First Parachuting Marine Chaplain

Photo Source: US Navy

From Time magazine, June 28, 1943:

The U.S. Marine Corps has qualified its first parachuting chaplain. Having made the required six qualifying jumps, Chaplain (Lieut. Commander) Joseph Patrick Mannion, U.S.N., 33-year-old priest of the Pittsburgh Roman Catholic diocese, finally won his silver wings, now waits at New River, N.C. for combat service.

Chaplain Mannion, once seagoing (aboard the aircraft carrier Saratoga, the cruiser Brooklyn), now carries a pack. When he jumps, it rides with him: a Mass kit, holy oils, etc.

Father Mannion’s final qualifying jump and graduation ceremony is captured on Historic Films. Scroll up to 1:19:52 at the link found here.

Joseph Patrick Mannion (b. August 18, 1909) was the only son of Mr. & Mrs. Patrick J. Mannion of East Pittsburgh, PA. He attended St. Vincent prep school, college, and seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and was ordained June 16, 1935. Before entering the service, he was an assistant at St. Andrew Church, on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

He was commissioned by the Navy on March 1, 1939, and served three years at sea, first on the carrier Saratoga and later on the USS Brooklyn. In 1942 he became post chaplain at the New River Marine Base.

After his first jump in May of 1943, he said that he “felt a touch of eternity, coming so near yet being so far from heaven.”¹

Private First Class Henry J. Kennedy, right, an instructor, gives pointers to Father Joseph P. Mannion, left, before his first jump from the fly-away tower at New River. The Navy chaplain qualified as a parachutist with the 15th Platoon in May 1943. Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 127-GC-495-5381

1. The Bulletin of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, June 26, 1943, 5.