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Sheila Rae Myers, HM3
to remember
Sobel, Samuel, CAPT.
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Contact Info
Home Town Greensboro, NC
Last Address Virginia Beach, VA
Date of Passing Apr 05, 2007
Location of Interment Forest Lawn Cemetery - Norfolk, Virginia
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Rabbi Samuel Sobel, Ed. D., D.D., captain, Chaplain Corps, U.S. Navy retired, died peacefully April 5, 2007.
Rabbi Sobel, who entered the military as a reserve Navy chaplain, broke barriers when he was the first rabbi appointed to the regular U.S. Navy and during his 30-year span of active duty in the Chaplain Corps, he held numerous pastoral and administrative posts in this country and overseas. Chaplain Sobel had a distinguished military career; his last military assignment was The Chaplain, U.S. Marine Corps, the highest chaplaincy post in the Marines, of which he was the first and only Jewish chaplain to reach that position.
Rabbi Sobel was an habitual scholar, graduating from Gratz College, the orthodox rabbinical seminary, New York's Yeshiva University, and also from the reform seminary, New York's Jewish Institute of Religion-Hebrew Union College. As a rabbinical student, his mentor was Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, founder of the Jewish Institute of Religion. Collectively, Rabbi Sobel received numerous post-graduate degrees.
Rabbi Sobel's wartime assignments included Hawaii and the Pacific, Korea, Lebanon and Vietnam, for which he earned the Bronze Star with Combat "V," the Purple Heart, Navy Commendation, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for Lebanon, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Defense Identification Badge and numerous other medals including the Legion of Merit for his work as the executive director of the Secretary of Defense Armed Forces Chaplains Board, awarded personally by Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara, and later a Legion of Merit Gold Star, in lieu of a second Legion of Merit for his accomplishments as The Chaplain, U.S. Marine Corps. He was the only Jewish chaplain wounded in battle during the Korean War. Chaplain Sobel felt an allegiance to those serving in dangerous capacities and disregarded concerns for his own personal safety, while choosing to attend to the front line and forward aid stations when in war.
During his military career, he also reported directly to many U.S. presidents, from Eisenhower to Nixon, working with notables like the Rev. Billy Graham and the late Cardinal John O'Connor, who was a dear friend. In 2000, alongside President Bill Clinton, Senator John Glenn and Secretary of Defense William Cohen, Rabbi Sobel was honored by being a dignitary and guest speaker when he participated in the dedication of the Korean War Memorial, Washington, D.C. That war memorial also depicts engraved photographic images of his likeness, permanently etched into the granite.
Rabbi Sobel was predeceased by his parents and brothers; his beloved wife and "shipmate," Shirley, who had also served as an officer in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps; and also by Selma. Survivors include his three daughters, Arleen R. Sobel, Barbara Coleman and husband Harvey and Karen Sachs and husband Warren; grandchildren, Sharon Blumenthal, Julie Blumenthal and husband John, Ashley and Stefan Coleman and Matthew, Scott and Benjamin Sachs; and great-grandson, Jonathan.
Other Comments:
The information contained in this profile was compiled from various internet sources.
Description As 1951 drew to a close, a lull had settled over the battlefield. Fighting tapered off to a routine of patrol clashes, raids, and bitter small-unit struggles for key outpost positions. The lull resulted from Ridgway's decision to halt offensive operations in Korea, because the cost of major assaults on the enemy's defenses would be more than the results could justify. Furthermore, the possibility of an armistice agreement emerging from the recently reopened talks ruled out the mounting of any large-scale offensive by either side. On 21 November Ridgway ordered the Eighth Army to cease offensive operations and begin an active defense of its front. Attacks were limited to those necessary to strengthen the main line of resistance and to establish an adequate outpost line.
In the third week of December the U.S. 45th Division, the first National Guard division to fight in Korea, replaced the 1st Cavalry Division in the I Corps sector north of Seoul. The 1st Cavalry Division returned to Japan.
In the air, U.N. bombers and fighter-bombers continued the interdiction campaign (Operation STRANGLE, which the Far East Air Forces had begun on 15 August 1951) against railroad tracks, bridges, and highway traffic. At sea, naval units of nine nations tightened their blockade around the coastline of North Korea. Carrier-based planes blasted railroads, bridges, and boxcars, and destroyers bombarded enemy gun emplacements and supply depots. On the ground, the 155-mile front remained generally quiet in the opening days of 1952. Later in January the Eighth Army opened a month-long artillery-air campaign against enemy positions, which forced the enemy to dig in deeply. During March and April Van Fleet shifted his units along the front to give the ROK Army a greater share in defending the battle line and to concentrate American fire power in the vulnerable western sector.