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Two military chaplains who died on duty, and who have since been declared Servants of God, were presented as models of generosity by the Archdiocese for the Military Services.

Bishop Richard Higgins, archdiocesan administrator and vicar for veterans affairs of the military archdiocese, said this in a statement issued today in honor of Veterans Day, to be observed this Sunday.

The bishop said Father Emil Kapaun (1916-1951) and Father Vincent Capodanno (1929-1967) "exemplified the best characteristics of true Christian generosity and compassion for their brother soldiers. In giving their lives in the service of God and country, they lived the Gospel message of 'laying down one's life' for one’s friends and fellow soldiers."

Efforts are being made to have both men canonized as saints of the Church.

Father Kapaun, a native of Kansas, served as an Army chaplain during the Korean War. The captain was taken as a prisoner of war on Nov. 2, 1950, seized by the enemy as he administered the last rites to a dying soldier.

During the seven months he spent in prison, Father Kapaun nursed the sick and wounded until a blood clot in his leg prevented his daily rounds. Moved to a hospital, but denied medications, his death soon followed on May 23, 1951. He was decreed a servant of God in 1993.

Grunt Padre

Father Capodanno, a native of New York, was first a Maryknoll missionary serving in Taiwan and Hong Kong before he served as a navy chaplain in Vietnam beginning in 1966. Upon completing his first tour of duty with the 7th Marine Regiment, the lieutenant asked for an extension. He then served in a naval hospital until he was assigned to the 5th Marine Regiment.

The priest, nicknamed the "Grunt Padre," volunteered to assist his men during the intense fighting of Operation Swift, on Sept. 4, 1967. He was wounded in the face, and suffered another that almost severed his hand, but he continued working to administer last rites to the dying.

He was fatally shot while attempting to help to a corpsman. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1969, and was declared a servant of God in 2006.

"Today," said Bishop Higgins, "we pay tribute to every man and woman who faithfully served in the noble causes of securing peace and freedom in the military service of our great nation. Whether storming the beaches of Normandy, battling the brutal winters of Korea, enduring the steaming jungles of Vietnam, or securing order to distant and troubled lands in the Middle East, our American service members exemplify a true culture of generosity.

"The same devoted spirit that drove our patriotic ancestors to fight alongside General Washin! gton and General Patton still rings true for those who fight alongside our current generals in Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever American troops are deployed."

The Archdiocese for the Military Services serves Catholics in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Medical Centers and Government Services Overseas. Zenit

Veterans' Day - 1919 - 1967 - 2010

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1919

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Aftermath

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Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz--

The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?

Do you remember the rats; and the stench

Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench--

And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?

Do you ever stop and ask, 'Is it all going to happen again?'

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Do you remember that hour of din before the attack--

And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then

As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?

Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back

With dying eyes and lolling heads--those ashen-grey

Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?

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Have you forgotten yet?...

Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you'll never forget.

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By: Siegfried Sassoon(March 1919)

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SWINGS

Gablingen Kaserne
Augsburg, Germany
December 3, 1967


Olive drab communications trucks,
Camouflaged by years of spot painting,
Are parked in a row, backed up against a deserted mess hall;
One like a thousand such around the world,
Built not for beauty, but to stand the test of time.

Antennas are faintly seen, silhouetted against a starry sky.
Tiny lights are seen moving along a far off road.
From the 292 vans comes the sound of typewriters,
Interspersed by the occasional thud of a slamming door,
Or, rarely, a human voice.

Inside, men while away their tour of duty with
Coffee, cigarettes, and idle talk of sex and politics,

Moving on to new fields without fully exploring the last.

75- watt bulbs illuminate a perimeter of concertina wire,
Not two yards distant from our trucks, yet,
Serving adequately as a barrier when augmented by makeshift signs in two languages:

SPERRGEBIET, KEIN EINTRITT
RESTRICTED AREA, NO ENTRANCE

A shivering MP walks from truck to truck, yearning to be inside,
But if not, at least for an unknown face to challenge
To break the monotony of a dull evening.

An occasional tank, for reasons unfathomed by us,
Roars by on a night training mission that takes it through our antenna field,
Breaking the stillness of the chilly December night.

We deskbound warriors scramble out to gaze upon the Real Army,
Make our snide remarks (“Sixth Man in an APC”, “RE-UP Army”, or the like),

And return to warmth to await the arrival of the Mid-Trick

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Spec 5, R.E.M.

RA 17682396

Co. B, 20th USASA Field Station

Bad Aibling, Bavaria, West Germany

Priest gravely wounded in Iraq in 2004 dies

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In Memory of Father Tim on Veteran's Day

Five years after he was gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Rev. Tim Vakoc died Saturday night, June 20, 2009, in a New Hope nursing home, according to his family.

The Roman Catholic priest and Robbinsdale native, who was serving as an Army chaplain when he was injured in June 2004, died about 8 p.m. at the St. Therese Care Center surrounded by family and friends, said an entry on his CaringBridge website posted minutes after his death. The entry did not say what caused his death.

His brother, Jeff Vakoc, confirmed the death, but was making funeral arrangements today and was unavailable to provide more details. The Archdiocese of St. Paul did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Father Tim Vakoc, as he was known, was the first military chaplain grievously wounded in the Iraq war. He was injured by a roadside bomb as he was returning from celebrating mass with the troops on May 29, 2004, the day before the 12th anniversary of his ordination as a priest.

Many thought he would not survive the blast, which cost him an eye and severely damaged his brain. He was hospitalized for four months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and transferred in a near coma to the Minneapolis Veterans Administration hospital in October 2004.

After numerous surgeries and life-threatening infections, he slowly started to recognize friends and family, and communicate with a squeeze of the hand or a slight smile.

For more than two years, he was in what doctors called a "minimally responsive state."

Then, in the fall of 2006, he spoke for the first time in 2 1/2, raising his family's hopes for an improbable recovery.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people followed his story around the world through his CaringBridge website. He also had dozens of regular visitors, many of whom came to pray with him.

He was eventually moved to a nursing home, and used an electric wheelchair to make his way around. He was hospitalized on June 2, 2008, with an infection in the bloodstream.

Vakoc (pronounced VAH-kitch) celebrated the 17th anniversary of his ordination on June 10, according to his CaringBridge site. He followed along in the prayer book and mouthed words.

"In addition, he is now able to sing a bit with the brothers," the entry said. "His attention to the prayers and singing is a sign that his comprehension is deepening, and that he is picking up on more things happening around him."

Vakoc grew up in Robbinsdale, and entered St. Paul Seminary in 1987. He served as a parish priest in St. Anthony and Eagan before becoming an Army chaplain in 1996, and served extended tours of duty in Germany and Bosnia. His family described him as gregarious and adventurous, a devoted soldier who shipped out to Iraq shortly before his 44th birthday. He was promoted to major, and insisted on traveling to danger zones to pray with his fellow soldiers. He was returning to base from one of those trips when the roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee.

He was the youngest of three children of Phyllis and Henry Vakoc. His father died last year. Star Tribune

Click here for all stories about Father Tim found on Stella Borealis.