The Chaplain Who Refused to Leave

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Father Emil Kapaun was an Army chaplain in Korea. He carried no weapon.

[00:00:05]But when the battlefield near Unsan collapsed in November 1950, he did not run.

[00:00:11]Chinese forces had overrun American positions. Wounded men were trapped on the ground. Soldiers who could still move were being ordered to withdraw. But Father Kapaun kept going back. He pulled men from fire. He prayed with the dying.

[00:00:25]And when Sergeant Herbert Miller lay wounded and a Chinese soldier moved to kill him, Kapaun stepped in, pushed the weapon away, and helped carry Miller to safety.

[00:00:35]Then Kapaun was captured with the men he refused to leave.

[00:00:39]On the forced march north, he helped wounded prisoners keep moving.

[00:00:43]In the prison camp, he stole food for the starving, washed the sick, repaired what he could, and gave men hope when they had almost nothing left.

[00:00:53]He died in captivity on May 23rd, 1951.

[00:00:58]But the prisoners never forgot him.

[00:01:00]He was the chaplain who stayed. Full story now on our channel.