"Tribute To True
Heroes"
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Requiescat in
pace!
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May they rest
in peace!
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To The Reverend Father
Thomas
J. Scecina
Roman Catholic ~
Chaplains Corps
Captain, U.S. Army
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 .
U.S. Army
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Father Thomas
J. Scecina
Roman Catholic
Chaplains Corps
Captain, U.S. Army
1910-1944
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.
.
Corps
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Silver Star
Medal
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Bronze Star
Medal
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Purple Heart
Medal
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Prisoner Of War
Medal
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Combat Action
Ribbon
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American Defense
Medal
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American Campaign
Medal
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Asisatic-Pacific
Campaign Medal
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World War II
Victory Medal
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Philippine
Presidential
UnitCitation Ribbon
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Philippine
Defense Medal
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Philippine
Independence Medal
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The Reverend Father
Thomas J. Scecina
Roman Catholic
Born: September 16,
1910
Died: October 24, 1944.................... |
Captain, U.S. Army
Vicksburg, in Greene
County, Indiana
In sinking of Arisan
Maru |
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BIOGRAPHY OF FATHER THOMAS
J. SCECINA
Father
Thomas J. Scecina was born in Vicksburg
in Greene
County, Indiana on September 16, 1910. He
was
ordained
a priest for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis
on June 11, 1935,
in
the Abbey Church of St. Meinrad. After receiving his Baccalaureate
in Canon Law from Catholic University in 1937, he was assigned
as an associate pastor to
St. John's
Parish in Indianapolis, where he remained until
his
military duty.
On October 5, 1939 Fr.
Thomas Scecina
enlisted in the Chaplains' Reserve Corps.
Eventually he was assigned to the 57th Infantry Division at Fort
McKinley
on
Luzon in the Philippine Islands. He
participated
in the infamous Bataan "Death
March"
after
the Americans had been captured by the Japanese in April, 1942.
Following
two years of imprisonment he freely elected to accompany the men
when they were transported
by the
Japanese from Manila to Formosa on October
1,
1944. Father Tom was in the first convoy which was mistakenly torpedoed
by
a U.S. Navy submarine on
October
24, 1944. While the ship, Arisan Maru sank
slowly
beneath the water, Fr. Tom gave general absolution to all the men, then
heard
confessions over a three-hour period until the ship was completely
submerged.
At the age of 34, Fr. Thomas Scecina went to his death with his
men that day.
Father
Thomas Scecina posthumously received
the Silver
Star with one Oak-Leaf-Cluster, the
Bronze
Star Medal, and the Purple Heart.
Scecina
Memorial High School proudly bears the
name of
this Indiana priest who
gave his life in
the
service
of his God and his country. In honoring his memory,
the purpose of a
Catholic school is aptly
symbolized.
The school is dedicated to
the very ideals to which
Father
Scecina gave full measure of devotion, that the
love of God and love of
labor be
its students' goals in life. In the measure that it succeeds,
the school will produce good men and women - good American citizens. Hence,
the school motto: "FOR GOD AND COUNTRY." Inspired by Father
Tom's
example, Scecina students are encouraged to
"GIVE
THAT LITTLE EXTRA."
.
.
Statement of Father John
Anthony
Wilson taken from
.
"THE BEST
AND WORST OF TIMES"
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THE UNITED STATES ARMY
CHAPLAINCY
1920-1945
.
John Anthony Wilson, a
Catholic priest
from Celina, Ohio told of being put on a Japanese coal freighter
with a Protestant chaplain Leslie Zimmerman and 1,200 American
POWs. They sailed from Manila Bay to Maji, Japan, via Hong Kong,
and
were taken off the ship in Formosa where they spent two and
one-half
months. This 600 mile trip
took
40 days. Finally they took another ship for 21
days before
arriving in Japan. "It is hard to
conceive
human beings being treated
so heartlessly by other
human beings...
We were all more dead than alive upon
arriving in Japan.
Wilson also told of
another, larger
ship with 1.800 Americans and two Catholic
chaplains that left
Manila;
after 10 days at sea, it was torpedoed by an American submarine.
It stayed aloft about three hours. Approximately half of the American
POWs
jumped overboard expecting to be picked up by Japanese destroyers. The
Japanese
took all the life-boats and life preservers, "... our boys had
precious
few." The Japanese picked
up their
own survivors and left the Americans to
their fate. Among the men
sticking
with the ship were the two priests, Thomas J. Scecina
of Indianapolis and James W. O'Brien of San Francisco.
These two chaplains took
up places,
one fore and one aft, and heard confessions
of all the
Catholic men who came, then they
ministered
as best they could to the
rest on board,
praying
and doing what they could to prepare the men for death
which
was
inevitable. The ship broke up in about 3 hours and sank with all hands
lost,
including the two priests. As far as I know only about 12 men escaped
death
out
of the 1,800. Some made it back to the US via China and Russia, they
were
picked
up by a passing Japanese ship (not of the convey) and placed aboard the
ship
I was on. I got the tragic details from two of these American POWs.
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This Web Page was
created
by and
is maintained by Paul D.
Henriott
Last updated 22 March
2006
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