Father Capodanno (February 13, 1929 – September 4, 1967) was a Catholic priest and Maryknoll Missioner killed in action while serving as a Navy chaplain with a Marine Corps infantry unit during the Vietnam War. He was a posthumous recipient of America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for heroic actions above and beyond the call of duty. The Catholic Church has declared him a Servant of God, the first of the four stages toward possible sainthood.
He entered Maryknoll in 1949 and was ordained to the priesthood on June 14, 1958. His first assignment was to Miaoli in Formosa. In August of 1965 he was granted permission to join the U.S. Navy as a chaplain. He volunteered for immediate duty in Vietnam, serving as chaplain in the Marine Corps who use Navy men since they have no chaplains of their own. Father Capodanno was when he was with a group of Marines who had been ambushed. Though wounded himself, he administered to those who were hurt until he was killed.
In addition to the Medal of Honor in 1969, Lieutenant 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 his death, the first chapel bearing his name was dedicated on Hill 51 in Que Son Valley, Vietnam; Chaplain Capodanno had helped build this simple place of prayer and peace that was constructed of thatched palms and bamboo. On February 1968, within five months of his death, the chapel at the Navy Chaplains School at Newport, RI, was dedicated the Capodanno Memorial Chapel. Other military chapels and commemorations are located in Oakland, CA, Camp Pendleton, CA, Fort Wadsworth, NY, Iwakuni, Japan, and Thiankou, Taiwan, the last of which honors the missionary who began his 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 Father Capodanno. During its 20 years of operational 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. Father 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.
Vincent Capodanno was born in Staten Island, New York. He was the tenth and youngest child of a father who had immigrated from Italy in 1901 and a mother who was of Italian heritage but born in the United States. He attended public schools in Staten Island and was in high school during World War II when three of his brothers served in the military. Graduating in 1947, he attended classes at Fordham University but soon discerned a religious calling, and particularly to missionary work. He was admitted to the Catholic Foreign Mission Society’s seminary, more commonly known as Maryknoll. Completing this training, the Archbishop of New York, Francis Cardinal Spellman ordained him a priest in June 1958.
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