 The Greek battalion's war flag also received the highest Greek military decoration, the Commander's Cross of the Cross of Valour, in 1954.Greek military chaplains played a prime role in the preservation of the Korean Orthodox Church during the Korean War.This small religious body, founded by Russian Orthodox missionaries during the czarist era, had suffered persecution due to a series of historical developments -- the Japanese colonization of Korea, the rise of communism in Russia, World War II and the division of the Korean Peninsula.