European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 13, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Battle chaplain v on the fifth chaplain Yoder Leith right gets a Light from Catholic padre Alvin he goes up under fire without listens to the to gripes of his gis and writes Home to their families when they by George Barrett yank staff correspondent with the fifth was the traditional Clergyman before i came into the the chaplain guess i had the idea that being in the clergy i was favored by the in a but my first experience under hellfire was with screaming and when the Jerries opened up with a barrage against my dugout i remember wait a lets talk this chaplain Yoder padre of the 338th infantry 85th is a Slit Trench chaplain who talks he wears the Bronze Star and the purple heart and has been with the Divi Sion As regimental and battalion chaplain almost since its serving in Maneu vers in Louisiana and in training in Africa and in combat in before the War chaplain Leith was a Presby Terian minister in the blast Furnace Section of he went to Washington and Jef Ferson College in did graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh and completed three years of training for the ministry at Pittsburgh Western theological the chaplain is 39 years he has a year old he has never he Fol lows lil Abner faithfully and thinks sad sacks prophylactic dream was the padre Page 6 likes an occasional drink and confesses Hes a bad poker were no he it was in the september push in when the 338th was advancing slowly against enemy that chaplain Leith got his purple some of the companies lost two thirds of their and casualties were High in every moving to a new position below the the chaplains battalion bypassed a Kraut Strong Point without knowing Jerry watched the whole battalion go Down into the then let them have under the heavy fire the battalion split and the padre found himself at the end of a column of soldiers trying to get out of the they started through a when a medical sergeant at the head of the column asked the chaplain to change places so he could watch for they and 10 minutes later the sergeant was that made a very great impression on the chaplain in not i realized that All of us More or Are in the position of giving our lives for one and it might have been me who got it instead of the Jerries pounded the column with and the chaplain got a fragment in his the germans kept up a steady machine gun and while Leith was scrambling along a ditch a Kraut Bullet pierced his pack and Tore a Hole through a new testament he was i dont know whether that Bible deflected the he but i sent it Home to my wife to the duties of All chaplains Are pretty clearly in quiet periods up front the one Catholic and two protestant chaplains who Are in the regi ment the jewish chaplain is assigned to the division Divide the work so that each will be generally responsible for the welfare of a Bat but in action or during a push the two protestant chaplains serve with the Forward troops while the Catholic padre is stationed at the medical collecting Point to Aid the wounded and give last the Catholic padre with the father Alvin Michigan wears the purple heart in addition to a Bronze Star for his work at an Aid there Are Many tight squeezes at the and chaplain Leith t5 Warren of knew How to play the so i was made a chaplains Assis wears a combat infantryman badge and carries an a if he can get when he drives the who goes one of the hardest duties of the Leith is writing letters of condolence to the families of soldiers killed or wounded in they try to supplement the War departments terse Telegram with a Complete Story of How a Soldier died or was this involves considerable in one for the chaplains of the regiment and their assistants wrote 900 sometimes As Many As six to one giving details of Battle in a recent letter to the wife of a Soldier killed in chaplain Leith described in Blunt sentences the details of his those who were with Richard at the time have told me How it on the evening of november he was helping a group of men from his company in setting up defensive mines to guard against a possible counterattack by the an enemy machine gun opened up on the group from an unexpected bullets hit Richard in the head and killing him every Case is a different and moving Leith and the chaplains do Long research to give the families they Are anxious to one wife asked a chaplain to get five buddies of her dead husband to write to he had to reply that All five had been other letters chaplain Leith writes Are less sad this one received your letter concerning your who has been reported to you As missing in i regret to have to Tell you that your husband is now under serving a sentence for leaving his organization without i Trust that none of us May be too harsh in judging his the chaplains of the fifth army often hold religious services under in Forward areas they get groups of four or five men together to Wor ship Back in the rear they hold services in build Ings and caves directly under last Christmas Many of the frontline services were conducted in a sense of humor is recently Chap lain Leith dropped in on a unit whose men were eating fresh you a sergeant this pig was walking through a mine we were afraid the pig would step on a mine and Hurt so we shot the chaplain joined them in a pork hop once a Catholic chaplain found a couple of gis eating fresh they haunt eaten fresh meat in 18 and when they tried to buy a Chicken from a local Farmer he refused to so they killed one anyhow and ate is something chaplains can often do something despite i opinions to the of they dont As when a Soldier came to Leith and gleefully said he had a grave physical defect because a Hospital reported him As lacking in moral but theres plenty of sense in the go see the transfers in combat areas Are usually As hard to get As but chaplain Leith tells about the Rifleman in an infantry com Pany who was Only moderately Good in his Job because he wanted to get into the medics where he could continue his training for i saw the proper Leith he got today Hes doing a Whiz of a the chaplain insists that there Are no atheists in German he convert to much of the work of Forward area chaplains is the As one Ai station Captain the padre sometimes does More Good than the medics there Are times when the chaplains words give a Man just enough to hold funny chaplain Leith the army asks us Tif give the sex morality lec Tures up before the outfit goes into a rest but before it goes into the