Father Capodanno Biography

Vincent Robert Capodanno, born on February 13, 1929, in Staten Island, New York, was the tenth child of Italian immigrants, Vincent Robert Capodanno, Sr. and Rachel Basile Capodanno.

Like many young adults of that era, Vincent was familiar with the missionary work of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society, the Maryknolls, and in 1949 he applied to and received acceptance to Maryknoll. He was ordained 7 June 1957 by the late Francis Cardinal Spellman Archbishop of New York and Military Vicar of the United States Military Ordinariate. He spent the following seven years in Taiwan under the auspices of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society, Maryknoll administering the sacraments, teaching native catechists, and distributing food and medicine. After a six-month furlough and home visit, Fr. Capdoanno learned that he would not remain in Taiwan, for his new assignment was Hong Kong, a decision which elicited a new response from Fr. Capodanno to God’s call of service.

In 1965 he sought permission to join the Navy Chaplain Corps intending to serve the increasing number of Marine troops in Vietnam. Eventually Maryknoll granted this request, and after finishing Officer Candidate School, during Holy Week of 1966, Fr. Capodanno reported to the 7th Marines in Vietnam. As the chaplain for the battalion, his immediate focus was the young enlisted troops or “Grunts.” Later transferred to a medical unit, Fr. Capodanno was more than a priest ministering within the horrific arena of war. He became a constant companion to the Marines: living, eating, and sleeping in the same conditions of the men. He established libraries, gathered and distributed gifts and organized outreach programs for the local villagers. He spent hours reassuring the weary and disillusioned, consoling the grieving, hearing confessions, instructing converts, and distributing St. Christopher medals. Such work “energized” him, and he requested an extension to remain with the Marines. It was during the extension he requested of his tour on September 4, 1967, that Fr. Vincent Capodanno made the ultimate sacrifice. After hours of heavy fighting from a North Vietnamese ambush, Fr. Capodanno, himself seriously injured, sighted a wounded corpsmen pinned down by an enemy machine gunner. He ran to the Marine and administered medical and spiritual attention. Despite being unarmed, the enemy opened fire and Fr. Capodanno, the victim of 27 bullet wounds, died faithfully performing his final act as a good and faithful servant of God.

Posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1969, Lt. Capodanno was also the recipient of the Navy Bronze Star Medal, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star, and the Purple Heart Medal.
Soon after Fr. Capodanno’s death, the first chapel bearing his name was dedicated on Hill 51 in Que Son Valley, Vietnam; Capodanno had helped build this simple place of prayer and peace that was constructed of thatched palms and bamboo. On February 5, 1968, within four months of his death, the chapel at the Navy Chaplains School at the Newport Naval Base, Rhode Island, was dedicated the Capodanno Memorial Chapel. Other military chapel commemorations are the Capodanno Chapels at the Naval Hospital, Oakland CA, the Marine Corps Air Station, Iwakuni, Japan., Camp Pendleton, CA, and Ft. Wadsworth, Staten Island, NY, as well as Thiankou, Taiwan, which honors the priest who began his missionary work in that country.

A significantly prestigious memorial was the naming of the USS Cappodanno, a ship whose motto “Duty with Honor” exemplified the chaplain service of Fr. Capodanno. During its 20 years of operations service, it was further distinguished as the first ship in the US Fleet to receive a Papal Blessing while docked in Naples. Further military buildings bearing his name include the Vincent Robert Capodanno Naval Clinic in Gaeta, Italy, Capodanno Hall, a bachelor officers’ quarters at the San Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard and the Capodanno Research Facility at the Navy personnel offices in Millington, TN. Other tributes, geographic reminders preserving his name are: Capodanno Boulevard in Staten Island, NY, and Capodanno Street at the Naval Base, Newport, RI. Fr. Capodanno’s name appears on many other veteran memorials throughout the United States honoring individual servicemen and certain designated groups such as the Freedom Foundation in Valley, Forge, PA; the Catholic Chaplains Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery; the Veterans Memorial, in Kokomo, IN; and the Vietnam Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC, as well as the Chaplain Vincent R. Capodanno Shelter for Homeless Veterans, in Boston, MA

Two artists have chosen to commemorate Fr. Capodanno’s heroic final moments: an oil painting by Douglas Rosa is displayed at the Chaplain School in Newport, RI, and a bronze statue by Antonio Pierotti stands at Ft. Wadsworth, Staten Island. The painting depicts the priest’s struggle to rescue the dying corpsman while the sculpture reveals a calm and prayerful chaplain administering to the Marine. Another dramatic representation of the priest, a modern sculpture, is situated in Gaeta, Italy’s town square which is also named for Fr. Capodanno. More recently Lewis Williams, an iconographer, reveals the priest in his military uniform holding a prayer book, a premonition of his total sacrifice for God and country.

Annual awards and scholarships continue to honor Fr. Capodanno. Since 1971 the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation designates a recipient among children of Marine Corps members. In 2002 the former Chaplain of the Year Award was renamed the Father Vincent Capodanno Chaplain of the Year Award. Several Knights of Columbus assemblies and councils throughout the United States Columbus have chosen Fr. Capodanno for their’ patron; similarly the Veterans of Foreign Wars have honored the chaplain by naming several posts after him.

The continuation of these acknowledgments demonstrates the enduring love and respect that Fr. Capodanno inspires. Since his death in 1967 people wishing to honor his memory have chosen specific and eloquent ways to honor the holiness that this man of God radiated in his lifetime and afterward.