Need help identifying Marine Officers
Hi. My name is John Stansifer the author of NO BULLET GOT ME: The Relentless Faith of Father Kapaun- a bio of Chaplain Emil Kapaun who died in Camp 5 Pyoktong May 23, 1951. He is now the most decorated chaplain in US military history and soon to be named a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
Major Gerald Fink was a Jewish USMC fighter pilot with VMF-312 and shot down Aug 1951 and ended up at officers camp 2 and learned of Kapaun and carved a large crucifix in his honor dubbed Christ in Barbed Wire. This crucifix was smuggled out and photographed during operation Big Switch on Sep 10, 1953 with CWO Felix McCool, Lt Ralph Nardella, Paul ODowd and Joseph OConnor – all Catholics. Fink however was repatriated on Sept 6.The crucifix today is the crown jewel of Kapaun Mt Carmel High School in Wichita Kansas. Fink made a lot of carvings in the Pow camp and for 75 years it was believed to be the only crucifix he ever carved. Now look at first pic attached. In that greeting officer’s hands is a prototype miniature version of Christ in Barb wire about 12” tall – the full size one is 3 foot tall – meaning that smaller version is a Holy Relic.
The Marine on left is likely a Catholic Marine officer- most likely an aviator or pilot who was shot down over North Korea. That narrows the names down quite a bit to maybe a dozen. Would like to track down any family members and try and find out what happened to that crucifix which Fink almost certainly gifted to him in the camp. He appears quite young and it’s possible he may have even met Fr Kapaun depending on when he was captured.
Would help also to identify the Marine officer on right who has aviator wings and possibly a rank of Lieutenant Colonel- I know these photos were captioned but can’t find any identifying caption from this pic which comes from a collector who bought the photo from Finks estate in the 1980s ! He read my book and contacted me.
Can’t read his ID card.
Thank you for your time – a second edition of my book is coming out next year…
John Stansifer
