MEDAL OF HONOR

The Medal of Honor is our nation's highest military honor.   It is awarded by the President to recipients in three versions; Army, Navy and Air Force.  The award dates to 1863 and our Civil War.  In fact, over 40% of the 3,506 recipients took part in the Civil War.  In simple terms it is awarded for distinguished acts of valor.

One of the recipients was Joseph O'Callahan.  Joe was born and raised in Boston in the early part of the Twentieth Century.  He attended Boston College High School and St. Andrews College where he was awarded a B.A. and then a Master of Arts in mathematics and physics.  He became a professor at Boston College. 

I'll skip ahead.

With the coming of World War II, Joe signed up for the Navy Reserves in 1940.   He was assigned to the USS Ranger doing operations in the Atlantic theater in 1942 and 1943.  By 1945, he had attained the rank of Commander

In March of 1945, he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Benjamin Franklin in the Pacific.  That ship sailed straight for Japan.  Just 17 days after his boarding that ship, it was attacked by Japanese dive bombers and severely damaged.  Fire raged over the whole ship including the deck full of planes and their munitions and below deck in ammunition stores.  The fire was setting off our bombs and further crippling the ship.  She was listing and in danger of sinking. 

Joe, though wounded in the attack, worked his way through smoke and exploding armaments to organize available men and instructed them to push our bombs over the side of the ship before they exploded.  He then organized a group of men to flood the ammunition holds below deck with water to prevent them from exploding.  He is credited with saving the ship as it was able to limp back to Hawaii.

All during O'Callahan's exploits above, he was administering Last Rights to dying sailors.  You see, Commander Joe was Father Joe, a Jesuit priest and Navy Chaplain.  Amazing heroism!  President Harry S. Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor in 1946.