Kapaun’s Remains Could Be In US Cemetery

A senior Pentagon analyst thinks there’s a chance Kansas native Emil Kapaun’s remains eventually will be among those of other missing Korean War troops buried in a national cemetery in Hawaii.

Father Kapaun was an Army chaplain who is believed to have died of starvation and disease in a North Korean prison camp in 1951. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in April and the Catholic Church is deciding whether the Marion County native will become a saint.

Pentagon analyst Philip O’Brien is an authority on Korean War soldiers missing in action, and he thinks Kapaun’s remains were buried in 1954 in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a cemetery in Hawaii better known as the “Punchbowl.”

Associated Press information from: The Wichita Eagle