Jesuit Chaplain Wins Medal of Honor, 1945

Today marks the death of Father Joseph T. O’Callahan (1905-1964), a Jesuit Navy Chaplain who was awarded the Congressional Medal for bravery in the Second World War. Born in Boston, he joined the Jesuits’ New England Province in 1922 and was ordained in 1934. Before he was commissioned a Navy Chaplain in 1940, he taught at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. One of his students, John V. Power, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1944. Assigned stateside for most of the war, Father O’Callahan was assigned to the USS Franklin in March 1945. A few weeks later, when his ship was badly damaged by a Japanese air attack, he distinguished himself comforting the injured and leading damage control and ammunition jettisoning parties. The ship’s commanding officer described O’Callahan as “the bravest man I ever saw.” His Medal of Honor citation reads thus:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Chaplain on board the U.S.S. Franklin when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy Japanese aircraft during offensive operations near Kobe, Japan, on 19 March 1945. A valiant and forceful leader, calmly braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal to aid his men and his ship, Lieutenant Commander O’Callahan groped his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets and other armament. With the ship rocked by incessant explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led fire-fighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them. Serving with courage, fortitude and deep spiritual strength, Lieutenant Commander O’Callahan inspired the gallant officers and men of the Franklin to fight heroically and with profound faith in the face of almost certain death and to return their stricken ship to port.

After the war, Father O’Callahan returned to Holy Cross, retiring from the Naval Reserve in 1953. After his death, in 1968, the USS O’Callahan was named in his honor. He was the first Jesuit to have his own battleship, but not the last. The second was named for Father Jake Laboon, an Annapolis graduate and Navy Chaplain, in 1993.