In the Shadow of the USS Franklin

At the recent USS Franklin reunion in Corpus Christi, attendees had the opportunity to see Donald Gary’s Medal of Honor which was brought to the reunion by Gary’s grandson, Mark Todd. In discussing the medal, Stephen Rausch wondered where Father Joseph T. O’Callahan’s Medal of Honor resided.

I looked it up and found that it is stored in an archive of O’Callahan’s papers at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Because the college is not far from where I live, I contacted the special archives department and made an appointment to research the O’Callahan special collection. And there, in a nondescript grey box, was his Medal of Honor.

 For those who are not familiar, Father Joseph O’Callahan was a Jesuit priest from Roxbury, Massachusetts, born May 14, 1905. After earning his BA and MA degrees, he taught philosophy, math and physics at Boston College, and subsequently at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and then at the College of the Holy Cross in 1938 where he also was Director of the Mathematics Department. In August of 1940, he joined the Chaplains Corp of the US Navy Reserve as Lieutenant junior grade. He taught calculus at Naval Air Station Pensacola, and starting in 1943 as Lt. senior grade, he served for 2-1/2 years on the USS Ranger in the waters of Africa and Europe. After several months of shore duty at Pearl Harbor and a promotion to Lt. Commander, O’Callahan was assigned to the USS Franklin on March 2, 1945.

When the Franklin was bombed on March 19, 1945, Father O’Callahan’s heroic actions that day and during the subsequent days earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor, the first chaplain to be so awarded. He received the medal from President Truman at the same time as Donald Gary, January 23, 1946. The citation for O’Callahan’s medal reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Chaplain on board the U.S.S. FRANKLIN when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy Japanese aircraft during offensive operations near Kobe, Japan, on 19 March 1945. A valiant and forceful leader, calmly braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal to aid his men and his ship, Lieutenant Commander O’Callahan groped his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets, and other armament. With the ship rocked by incessant explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever-increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led firefighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts, despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them. Serving with courage, fortitude, and deep spiritual strength, Lieutenant Commander O’Callahan inspired the gallant officers and men of the FRANKLIN to fight heroically and with profound faith in the face of almost certain death and to return their stricken ship to port.

Promoted to Commander in July of 1945, O’Callahan was released from active duty in November of 1946 and he returned to Worcester and the College of the Holy Cross as Professor of Philosophy. Sadly, poor health, possibly caused in part by the events on the Franklin, plagued him for the rest of his life and he retired from teaching in 1951. He retired from the Navy Reserve in 1953 and was promoted on the retired list to Captain. He found the energy to write a memoir of his time on the Franklin entitled, “I Was Chaplain on the Franklin,” published in 1956.  Also in 1956, the movie “Battle Stations” was released – it was a fictionalized version of the story of Father O’Callahan on the USS Franklin, but anyone who knows the real story can identify the characters and details that are historically accurate and the footage of the Franklin that is in the film. 

Eventually, the Navy saw fit to name a ship after “Father Joe,” the Garcia-class destroyer escort/frigate USS O’Callahan (DE/FF-1051), but Father O’Callahan did not live to see her commissioned.  He died at 10:40pm on March 18, 1964, the cause of death listed as a ruptured aortic abdominal aneurysm. He is buried in the Jesuit cemetery on the Holy Cross college campus. The good Father is not forgotten at the college, however. The O’Callahan Science Library is named after him, as is the O’Callahan Society, which “encourages and cultivates the traditions associated with the Jesuit, liberal arts education of military and naval officers.”

Some of the historical accounts and stories I have read about Father O’Callahan mention that his death was only one day away from the anniversary of the attack on the USS Franklin in 1945. But actually, those authors missed an important detail. The Franklin was on the other side of the International Date Line when she was attacked, so March 19 off the coast of Japan was March 18 in the U.S. That means that Father O’Callahan passed away 19 years to the day after the catastrophic events that befell him, his shipmates and the USS Franklin on March 19, 1945.

Information Sources:
College of the Holy Cross.  “O’Callahan Science Library: Reverend Joseph Timothy O’Callahan.” Accessed September 15, 2023. 
https://libguides.holycross.edu/c.php?g=87914&p=567284

College of the Holy Cross. “O’Callahan Society.” Accessed September 14, 2023.
https://www.holycross.edu/alumni/crusaders-connect/affinity-groups/ocallahan-society

Dowling, Richard J., S.J. “Father Joseph Timothy O’Callalan.” Woodstock Letter, Volume XCIII, Number 3, 1 July 1964.

Hull, Michael D. “USS Franklin and Father O’Callahan.” Warfare History Network, accessed September 15, 2023.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/uss-franklin-and-father-ocallahan/

Navsource.org. “Navsource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive – USS O’Callahan (DE-1051).” Accessed September 15, 2023.

New England Historical Society. “Joseph T. O’Calahan, a Claustrophobic Priest, Wins the Medal of Honor in WWII.” Last updated in 2022.  
https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/joseph-t-ocallahan-a-claustrophobic-priest-wins-the-medal-of-honor/

O’Callahan, Joseph T. I Was Chaplain on the Franklin. New York: Macmillan, 1956.

Patterson, Jack. “America250: Navy Veteran Joseph T. O’Callahan.” VA News, September 1, 2022. 
https://news.va.gov/99067/america250-navy-veteran-joseph-t-ocallahan/#:~:text=O’Callahan%20promoted%20to%20the,to%20the%20rank%20of%20captain.

Satterfield, John R.  Saving Big Ben: The USS Franklin and Father Joseph T. O’Callahan. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2011.