Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Father Sampson- The Paratrooper Priest

This is a pretty amazing story of a Priest in the military and what he did over his years of service. American Catholic has Father Major General . It is pretty amazing that this Priest after his experiences in WWII and as a POW would sign up again and be jumping out of airplanes in Korea.

This is an amusing part:

Frankly, I did not know when I signed up for the airborne that chaplains would be expected to jump from an airplane in flight. Had I known this beforehand, and particularly had I known the tortures of mind and body prepared at Fort Benning for those who sought the coveted parachute wings, I am positive that I should have turned a deaf ear to the plea for airborne chaplains. However, once having signed up, I was too proud to back out. Besides, the airborne are the elite troops of the Army, and I already began to enjoy the prestige and glamour that goes with belonging to such an outfit.”
The newspapers during the war would call him the “Paratrooper Padre”.

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