Remembering the chaplains of the Second World War 60 years later

Photos from Chaplains of
The Methodist Church in World War II

By Daniel R. Gangler

Sixty years ago this month, the Second World War ended in Europe. A rich part of the war's history includes the role of more than 10,000 ordained ministers who voluntarily became chaplains in the armed forces. Of those thousands, 88 former Methodists and Evangelical United Brethren pastors answered their call to country and to God and served around the world.

Today, three of those chaplains, now retired United Methodist ministers, live on. They include the Revs. Ralph Blodgett, George Dinwiddie and John Wolf. A fourth, the Rev. Charles Ball is assumed to be alive, but Together did not have adequate information to contact him. To reflect upon their chaplaincy experience during the 1940s and '50s, Together interviewed each of the three to see where they are today and what they did as chaplains in World War II.

The oldest of the three, even when he enlisted, is Ralph Blodgett, age 102, lives in Noblesville, Ind. He left his Markle church at the age of 42. Even though he enlisted, before the end of the war to serve in the Army as a chaplain, he didn't leave Indiana until June 1945. He served 12 years in both Europe and the Pacific.

Blodgett served his first year between the United States and Europe as the lone chaplain on a Victory Ship based in Brooklyn, N.Y. He told Together in a phone interview that in his first 12 months, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean 12 times from Brooklyn to the port of LaHavre, France on the English Channel.

The U.S. Maritime Commission built Victory Ships (troop carriers) during the war. Each ship carried 2,000 troops and/or supplies. On board, Blodgett conducted weekly worship services, counseled servicemen, assigned lay Catholics to conduct Catholic services and buried the dead.

During his 12 years in the Army Chaplaincy, he crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans a total of 51 times.

From Brooklyn, Blodgett was transferred to the islands of the Pacific and was based out of Newport News, Va.

In 1949 he began three years of service in Germany accompanied by his family. He said he enjoyed these three years the most because it allowed him and his family to tour Europe while he served.

Between 1953 and 1956 he was based at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. His final year of chaplaincy was spent in Japan.

Entering Germany after the war, he said he vividly remembers the destruction he saw everywhere. He said, "Germany looked like a hurricane had gone through it." He also was saddened by the poverty he experienced in Korea during his last tour of duty.

Returning to Indiana in 1957, he was appointed to Maple Hill Church in Indianapolis.

An important link between the then and now is his daughter, the Rev. Judi Purvis, senior pastor of Linden United Methodist Church in the Indianapolis West District and incoming Vincennes District Superintendent.

George Dinwiddie, now age 93 and living in Spurgin, Mich., entered the Army Air Corps as a chaplain in April 1941 at the age of 35. He served through 1946. He spent the first year on an air base in Connecticut and served overseas in North Africa, Italy and Sicily with the 64th Troop Carrier Group. He returned to the United States in 1944 and continued his service until 1946 in eastern Illinois.

Dinwiddie told Together by phone form his home that he was assigned to four squadrons of the Army Air Corps each having 13 planes. As a chaplain he cared for the sick, held weekly services either in base chapels or out of doors, and buried the dead.

As one of the most memorable experiences of his tour of duty, he remembers officiating with four other chaplains at a funeral service of 30 men killed in a plane crash. While walking out of the cemetery, the chaplains were stopped by General George Patton who admonished them for not marching from a military funeral.

Dinwiddie returned home to Indiana in 1946 and married a high school girlfriend. He spent many years in the South Indiana Conference. Bishop Richard Raines later appointed him to the North Indiana Conference.

John Wolf, youngest of the three now 86 and living in Valparaiso, Ind., entered the U.S. Navy right out of seminary. The Navy did not require three years of pastoral experience as the Army did.

Wolf told Together in a personal interview, "What is significant is that no chaplain was drafted. In fact pastors and seminarians were exempt from military service. All World War II chaplains were volunteers."

After training, Wolf was assigned as chaplain in 1943 to the USS Frederick Funston, an attack transport ship which carried troops in and out of battle. The ship spent the rest of 1943 transporting troops, engineers and rangers and was based at Salerno, Italy and sailed off the coasts of Italy and Sicily. In 1944, the ship was dispatched to the Pacific. The Funston was involved in the invasion of Saipan, Guam, Manus, Leyte and then embarked to New Guinea. During the battle of Iwo Jima, the Funston lay off the island throughout the assault and landed troops in February 1945.

Wolf remembers that the night before the invasion of Saipan, many soldiers were baptized and received Holy Communion. "I recognized some of these same guys the next day as casualties." They spent two weeks onboard before getting to doctors in Hawaii for treatment.

He vividly recalls caring for Sgt. Charles Carter Anderson Jr., the ship captain's son, who was mortally wounded in the battle of Iwo Jima. After the battle, he recalled burying him with others on Iwo Jima.

Wolf said a difficult part of the duty was burying the dead. He said he didn't like burials at sea and preferred land burials so their bodies could be moved later to their home, or to a military cemetery such as Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

"There were a lot of vacancies in Indiana parishes during the war," said Wolf. He remembers that the Rev. Frank Templeton, a pastor who didn't go into the chaplaincy during the war, refused to accept any promotion during the war."

Wolf further said that sometimes the conference kept in contact with their chaplains overseas. "The Rev. W. T. Jones, a South Indiana Conference superintendent never failed to write those in the chaplaincy."

After the war, Wolf continued in the chaplaincy and taught at the chaplain's school at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

Wolf told Together that the chaplaincy played a vital roll in World War II. Many of the soldiers were 17 and 18-year-old kids right out of high school. Within two weeks of leaving home, they were in battle. "As chaplains we helped them face the reality of warfare and then took care of their wounds. For our service, we received a medal for taking care of the wounded," he said.

All 88 chaplains went on to serve as Indiana pastors. There were 16 million Americans in the military during the Second World War.

Last updated on 25 Apr 2008

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