| To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of the Rev. Vincent R. Capodanno, a mass will be celebrated in his memory on Sunday at 9 a.m. in the chapel at Fort Wadsworth that bears his name.
Father Capodanno, a Maryknoll missionary and U.S. Navy chaplain, was killed by a sniper on Sept. 4, 1967, as he ministered to a Marine on the battlefield in Qui Son Valley, Vietnam. The "grunt padre" was hit 27 times in the back, neck and head. Though 40 years have passed, Father Capodanno's legacy lives on through the countless lives he touched during his 38 years.
According to Marine Cliff McKenzie's eyewitness account, Father Capodanno arrived on the scene that Labor Day as 500 Marines battled 2,500 North Vietnamese troops. Father Capodanno was shot in the right hand and was patched up by a corpsman who tried to evacuate him to the rear, but the priest insisted on remaining. A few hours later, a mortar shell landed near him and his right arm was badly damaged. He was patched up again -- and again refused evacuation. At the time, Father Capodanno already had three Purple Hearts. There's a rule in the Marines: After three, you go home within 48 hours. McKenzie adds that Father Capodanno began moving from wounded to dead to wounded, using his left arm to support his right as he gave absolution, when he suddenly spied a corpsman who had been knocked down by a burst from an automatic weapon. The man was hit in the leg and couldn't move. Father Capodanno positioned himself between the injured Marine and the sniper -- that's when he was raked by gunfire. And, said McKenzie, "with his third Purple Heart, Father Capodanno went home." Sunday's mass will be concelebrated by Monsignor James Dorney, pastor of St. Peter's R.C. Church, New Brighton, who says mass each Sunday at 9 a.m. in the Rev. Vincent Capodanno Chapel at Fort Wadsworth; Maryknoll Chaplain Dan Dolan; the Rev. Philip Blaine, a Franciscan priest from the St. Francis Friary and Center for Spirituality on Todt Hill, and Archbishop Edwin O'Brien from the Military Archdiocese in Washington, D.C. Also present will be Rear Admiral Alan T. Baker, chaplain of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps; Capt. William Cuddy, chaplain of the Coast Guard; Capt. Robert O'Brien, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard sector, New York; Rear Adm. William Cloner, Jewish Chaplain of the U.S. Coast Guard, Sector, New York, and Cmdr. Michael E. Hall, chaplain of the U.S. Coast Guard, Sector New York. Preceding the Mass, the Marine Corps League Color Guard will make a presentation. The Father Vincent Capodanno Chapter, Military Order of the Purple Heart, will lay a wreath at the chapel monument, which depicts Father Capodanno giving Last Rites to a soldier. The Marine Corps color guard and the Vietnam Veterans Color Guard, the Catholic War Veterans, the Father Capodanno Purple Hearts, the Jewish War Veterans and the Father Capodanno Sea Cadets will lay a wreath. Joanne Nuzzo, director of special events at Borough Hall, and Lee Covino, who heads veterans' and military affairs at Borough Hall, also will attend. Father Capodanno, who was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for his sacrifice, recently was acknowledged as a Servant of God -- the first step on the road to sainthood. |
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