Afterword

to love and serve

During World War II between December 1941 and 1945 some 16 million Americans served in the Armed F orces. Of these 416,000 gave their lives as the United States waged war in the E uropean and Pacific theaters. More than 8,000 Chaplains ofall denominations served side by side with the men and women in this deadliest military conflict in history.

“T hey held religious services for soldiers and sailors and preached to them. They counseled and advised those who sought help. They were everywhere they deemed their presence to be necessary –in battle, that meant with the combat troops, and there the chaplain often acted above and beyond the call ofduty. Under hostile fire, they risked their lives. (Seventy Catholic Chaplains died in World War II.) They sought the wounded, the dying, and the dead who lay exposed and helpless. They succored them, rescued them, brought them back to medical aid stations, and prayed over them. bodies and wrote to the families ofthe They buried deceased.” 21

“In combat, every chaplain experienced the same terrors –the threat ofsudden annihilation or severe injury, the death ofone’s closest companions –the same crushing burden oflabor, and hardships of weather and terrain. At the same time, chaplains who remained in the United States during all of the war (many ofwhom resented having to stay at home while ‘the boys’ were suffering overseas) fered boredom and frustration.” 22 suf

Although but a small percentage ofthe total number ofChaplains, the records ofmilitary service, the citations and awards, and the inspiring stories ofNew England Province Jesuits recounted here capture the shared experience ofthe whole and remind us that we must not forget with the passage oftime the sacrifices they, together with millions of their fellow Americans, so generously made to keep our Nation free.

21 Donald F. Crosby, Battlefield Chaplains. (Lawrence, KS, University of Kansas Press, 1994), xi-xii. 22 Ibid., xxiv.