12/06/2022
Many men become known as heroes for their bravery in battle, for their willingness to face death in an effort to kill the enemy and obtain an objective, or for helping win the war for their country. Father McGonigal was killed on February 17, 1968, during the Battle of Hue in Thua Thien Province. Silver Star Recipient...
He administered the last rites to dying soldiers and comforted the wounded through three days of intense fighting near Hue Citadel before being fatally wounded. McGonigal was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. Survivors included several brothers and sisters.
Lest We Forget Father Aloysius P. McGonigal...
They are often celebrated by millions of their countrymen and fondly remembered by the nation on Veteran's Day and Memorial Day. But some are heroes without ever carrying a gun. Some face death not to win wars, but to comfort the wounded, to bring solace to the dying, and perhaps to save their souls. Such a man was Father
Like all chaplains in US service throughout our history, Father McGonigal was in that area where the bullets fly, bodies are maimed and men die, by choice. By the very nature of what they do, chaplains are selfless; they give their lives over to their God and trust in his will. Father McGonigal was also a Jesuit, a group with an even longer tradition.
For centuries the Jesuits have been known for going where they are needed around the world, regardless of the hardships or dangers involved. In February 1968, during that desperate gamble by the North Vietnamese which has come to be known as the Tet Offensive, Father McGonigal, Jesuit and chaplain, strapped on his helmet and went to the sound of the guns one more time. Because men were dying, because he was needed there, he offered his life into the hands of his God one more time. On Feb. 17, 1968, God would call him home. Below is the story of his death from the Washington Post.
The slight, 46 year-old priest with owlish eyeglasses really had no business being there. But the infantrymen he loved were being killed before the battlements of Hue's Imperial Citadel and the Reverend Aloysius P. McGonigal wanted to go. The Chaplain died, a bullet in his forehead, with a unit that was not his own in a battle he could have missed.
He practically fought his way to the battlefield. Most soldiers die almost anonymously, known only to their close comrades, to the sergeants and to the company officers. Father McGonigal was known all over the 1st Corps area and elsewhere in South Vietnam . He roamed with a fierce devotion to "the men in the field." His 5 foot 6 inches almost disappeared inside a flak jacket.
An army major, his last assignment was the U.S. advisory compound in Hue. He traveled all over the northern provinces and had extended his year-long tour in Vietnam . He took his extension leave in his ancestral homeland of Ireland, which was practically written on his smiling face.
They were expecting him to leave his post at Hue and take a desk job at Da Nang. His replacement was actually on the way up the day Father McGonigal headed for the north side of the Perfume River, where the battle for the citadel was raging. "There was no Catholic Priest with the 1st Battalion of the 5th marines who were assaulting the walls, and the father wanted to go," said Dr. Stephen Bernie, a U.S. Army doctor, who had traveled frequently with the priest.
Father McGonigal had been angrily walking the advisory compound for three days before he joined the battle despite an order by the compound commander to stay put. The priest finally managed to join the unit with which he never served. "He rarely stayed here more than two days in a row," Bernie said. "He was stuck up north when the compound was hit on Jan. 31 and he came back with a Vietnamese airborne unit and made his own way across the river.
Nobody was getting across the river at that time but Father McGonigal managed. He had a way about him. He wanted to be in the field, that was all he wanted," said a sergeant who knew him well. "Conducting Mass two or three times a week in the headquarters wasn't his idea of a job." The Jesuit Father's previous trips had taken him to many hot spots including the Marine fortress at Con Thien. He was killed Sunday, a cold misty day, beside the field soldiers he loved.
Safety Pleas Ignored
Body of Phila. Priest Found in Hue Rubble
A Communist bullet has ended the restless ministry of Philaddelphia-born Father Aloysius P. McGonigal, the best known battlefield priest with American forces in South Vietnam.
The slim, 46-year-old Jesuit who consistently ignored his safe desk job to follow Marine units into action, was found Sunday in the bloodly rubble of Hue. His spectacles were nearby-unbroken, but a slug had torn away most of his forehead.
Thus Father McGonigal died among the men he most loved, the battle-torn veterans of the Marine Corps.
UNIT HAD NO PRIEST
Though his assignment was to the U.S. Advisory Compound in Hue, he had been expected to leave for a desk job at Da Nang. But Father McGonigal heard that the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, was assaulting the walls of the Imperial Citadel at Hue, and he learned the unit had no priest.
After pacing the advisory compound for three days, Father McGonigal asked Lt. Col. Bruce Petree, of El Paso, Tex., for permission to go to the front.
IGNORED PLEA
"Be careful," warned Petree. A plea to remain within the safety of the compound was delivered by First Sgt. Arcadio Torres, of Mount Holly, N.J. It was unheeded.
So, while American and South Vietnamese troops huddled behind protective embankments, the 5-foot, 6-inch priest made it to the north bank of the bullet-spattered Perfume River and into the thick of battle.
An Army major, Father McGonigal had traveled all over the northern provinces and extended his year-long tour of Vietnam to continue his close friendship with the First Corps.
He attended St. Joseph's High School and in 1940 entered the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues at Wernersville, Berks county (PA). He was ordained June 23, 1953, at Woodstock, Md., College.
He was assistant prefect of studies at Gonzaga High School, Washington, D.C., and taught at Loyola High School in Baltimore. Later, he studied physics at Georgetown University.
He served as an Army chaplain from 1961 to 1963 and returned in 1966, going to Vietnam that year.
SEMPER FIDELIS, FATHER!
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Story by Joseph Gannon
