Three homeschool students honored Father Emil Kapaun, a Medal of Honor recipient whose case for canonization is open, in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery Nov. 1.
The students, Luke, Isel and Henry, are members of Mary’s House, a Catholic homeschool group in Northern Virginia. They were selected to participate in the ceremony after winning an essay contest on Father Kapaun.
Father Kapaun was a U.S. Army chaplain in the Korean War who risked his life to save wounded soldiers on the battlefield. He was imprisoned in the Pyotong prison camp in North Korea, where he died May 23, 1951.He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor April 11, 2013.
“Father Kapaun shared his faith and gave his life for many soldiers in the Korean War,” Henry said. Upon seeing the thousands of white crosses dotting the cemetery’s rolling hills, he told his grandmother, “There are just too many.”
