| 2009 RETURN TO VIETNAM PART IV by Steve Lovejoy
Following the emotional experience at the Knoll, we moved onto the site of Operation Union ll where on 2 June 1967, I was wounded in a large battle. As we traveled there, deep off of the highway on a dirt road, we came across what we would call a subdivision! There in the middle of nowhere were all new homes built to the same code of all other Vietnamese homes, 15 feet wide and 60 feet long.
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| 2009 RETURN TO VIETNAM PART III by Steve Lovejoy
Of Father Capodanno's involvement in Operation Swift, John Lobur has said " I did not see Father when we embarked and I did not notice him anywhere as we approached the shooting. I assumed he was with Lieutenant Murray who was our company commander at the time." Typically a chaplain would remain with the command post as he- like the skipper, a corpsmen, air and artillery forward observers and radiomen- were not expected to run right up the gut like we were.
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| 2009 RETURN TO VIETNAM PART II by Steve Lovejoy
The next morning we went out in two groups. The first group went in search of the knoll. There had been so much change here with increased vegetation and population. Even the electrical infrastructure was astonishing , for down a dirt road, out in the boondocks, were two wires no larger than 10 gauge, strung up (sort of) on bamboo poles no higher than 10 feet, sometimes less. In the adjoining homes there was no running water, bathrooms, etc, but a television was operating.
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| Part I: It has been 41 plus years since the fateful day of 4 September 1967. The Marines who fought and survived that day still carry the scars of the insanity that occurred during this horrific battle which marked the beginning of Operation Swift. Many of the Marines who returned continue to bear the consequences of witnessing the deaths and life-changing events suffered by their Marine brethren. Those who were not there are not able to understand the tragic toll the Vietnam War took upon its veterans. This misunderstanding was compounded by the fact that many vets returned to no welcome home, no parades and no thank you for a job well done. Many Marines went to war as innocent young men and returned home with both youth and innocence forever taken from them. In returning home to indifference at best and intolerance most likely, we looked out for each other here at home (if at all possible) as we had while serving in Vietnam. This reliance upon each other in life or death situations formed a bond between us that the general population will never know or understand.
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03July2008: I saw Fr. Mode talk about Fr. Capodanno on the EWTN show Life on the Rock. I was moved by the sacrifice of this man. I have never heard his name before. I'm a current seminarian at the Saginaw Diocese in Michigan. Hearing his story just confirms my own vocation even more.
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