Captain Emil J. Kapaun Post Office Building

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Kansas, for this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of Father Emil Kapaun, a man of God who served the Lord and his country in both World War II and the Korean war.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2044 to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 17 East Main Street in Herington, Kansas, as the Captain Emil J. Kapaun Post Office Building.

In March of this year, Father Kapaun's remains were finally identified in Hawaii, and just last month, they were brought back to his hometown of Pilsen, Kansas, which lies in my district, the Big First District of Kansas.

Father Kapaun grew up on a farm, became a priest in 1940 at 24 years old, and became a U.S. military chaplain 4 years later. Father Kapaun received a Bronze Star for valor during the Korean war in 1950 when, in the heat of battle, he rushed to the front lines to retrieve a wounded soldier under heavy machine-gun fire, saving that soldier's life with complete disregard for his own safety.

He also received the Distinguished Service Cross, which was upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2013 for another heroic effort in battle that same year. Father Kapaun rescued nearly 40 wounded comrades from no- man's-land; disregarded an order to evacuate, choosing to stay with the wounded even though it meant his own capture; and pushed aside an enemy soldier who was about to execute a member of his own battalion.

He was put in a POW camp, where he gave away his own food and dug latrines before dying a year later. He was a great man, a servant of all who followed Jesus who said: ``Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.''

Father Kapaun is on his way to sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. I have introduced a resolution in his honor and today urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on my bill, which would rename the postal facility in Herington, Kansas, after him.

My prayers are with his family members as they celebrate his life of service, and it is an honor to praise his faithfulness and bravery in this Chamber today.

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman from Kansas has no further speakers, then I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

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