Retired Air Force Colonel Mike Kelly spoke on behalf of the Kaupan Memorial Committee, a group working to raise funds to place a statue of Korean War Chaplain Emil Kaupan in the Kansas State House. Emil grew up in the small Czech farming community of Pilsen, Kansas. He experienced an early calling to the priesthood and served as a Chaplain in Burma and India at the end of World War II. He asked to serve in the Korean War an landed in Pusan with the Eighth Cavalry. He ministered to men under fire as his division fought their way north. He was captured in Unsan in November 1950. He saved a wounded sargent and carried him on his back sixty miles to a prison camp. Under terrible conditions the Chaplain provided comfort and inspiration to his fellow prisoners. Chaplin Kaupan died in the camp in May of 1951, leaving a legacy of courage and service. He is the most decorated Chaplain in the service and was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2013.
