This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sheila Rae Myers, HM3
to remember
Sobel, Samuel, CAPT.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
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
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
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 North Korean aggressively interrupting U.N. patrols. In May 1952 an estimated total of 102,000 artillery and mortar rounds fell in Eighth Army positions.
As a result of increased Chinese ground action in the 45th Division sector, the division planned an operation to establish eleven patrol bases across its front. Operation COUNTER began on 6 June. By the 7th, ten of the eleven objectives had been taken. The last one (Hi11 191, eight miles west of Ch'orwon) was captured after a 48-hour battle on 14 June. The Chinese immediately launched counterattacks along the entire division front, climaxing their efforts on the night of 28-29 June with an unsuccessful 4-hour attack. The division sustained over 1,000 casualties during the month of June; Chinese losses were estimated at more than 5,000.
Throughout the first half of 1952, the U.N. forces waged a. war of containment. The frontline soldier, meanwhile, hoped that the armistice negotiators would soon reach an agreement.
As the Korean War went into its third year, in June 1952, the deadlock continued. July began with a series of small-scale attacks by both sides. Torrential rains restricted activity in the last week of July and through most of August. For some time the enemy had gradually increased the volume of mortar and artillery fire in support of his attacks, and in September fired a total of 45,000 rounds against the Eighth Army's front.
During the summer of 1952 the air war over Korea intensified. In addition to striking at supply centers, troop concentrations, power plants, factories, and rail and road networks, U.N. aircraft rendered valuable assistance to frontline troops by bombing, or searing with napalm, enemy bunkers, trenches, gun positions, and communications lines. On 29 August the largest U.N. air raid of the Korean War was carried out on P'yongyang, the North Korean capital. During the month of September alone the U.S. Fifth Air Force shot down 64 MIG-15's at a cost of seven Sabrejets.
A series of enemy attacks in October 1952 produced some of the heaviest fighting in more than a year. Most of it centered around two key heights, Hills 281 and 395, northwest of Ch'orwon. The attacks were opened on 6 October with the largest volume of mortar and artillery fire received by the Eighth Army during the war. By 15 October the disputed ground was held firmly by U.N. forces, and the enemy withdrew. Over 2,000 Chinese dead were counted on these two hills after the 10-day battle.
