Navy chaplain Joseph O'Callahan was the only chaplain to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor during WWII, and the first since the Civil War. O'Callahan was aboard the carrier Franklin just 60 milies from Japan on March 19, 1945, when it was hit by two bombs in Kamakazi attacks. The ship was reduced to a burning hulk and 832 crewmembers died in one of the Navy's worst disasters. The priest ministered to the wounded, manned fire hoses, and went into oven-hot turrets to cool off ammunition so that it could be thrown overboard.
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