away from his 35th birthday when he enlisted in Plattsville, NY in October 1862 with the 16th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

There is remarkably little information on Chaplain Hall. His first taste of combat was at the Battle of Salem Church (also known as the Battle of Banks’ Ford) on 3 May, 1863. This battle was part of the larger Battle of Chancellorsville.

Reverend Hall’s regiment and others of the VI Corps were sent to attack what was believed to be a single brigade of Confederate infantry. After the initial Union attack was repulsed, Confederate General Lee coordinated a multi-pronged attack over the night of the 3rd and into the 4th of May. This resulted in the VI Corps elements being nearly completely surrounded with only a single bridgehead to retreat over. With Union casualties mounting near 5,000 men of the more than 20,000 assembled, the Union Army retreated, handing Lee a victory.

The larger Chancellorsville battle would likewise be a major defeat for the Union side, despite outnumbering the rebels 2-to-1.

It was in this brutal part of the war that Francis Hall was first tested under fire. Chaplains served both as spiritual guides for their regiments as well as combat medics and stretcher bearers. Unarmed through the fighting, Chaplain Hall would brave the enemy shell and musket fire throughout the battle to aid his fellow men, 154 of which would become casualties that day.

Major John Gilmore of the 16th New York Infantry said, “Chaplain Hall did voluntarily come, during the hardest fighting with his horse….and carried wounded men upon his horse to the rear for proper care and attendance. I saw him do this several times during the engagement…. I have never mentioned this matter to Chaplain Hall in any way whatsoever, and knowing him as I do, he is the last man in the world who would ever think of being rewarded for his actions.”

Just a few weeks after this battle he would muster out of service. He returned to Upstate New York. He died at age 75 in 1903 in Plattsburgh, NY.

As with the other chaplain Medal of Honor recipients I covered from the Civil War, Chaplain Hall’s medal wasn’t awarded until well after the war. Received the Medal of Honor for his actions 3 May, 1863 in February 1897.

Moving forward, we had a series of wars without another chaplain earning the nation’s highest honor. It was not until World War II that another chaplain would be so recognized. It would be 81 years before Commander (Chaplain) Joseph O’Callahan (USNR) would receive the Medal of Honor.

It should be noted that there were four chaplains, known as “The Four Chaplains” or “The Immortal Chaplains”, who I discussed here. They were posthumously awarded Distinguished Service Crosses and Congress gave them a special award known as “The Four Chaplains’ Medal” which was to have the same weight and importance as the Medal of Honor.

Francis O’Callahan of Boston was a 35 year old Jesuit priest when he volunteered for the US Navy in 1940 on the cusp of World War II. In addition to his religious schooling (the Jesuits require 13 years) he also held advanced degrees in mathematics and physics.

Before enlisting, Father O’Callahan had taught all three of his subjects at Boston College for ten years before moving to the College of the Holy Cross. Among his students at Holy Cross was a young man named John V. Power. Power would also volunteer during the war and served as a Marine Corps rifle platoon commander. During the Battle of Kwajalein 1st Lieutenant Power would earn the Medal of Honor (posthumously) himself for charging a Japanese pillbox single-handedly despite already having a grievous stomach wound.

Commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade in the Chaplain Corps, O’Callahan first served on the carrier USS Ranger (CV-4), participating in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa and Operation Leader off Norway.

O’Callahan was then transferred to USS Franklin (CV-13), reporting aboard on 2 March, 1945 at Pearl Harbor. Franklin was then sent to join other Navy ships in the Battle of Okinawa. On 18 March they started attacks in and around Kyushu.

The next day, 19 March, Franklin would suffer two direct bomb hits from a lone Japanese aircraft before dawn as they were launching sorties from just 50 miles off the coast of the Japanese mainland (the closest of any carrier during the war).

The first bomb hit the ship’s top deck on the centerline, penetrating into the hangar deck. The hit was severe, tearing through three decks, knocking out the combat information center (the ship’s command post during a battle), and causing heavy fires. The second bomb hit aft, tearing through two decks.

When she was hit, Franklin was in the middle of launching a second wave of aircraft. She had 31 fueled and fully armed aircraft on her top deck. From the fires, the literal tons of high explosives started to cook off. This caused more damage, fire, and injuries. Some of these were rockets that, thanks to the taildragger design of the time allowed the rockets to shoot harmlessly off into the ocean.

The armed and fueled planes in the hangar deck, of which there were 16 fueled and five armed, didn’t shoot harmlessly. The bombs caused exponentially more damage in an enclosed space. The rockets that shot off into the sea on the top deck ricocheted around the enclosed hangar. Of the crewmen present in the hangar, only two survived.

Afire and with hundreds of dead and injured sailors USS Franklin was soon dead in the water. Other ships of the task force came alongside to spray water and evacuate wounded. About 400 men of Franklin voluntarily remained aboard to fight the fires. O’Callahan was one of these men.

As the stricken ship listed heavily to starboard, the battered crew made their way to the top deck. Among them was the ship’s Catholic chaplain, who was administering Last Rites to the dying, providing medical help to the wounded, and began to organize and lead the men in combating the ship’s war wounds.

Amid the fire, the gaping holes in the deck, a 15 degree list, and constant explosions from within the ship, not to mention the air battle continuing overhead, O’Callahan was a cool calming presence to the frightened young men.

Hearing a shout of “Padre! Padre! Flight deck forward!” he rushed up to help with the wounded. Taking one mortally wounded sailor’s hand, the young man told him, “Padre, we’re dead.”

Moving forward to the fo’c’sle’ he came upon several sailors, paralyzed with fear, watching their ship and home explode and sink beneath them. The chaplain yelled at them, “Lads, lads! Wan to save our happy home?” He organized the group of men into fire fighting parties and led them below decks.

Realizing he was close to one of the gun turrets, O’Callahan knew that if the fires reached the shells within, they would all be doomed. O’Callahan guided a team of crew into the magazine, through the thick smoke, fighting his severe claustrophobia, into the turret’s stores. O’Callahan grabbed five inch shells and passed them back to the man behind him, creating a bucket brigade to clear out the ammunition. One of the men, as he took the shell from the chaplain, turned to the guy behind him and said, “Padre, praise the Lord and dump the ammunition.”

O’Callahan personally organized a damage control party then, leading them below decks one of the main ammunition magazines and led them in wetting it down, preventing it from exploding and dooming the ship.

At one point, with the ship’s heavy list, a 500 pound bomb came rolling towards one of the holes in the deck. Six men ran forward and stopped the bomb’s movement. Two officers came forward to attempt to disarm the bomb, but were too nervously shaking to do it. Calm as always, Lieutenant Commander O’Callahan came over, standing over the live bomb, he just folded his arms and stood there. With the example set, then officers and men relaxed under the Father’s steady gaze and defused the bomb.

Thanks to the bravery displayed by the officers and men of USS Franklin, the ship was saved. At the end of the day the toll was heavy. Of a nominal crew of 2,600 men, 724 were killed and 265 more were wounded. That’s a 38% casualty rate.

Franklin’s fires were put out, the listing was righted, and power was restored. The warship returned to port, albeit slowly, and was repaired and returned to fleet duty. After the war, the ship was decommissioned in 1947.

As USS Franklin limped back into New York harbor for repairs, O’Callahan came back aboard (having previously been evacuated with the other wounded). As awards were given to the men on the deck of the ship, O’Callahan’s mother was approached by Franklin’s captain, Les Gehres. He told her, “I’m not a religious man. But I watched your son that day and I thought if faith can do this for man, there must be something to it. Your son is the bravest man I have ever seen.”

O’Callahan’s bravery during the battle and the following carnage resulted in his being awarded the Navy Cross, the second highest award for combat bravery. The chaplain refused the medal, the only man to do so during the entirety of World War II.

At the time there was public outcry that O’Callahan was being denied the Medal of Honor because his actions highlighted lapses in leadership from Franklin’s captain. Captain Gehres was in command of USS Franklin and was highly disliked by the men under his command. Earlier in the war, during the Aleutian Islands Campaign he’d been nicknamed “Custer” for his reckless tactics and erratic behavior.

Gehres’ command of Franklin was subsequently used as an object lesson in toxic command. He famously wanted to bring charges against the men of Franklin who leapt overboard rather than die a fiery death aboard ship. Men who had been tossed overboard from the concussion of the blasts were similarly threatened with courts martial for abandoning their post.

When word spread about O’Callahan’s actions and the lack of proper recognition for such, President Truman intervened and awarded him the Medal of Honor. O’Callahan received the medal in January, 1946 from the president himself at the White House. With him that day was another man from USS Franklin. Lieutenant Donald Gary (USN), who also received the Medal of Honor for his actions on 19 March, 1945. He’d rescued 300 men trapped in a smoke-blackened mess and then repeatedly led firefighting crews into the bowels of the ship.

O’Callahan was the first Navy chaplain to receive the Medal of Honor. In 1948, after completing his naval service he returned to teaching at Holy Cross. He died in 1964 at the age of 58.

Category: Army, Historical, Medal of Honor, Navy, Valor, We Remember