| Americans love heroes. Something about them grips the American soul.Perhaps the attraction lies precisely in going against the zeitgeist of this hedonistic age. Heroes are outside the box.They do not fare well in a culture where real living has been reduced to pre-packaged experiences and media-generated events. They get lost in consumer mazes where they are constantly told to enjoy life. Heroes do not sign multi-million dollar sports or advertising contracts.Heroes rise above mass-markets and mass media and quench the thirst of postmodern man by speaking of honor, courage and sacrifice. Above all, heroes, especially those in combat, rise above complacency, self-interest and comfort. They completely mobilize all their resources, with the highest degree of dedication for a determined ideal. And that is why they are held in awe.
|
|
|
| Seven days prior to September 11th is the anniversary of the death of The Grunt Padre, a US Navy chaplain and recently declared Servant of God Vincent Capodanno.
|
|
| STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (May 27, 2006) -- Medal of Honor recipient Chaplain Vincent Capodanno died in the same manner as he had lived: selflessly.
Read More
|
|
| Almost forty years later Corporal Ray Harton can vividly recall that September day of 1967 as “Operation Swift” unfolded in the dense foliage of a Vietnam jungle. On the previous day, Navy Chaplain Vincent R. Capodanno moved tirelessly through the region celebrating Sunday Mass for three battalions of the 5th Marine Regiment. Attending one of those Masses was like “overhearing two friends talk,” remembers Lieutenant Jerry G. Pendas. “He never tried to make me a Catholic but there was clearly a special presence about him. He constantly sought out Marines to listen to them and talk with them.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Page 2 of 2 |
