The names of the men, women, and children killed on Dec. 7, 1941, in the attack on Pearl Harbor, are listed here.
Among them are the names of the first American chaplains to be killed in World War II, Aloysius Herman Schmitt, the Catholic priest who was the USS Oklahoma chaplain, and Thomas Leroy Kirkpatrick, the Presbyterian minister who was the USS Arizona chaplain.
There will be a Mass this evening in Fr. Schmitt's memory at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.
"Loras College will have a special Mass on Monday, Dec. 7, at 5:30 p.m. in Christ the King Chapel in memory of the 68th anniversary of the death of the Rev. Aloysius Schmitt at Pearl Harbor.
"Schmitt was born in St. Lucas, Iowa, on Dec. 4, 1909. He graduated from Loras College in 1932 and studied for the priesthood in Rome, being ordained in 1935. Schmitt received permission to join the U.S. Navy as a military chaplain in 1939. On Dec. 7, 1941, when the attack on Pearl Harbor began, Schmitt was serving aboard the battleship the USS Oklahoma. Having just finished saying Sunday Mass, torpedoes struck the Oklahoma and Schmitt found himself trapped below deck. He helped a dozen sailors escape the carnage through a porthole, but was killed before he too could reach safety. He was the first chaplain killed in WWII.
"Christ the King Chapel was built on the Loras College campus in 1946-47. On Oct. 26, 1947, His Eminence Samuel Cardinal Stritch, then Archbishop of Chicago, dedicated the chapel to Christ the King as a lasting memorial to the Rev. Aloysius Schmitt, to other priests of the archdiocese who acted as chaplains in two wars and to all the men and women of the archdiocese who served their country."
