Look Out Below!: A Story of the Airborne by a Paratrooper Padre

A veteran of the Second World War and the Korean War, Francis L. Sampson was a real-life hero whose exploits inspired one of the most famous war films of all time, Saving Private Ryan. From rural beginnings in northwestern Iowa, Sampson’s life would take him from the University of Notre Dame to the battlefields of Normandy on D-Day, the ambitious failure of Operation Market Garden, the harshness of a winter as a POW of the Germans during the closing stages of the Second World War, to the fall of North Korean capital Pyongyang in the early stages of the Korean War. Part of the very rare breed of Parachute Chaplains, in his case with the 101 st Airborne Division, Sampson spent much of his career as an army chaplain in the center

of maelstroms of the 20 th century. Throughout it all, Sampson offered a valuable Christian witness in the darkest of times and the most difficult of circumstances.

This second edition of his memoirs, Look Out Below! contains material on his service during the Korean War and occupation duty in Germany and Japan as well as the Second World War, with a new historical introduction by University of Scranton Professor Sean Brennan.

Francis L. Sampson (1912 -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 - 1971. His real-life story of rescuing a young soldier, Frederick ＂Fritz＂ Niland, became the inspiration for the film Saving Private Ryan. Sean Brennan is professor of history at the University of Scranton and the author of The Priest Who Put Europe Back Together: The Life of Fabian Flynn, CP (CUA Press). Philip M. Hannan (1913- 2011) was auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 1956 -1965 and archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1965 -1988.