Francis L. Sampson

The Reverend Monsignor Francis L. Sampson
Major General Francis L. Sampson 12th Chief of Chaplains of the United States Army
Nickname(s)	The Parachuting Padre
Born	(1912-02-29)February 29, 1912 Cherokee, Iowa
Died	January 28, 1996(1996-01-28) (aged 83) Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Resting Place	Saint Catherine Cemetery Luverne, Minnesota
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1942–1971
Rank	Major General
Commands	U.S. Army Chaplain Corps
Battles/wars	World War II Korean War
Awards	Distinguished Service Cross Bronze Star Medal (1+1 "V" Device) Army Commendation Medal
Church	Catholic (Latin Church)
Orders
Ordination	June 1, 1941 (priesthood) by Gerald Thomas Bergan
Rank	Domestic prelate (January 6, 1963)

Francis Leon Sampson (February 29, 1912 – January 28, 1996) was a Catholic priest and an American Army officer who served as the 12th Chief of Chaplains of the United States Army from 1967 to 1971. A World War II paratrooper chaplain who participated in the D-Day landings and the Battle of the Bulge, Sampson was captured during both engagements and spent time in POW camps. He also served in the Korean War. A decorated war hero, he received both the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

He was involved with the situation of Frederick "Fritz" Niland, who was an inspiration for the film Saving Private Ryan. He is one of four alumni of the Saint Paul Seminary in St. Paul, MN to become the Chief of Chaplains of the United States Army, the other three being Patrick J. Ryan, Patrick J. Hessian, and Donald W. Shea.

Early life

Francis L. Sampson was born on February 29, 1912, in Cherokee, Iowa to Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Sampson. His father was a hotel manager; his mother helped with the food service. He attended Cathedral High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Franklin High School in Portland, Oregon. He attended the University of Notre Dame, graduating in 1936, and then entered the Saint Paul Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he completed a degree in theology in 1941. He was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood for the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa on June 1, 1941. Following his ordination, Father Sampson served briefly as a parish priest in Neola, Iowa, and also taught at Dowling Catholic High School in Des Moines.

Military career

He entered the Army chaplaincy in 1942 as a first lieutenant. After training at Camp Barkeley and Fort Moore, he joined the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division as the regimental chaplain.

Normandy landings

Sampson conducting burial in a makeshift cemetery in Normandy

With the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, Sampson assisted in the D-Day landings. He was on the first flight and landed in the Douve River, diving several times to retrieve his Mass kit. The 501st helped to gain an Allied toehold at Carentan on the coast of France. Sampson stayed with the wounded who could not be moved at a large farmhouse, which had been used at the unit's command post until it moved farther away from enemy lines.

The area became taken over by units of the 6 Fallschirmjager. He was then taken prisoner by two soldiers, and put up against a wall to be shot. Sampson recalled that he was so frightened that instead of reciting an Act of Contrition, the usual prayer for the forgiveness of sins, he kept repeating to himself the Catholic blessing before meals: "Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive through Thy bounty through Christ Our Lord, Amen." Rescued at the last minute by a German noncommissioned officer who was Catholic, Chaplain Sampson was escorted to a nearby German intelligence post, where he was interrogated, found harmless and then released. He returned to the medic station at Basse-Addeville (Saint-Côme-du-Mont) and helped treat both German and American wounded soldiers.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower recommended Sampson for the Medal of Honor for his courage on D-Day. Sampson did not end up receiving the Medal of Honor as George C. Marshall did not consider it appropriate for non-combatants such as chaplains to receive it. Sampson instead received the Distinguished Service Cross.

Battle of the Bulge

After briefly returning to England, Sampson jumped into Holland on December 19, 1944, landing in a moat around a castle. Participating in the Battle of the Bulge, he ended up being captured by German forces in Belgium, near Bastogne. He spent six months in a German prison near Berlin until the liberation of the camp in April 1945. Sampson insisted on being in the enlisted area of the camp rather than the more comfortable area for imprisoned officers. He received the Bronze Star for his work among the prisoners. As the camp was being bombed by Allied forces, Sampson tended to the wounded and dying.

Sampson was briefly in Japan after the end of the war.

Post-World War II

In October 1945, Sampson returned to the United States and briefly served again at Dowling Catholic High School in Des Moines. He returned to active duty in July 1946, as a regimental chaplain with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He was regimental chaplain with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment from 1947 to 1951. In 1950, he paradropped into Korea, near Sunchon. His time in Korea was spent trying to save American prisoners of war. After that deployment, he served as an instructor at the U.S. Army Chaplain School at Fort Slocum, New York, until 1954. For some time he was assigned to Fort Monroe in Virginia. He was named a monsignor with the rank domestic prelate on January 6, 1963. In 1961, Sampson was promoted to full colonel. He served as Seventh Army Chaplain from 1962 to 1965 and then as the USCONARC Staff Chaplain in 1965. He also briefly served Cardinal Francis Spellman, at the time Apostolic Vicar for the Military Services, as a vicar delegate for Europe in July 1962.

Chief of Chaplains

Sampson visits soldiers wounded in Vietnam at a military hospital in Japan in 1971.

In 1966, he was appointed as the Deputy Chief of Chaplains of the United States Army and promoted to the rank of brigadier general. On July 28, 1967, he was nominated by Lyndon B. Johnson for the office of Chief of Chaplains. The Senate confirmed the nomination on August 18, 1967; as such, Sampson promoted to Major General. In the midst of the Vietnam War, the appointment of a decorated war hero as the Chief of Chaplains seen as a way to rehabilitate the image of the military; however, he faced a great uphill battle. During the Vietnam War, he made annual Christmas visits to the troops. He noted the issues with drugs and alcohol that the soldiers struggled with and saw it as a spiritual issue that chaplains were responsible for caring for. Prior to his retirement, he approved a five year plan for the chaplaincy, focusing on ministry, training, and administration.

He retired as Chief of Chaplains on July 31, 1971.

Later years

After his retirement, Sampson was installed as pastor of Saint Mary's Catholic Church, Shenandoah, Iowa, on September 1, 1971. From 1971 to 1974, he was national president of the United Service Organizations. In 1977, he incardinated into the Diocese of Sioux Falls and became an advocate for O'Gorman Catholic High School, the successor of his alma mater Cathedral High School. From 1983 to 1987, Sampson was an assistant to Theodore Hesburgh as Director of ROTC at the University of Notre Dame.

Sampson died of cancer at age 83 on January 28, 1996. He is buried at St. Catharine's Cemetery in Luverne, Minnesota.

Legacy

Sampson amassed over 100 jumps as a paratrooper.

Two years after Sampson's death, the film Saving Private Ryan was released. The film was based on the story of a soldier named Fritz Niland. During the course of the D-Day attacks, Fritz learned his brothers William and Roland had died on June 6 and June 7, and a third brother, Edward had gone missing over Burma in the Pacific Theater. After learning this, Sampson insisted to Fritz that arrangements be made for his return to the United States, and filed the paperwork to do so. Edward was later found in a POW camp and returned home after the war.

Awards and decorations

Sampson distributing communion to members of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment at training in Tennessee in 1943

Sampson's military achievements include:

	Distinguished Service Cross
	Bronze Star (with valor device)
	Army Commendation Medal (with one bronze oak leaf cluster)
	Purple Heart
	Presidential Unit Citation (with two bronze oak leaf clusters)
	Prisoner of War Medal
	American Defense Service Medal
	American Campaign Medal
	European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (with arrowhead device and two bronze service stars)
	World War II Victory Medal
	Army of Occupation Medal
	National Defense Service Medal
	Korean Service Medal (with four bronze service stars)
	French Croix de Guerre with Palm
	Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation
	United Nations Service Medal for Korea

See Also

• The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan
• The Bitter Woods by John Eisenhower
• Battle and The Last Hundred Days by John Toland
• The Paratrooper Padre by Sampson, published by The Catholic University of America Press