Helper of the Helpless

Chaplain Albert J. Hoffmann, 35, last week became the most decorated U.S. chaplain of World War II. The Roman Catholic priest, who formerly had a parish in Dubuque, Iowa, received the Distinguished Service Cross. He had already been given the Purple Heart and the Silver Star. Chaplain Hoffmann received his three medals for his heroic rescue of wounded men (one of them a German) under withering shellfire.

Major General Norman T. Kirk, U.S. Army Surgeon General, went to Battle Creek, Mich, to pin the U.S.'s second highest honor on Chaplain Hoffmann, who is convalescing in Percy Jones General Hospital. He came unscathed through the Tunisian and Sicilian campaigns, lost his left leg and suffered severe wounds in the fighting near Cassino.

The 34th Division's Corporal James P. Fouche gave an eyewitness report of Chaplain Hoffmann in action: "Our battalion was ordered to take Hill 490, the smaller hill near Hill 609. One of the fellows ahead got hit. We could hear him moaning and two medics tried to reach him, but they could not because of the enemy machine-gun fire raking the area. The poor guy kept calling and two other medics tried to take a stab at it, but they couldn't reach him, either.

"Then Father Hoffmann got up. He walked calmly up there through the hail of machine-gun bullets, and in a little while he came back carrying the wounded man. He got his captain's bars and Silver Star for that. Three days before he stepped on the mine [this cost him his leg], he came back one morning, telling everyone that the German gunners were wild shots. One of their mortars, he asserted, had missed him by seven feet. That's the way he was, laughing, joking and kidding around, but really getting things done, too. He could march right along with the toughest guys in our outfit."

Says Chaplain Hoffmann: "In combat, no one stands out as doing anything heroic. Out there acts of heroism are common place. Probably the only reason that anyone gets a medal is that his deed happens to be noticed and reported. As to my spending most of my time in the front line with the men, well, this is the way that I look at it. ... The follows wounded at the front, perhaps lying for hours before help reaches them, are the ones who especially need a chaplain. There is nothing more terrifying than the feeling of lying alone, lost and helpless. Those are the men whom I have made my particular concern."

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