US Navy LT Vincent Capodanno The "Grunt Padre"

Welcome back, everyone! Before I tell you this week’s story, I wanted to share the Medal of Honor story of US Marine Corps Sgt. Lawrence Peters.  During a fierce engagement Sgt. Peters displayed valor on numerous occasions, saving his Marines and ensuring the success of their assault.

On Sept. 4, 1967 during Operation Swift in Vietnam, Sgt. Lawrence Peters, a squad leader with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, faced an entrenched enemy force that unleashed relentless mortar, machine-gun, and small-arms fire on their platoon. As the marines regrouped, Sgt. Peters led his squad on an assault on a heavily defended position. Ignoring the danger, he stood in the open, identifying enemy positions even as rounds tore through the air around him. Wounded in the leg, he pressed on, determined to lead his Marines forward.

When enemy fire intensified and pinned down his squad, Sgt. Peters braved the barrage to reorganize their position. While directing suppressive fire, a mortar blast struck, wounding him in the face and neck. Despite this, he refused to quit. Spotting enemy troops moving to flank an adjacent platoon, he stood under fire, delivering burst after burst to expose their concealed positions.

Even after sustaining two more wounds, Sgt. Peters continued rallying his squad, directing their efforts with unyielding resolve. Sgt. Peters’ injuries eventually overcame him and he fell mortally wounded on the battlefield, but not before his leadership and courage inspired his marines to regain the upper hand and push the assault forward. For his actions that day, SGT Lawrence Peters was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Sergeant Peters' story is connected to this week’s episode of Duty & Valor, highlighting shared moments of extraordinary courage and sacrifice. 

In this episode, I want to tell you the story of Medal of Honor recipient Navy LT Vincent Capodanno.  As war was raging in Vietnam, LT Capodanno followed his calling and joined the United States Navy Chaplain Corps, where he felt he was needed most.  Though his time in Vietnam wasn’t just about following his spiritual calling, he would risk his life on many occasions to save the lives of the Marines he was serving alongside.  This is his story.

Vincent Jr. was born in Staten Island, NY on Feb. 13, 1929 to parents Rachel and Vincent Capodanno Sr.  He was the youngest of ten children born into their Catholic Italian-American family.  Vincent Sr. died before Vincent Jr. was ten years old, but the hard work he instilled in his family helped them through their hard times.  After the US entered WWII, three of Vincent's brothers served in the military.   

Vincent graduated from Curtis HIgh School in 1947 and then started attending classes at Fordham University while working as an insurance clerk.  Through his high school years and his time at Fordham, he would attend daily mass before heading to class, so it was no surprise that his strong faith would lead him to apply to Maryknoll, a seminary in NY.  In 1949 he was accepted and began his 9 year trek that saw him being ordained as a Roman Catholic priest on June 14, 1958.

Father Capodanno’s first assignment was in Taiwan, where he worked at a parish and school there.  In addition to holding services, he helped to distribute food and medicine to the local community and ran a youth hostel where he helped young men prepare for their college entrance exams.

After six years there he briefly returned to the US before being sent to Hong Kong, an assignment that Father Capodanno wasn’t thrilled with.  Around this same time, the US became increasingly involved in Vietnam, which led him to enter the Navy Chaplain Corps as he felt his services were needed there.  In December 1965, he was commissioned as a LT and requested to be assigned to the Fleet Marine Force in Vietnam.  

In April 1966 he was sent to the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division in South Vietnam.  Less than a year later he was transferred to the 1st Medical Battalion, where he stayed for the remainder of his one year tour.  LT Capodanno returned to Vietnam following a one month leave for a six month tour extension in June of 1967.  During his time in Vietnam, LT Capodanno didn’t embrace the safety typically sought by chaplains.  Instead, he wanted to be where his Marines were.  

Lt. RJ Marnell recalled that “Fr Capodanno was … told several times it was not his job to go on patrols, fire sweeps, etc. Yet you had to watch him like a hawk as it was not uncommon to see a group of Marines running to get on a helicopter to go into battle, and all of a sudden this figure comes out of nowhere, no rifle, just his priest gear, and jumping in the helicopter before anybody could catch him. He wanted to be with his Marines and didn’t feel his job was simply to say Mass on Sundays.”   

LT Capodanno didn’t just accompany the Marines to preach to them or to offer spiritual solace, he would risk his own safety to treat wounded Marines.  He would also live under the same conditions that the enlisted Marines did.  So it is no surprise that his actions endeared himself to his Marines, who referred to him as “The Grunt Padre.”

In August, 1967 he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division.  The following month, on Sept. 4, they were in Quang Tin Province in support of Operation Swift, which was launched to rescue two Marine companies that had been ambushed by North Vietnamese forces.  On that night, their position was attacked by a North Vietnamese force numbering approximately 2,500.  Early in the fighting, Marines suffered a few dozen casualties, which led to the call for reinforcements.  Even with two companies brought into the battle, the Marines were still greatly outnumbered. 

 Word reached LT Capodanno that a platoon of Mike Company was in danger of being overrun.  He left the relative safety of the company command post and ran through an open area towards the platoon  Under heavy small arms, automatic weapons, and mortar fire, LT Capodanno moved across the battlefield treating the wounded and administering last rites to the dying.   

One of the Marines who received last rites from LT Capodanno was Sgt Lawrence Peters, whose Medal of Honor story I shared to open the show. 

After being struck by an exploding mortar round that caused multiple painful wounds to his arms and legs, and severed part of his right hand, LT Capodanno refused medical aid.  Instead, he told the corpsmen to treat the wounded Marines instead.  He then continued his work across the battlefield.  He saw a wounded corpsman and two Marines in the line of fire of a machine gun just 15 yards from their position.  He raced towards them to drag them out of harm's way when he was struck and mortally wounded by rounds from the machine gun that was endangering the others he meant to save.  His body was returned to the US and he is buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery in Staten Island.  

For his selfless actions that day, LT Vincent Capodanno Jr. was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. 

Many saw his work as a Catholic priest as nothing short of saintly.  In 2002, efforts were started to have LT Capodanno canonized as a Catholic saint.  In  2022 a Vatican advisory panel recommended that efforts to canonize him be stopped.  Their concern was that his sainthood would be largely due to heroism on the battlefield and not his religious work.  Though supporters of his have not stopped the effort to have him officially recognized as a Catholic saint. 

In addition to the numerous streets, chapels, schools, and buildings named in his honor, the Navy also commissioned the frigate USS Capodanno in 1973 in his honor. 

I’m going to end this episode with a quote from LCPL Steve Lovejoy who served in Mike Company with LT Capodanno, he was also one of the men that LT Capodanno had saved, by pulling him over a ridge to safety. LCPL Lovejoy said “Over the years I always believed Fr. Capodanno had spent at least three months with Mike Co., if not longer. In actuality, it was no more than four weeks!! He had that kind of impact. He treated us as if he was one of us, and that is how we related to him. Of course we had respect and understood his position, but the men accepted him as one of their own.”

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Duty & Valor! If you want to dive deeper into the story about this week’s hero, check out our show notes or head over to dutyandvalor.com for the full list of sources.

Be sure to catch new episodes early every Friday at 5 pm on our Duty & Valor YouTube channel, where we also drop daily shorts honoring our heroes, many of whom haven't been featured on the show yet.

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