Re: The Battlefield Saint

Date: March 21, 2004

"'The Battlefield Saint' inspires Mtn. Home artist

By FRANK WALLIS
Bulletin Staff Writer

After careers in the Illinois Legislature, the stock market and insurance industry, retired U.S. Army Reserve Col. James F. Bell of Mountain Home has returned to the solitude of canvas, the paint brush and easel as an illustrator of military history.

"I didn't grab a brush for 35 years," Bell said during an interview at his home studio last week. "If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have dropped out of art school."

That didn't make Bell a college dropout, though. He went on to complete his education at the University of Illinois in business and then to a career spanning nearly 20 years as a stockbroker and principle of an insurance agency. He retired from Principle Financial Securities in 1997 at the level of first vice president.

Along the way, his conservative political ideas won him a seat for two terms in the Illinois Senate where liberal lawmakers dubbed him the John Wayne of the Illinois Senate for his conservative views on civil rights law.

A photograph from John Wayne at his home bears a note from the actor thanking him for wearing the title.

Parallel with his work in the world of finance and insurance, Bell served 27 years in the active U.S. Army Reserves.

Lately, Bell has been a student of military history, particularly the life of U.S. Army Capt. Emil Joseph Kapaun, a chaplain to the Korean War battlefields who died as a prisoner of war.

The subject matter of Kapaun and other American heroes has motivated Bell, the artist.

Kapaun's comrades and POWs have dubbed Kapaun "The Battlefield Saint." Today, Kapaun is a candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church for his selfless work in supporting injured POWs in the dreaded Chinese detention camps of North Korea.

Kapaun was taken prisoner when the Chinese army overran the 8th Cavalry Regiment 1st Infantry Division Nov. 2, 1950.

He died in isolation six months later.

During his captivity, he became renowned for his ability to elude Chinese guards, steal rations and to teach and conduct religious services.

Working from a battlefield photograph of Kapaun and another soldier helping a fallen comrade, Bell has produced his own interpretation of a day in Kapaun's life.

The painting titled "The Battlefield Saint" has been given to a museum in Kapaun's boyhood home in Pilson, Kan.

Bell will deliver the painting personally in June.

Bell's works are sometimes exhibited at the Corner Joint. Otherwise, his works may be viewed by appointment.

©2004 The Baxter Bulletin"