Heroism often reveals itself in quiet moments—like the dawn of December 7, 1941, when a young Navy chaplain aboard the USS Oklahoma faced the unthinkable. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, at 7:48 on December 7, 1941, the day of heroic grace, US Navy Chaplain Father Aloysius H. Schmitt had just finished saying Sunday Mass aboard the USS Oklahoma when torpedoes capsized the battleship. Instead of saving himself, the thirty-two-year-old Iowa native began pushing trapped men through a small porthole to safety. The chaplain and 428 shipmates perished that day. Schmitt became the first American chaplain of any faith to die in World War II.
In 2016, seventy-five years after Pearl Harbor, Schmitt's remains were identified with DNA technology and reinterred at Christ the King Chapel at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, his alma mater. It was a fitting tribute; the school's motto is Pro Deo et Patria (For God and Country). Dedicated in Schmitt's honor in 1947, the chapel holds his chalice and prayerbook was marked with a ribbon for the following day, December 8 - the sixth anniversary of his ordination as a priest.
This and other true stories of amazing Catholics in America are legion and are the focus of the book Incredible Catholic America. Did you know that the first woman in America to become a nun was born a Puritan? Or that the Good Thief has his own post office? Discover these stories and many more when you purchase your copy at The Catholic Company!
