Rev. Marcus Valenta achieves longest active-duty record in U.S. history. (original) (raw)

Rev. Marcus Valenta achieves longest active-duty record in U.S. history

The Lavaca County Tribune � Feb. 10, 1959

Of all the chaplains in the U.S. Armed Forces, one has seen longer continuous combat-theatre duty than any other. He is Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Marcus A. Valenta, a reserve officer.

Diocesan priest of St. Mary�s Church at Praha, Father Valenta, now in his twenty-fifth year as an Army chaplain, served in the Pacific from before Pearl Harbor until after the Japanese surrender. The chaplain, who first saw duty at Fort Sam Houstonin 1933, expects to put in a total of 32 years before mandatory retirement.

�I would gladly stay longer,� he said, �God and the Army willing.�

After duty as a CCC chaplain at Lufkinprior to the National Emergency Act of 1940, Father Valenta was sent at that time to Maxwell Field, Ala. In July 1941 he was assigned to the old 22nd Brigade at Schofield Barracks, T.H.

His unit, the 27th Infantry Regt., went into the newly formed 25th Division a short time later. �Just in time for Pearl Harbor,� he said.

His recollections of that Dec. 7 morning are both comic and tragic, and he relates them all vividly � the unpreparedness, the unbelief, and the final realization of �this is it.�

After leading a busload of children to shelter as bombs began to fall on nearby Wheeler Field, the chaplain commandeered a car to Wheeler to minister to the wounded. He was then placed in charge of the evacuation of women and children from Schofield.

Then came duty on Canton Island, where runways were being built to base the air assault on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. Then back to Hawaii in time to join the task force for the invasion of Saipan.

Next came Okinawa on D-Day. He was still there on the Japanese surrender date, Aug. 15, 1945, and recalls watching through binoculars as the Japanese envoys landed on a near-by island enroute to their appointment with Gen. MacArthur on the USS Missouri.

Chaplain Valenta remained on Okinawa as chaplain of the camp set up for American and Allied prisoners of war being repatriated from Japanese labor battalions and routed home. The chaplain, who had already put in more months overseas than any other, delayed his rotation and stayed on.

�There were so few chaplains,� Father Valenta explained, �and those pitiful POW�s needed help. Besides, Christmas was coming up, and those men were looking forward to the services.�

His final departure for the States was almost delayed when the airplane was warming up for the take-off.

�A sergeant from the medics said I had to have 12 inoculations because I couldn�t find my shot record,� the chaplain recalls. �I told him I had been a guinea pig all through the war, taking more shots than he had ever seen.�

Finally the medic settled for 6 shots. Fearing his plane would leave without him, Father Valenta hastily bared both arms and said, �Shoot three in each arm, quick.�

� Murray Montgomery
Lone Star Diary

February 4 , 2011 Column
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