STANTON SALISBURY
Time after time, Stanton Salisbury had a front row seat to history — in war and peace. A Decatur, Neb., native, Salisbury was part of the UNO’s first graduating class, in 1913. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister then served as an Army chaplain in World War I. He was decorated multiple times and was at the Battle of the Argonne Forest, the final and largest Allied offensive. Later, he joined the U.S. Navy as a chaplain and for two years served on the USS Omaha, then the fastest cruiser in the world. Salisbury developed the first revolving altar used in a Navy Chapel, speeding the transition from a Protestant to a Catholic service. On, Dec. 7, 1941, Salisbury was on his way to a flower shop in Honolulu, Hawaii, to purchase altar flowers for a Bible class he led aboard the USS Pennsylvania in Pearl Harbor. Just then, the Japanese attacked. Salisbury picked up gunnery and supply officers and sped to the Pennsylvania. Japanese torpedo planes strafed his car, one bullet 18 inches from him. He arrived at the ship without injury, ministering to the wounded and helping move the dead ashore. Salisbury served throughout World War II. In 1949 he was made a rear admiral and became the Navy’s eighth chief of chaplains. He retired in 1953.