All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And welcome to Veterans Radio.
I am Jim Fausone with veteransradio.org.
We're recording today from the Legal Help for Veterans Studio in Northville, Michigan.
Legal Help for Veterans is a Veterans Disability Law firm, and you can reach us at 800-69-34800.
We have a really interesting topic for our interview today.
We're pleased to have with us George J. Phillips.
George is not only a Marine and currently the Chief Operating Officer of the American
Defense International, which is located in Washington, D.C.
Some of you may recognize the twang in his voice when we start talking, and you'll know
he's from Brooklyn, New York.
George, welcome to Veterans Radio.
All right.
Thank you very much for inviting me on.
Well, you've been serving your country for a long time.
Why don't you give us a little thumbnail of your time in the Marine Corps and your post-service
business activity, which has a long history now.
Okay.
So, in 1966 in June, I joined the Marine Corps, went to enlisted infantrymen, went to, like
everybody else, Paris Island, Camp Lejeune, and staging battalion at Camp Pendleton,
and went in country in December 1966 to Mike 35.
And I went on plenty of operations, combat operations, and that's what brought me in
contact with Bobby Capodano.
In August of 1967, he was assigned to our unit, and so I was with him the day that he
was killed.
Well, our topic today really is just that, and that is to talk about Father Vincent Capodano,
who served both as a Catholic, Roman Catholic priest, and served as a Navy chaplain.
George, tell our veteran radio listeners a little bit about Father Capodano's background
before that eventful day in September of 1967.
Sure.
Well, you know, Bio is basically, he was born on 13th February of 29th in Staten Island,
New York.
He attended St. Michael's Parish in Marinus Harbor there, and he was a devout Catholic,
devout Catholic family.
He attended Daily Mass all the way through his time in Fordham, went to grandma's school
there, Curtis High School, 43 to 47, and then attended Fordham University.
It was, Wiley was at Fordham University.
Coming from Staten Island, you know, back in those days, there was no Barizzano.
You took the ferries.
So he would ride the ferry over, and there was always, as there are now, free booklets
on there to read, and there was a booklet on there called Fields afar, which was published
by the Marion Old Missionaries.
And it discussed the ongoing work of the Marion Olds and basically current events, what they
were doing in China, what they were doing in other places around the world.
And that's when Father Vincent began to discern that he had a vocation.
He spent two years there at Fordham, and then he was accepted into Mary Know.
On 14 June, 1958, he was ordained by Francis Cardinal Spellman.
You know, nine years later, Francis Cardinal Spellman would be present at his funeral,
which is a little ironic.
And Father Cardinal's assignments took him out of the country to Taiwan and Hong Kong,
I guess.
Yeah, he did.
After he was ordained, he went to Taiwan, and he served the Hockow people, which were
in northern Taiwan, very remote, and his job there was to train young men to prepare for
the national tests so that they could move on to higher education.
I'll be quite honest.
He was there.
You know, like all of us, there's things we do well, things we do poorly.
He had trouble with language.
And the Hockow language is, I'm told, one of the most difficult in the world.
But he worked at it for four years, but eventually his superior decided he couldn't.
He was very frustrated because he knew his language inabilities were affecting the quality
of the work that he wanted to do.
His superiors felt the same way and moved him to Hong Kong.
But Father Cardinal didn't want to go.
He wanted to stay with the Hockow people and continue to work.
I mean, they have a chapel up there dedicated to him as we do today.
Well, it's interesting.
He gets these assignments to the Far East, if you will.
And then in December of 1965, gets commissioned as a lieutenant in the Navy, Chaplain Corps.
What do we know of the transition for him to say, jeez, I think I want to become a military
chaplain?
Well, when they moved him to Hong Kong, where pretty much everybody to this day speaks
English, he was not happy.
And the war in Vietnam was beginning to really spin up.
Only for the Marine Corps in May of 1965, they landed in Vietnam for the first time.
And things began to heat up almost immediately.
And Father wasn't happy where he was.
And he thought that right now, at that point in time, the place for him was to serve as
a Navy chaplain with the Marines in Vietnam.
Was there a family background of military service?
George, and listeners, were talking to George Phillips, a Marine who served with Father
Vincent Capodano in Vietnam.
And oftentimes, George, when we're talking to people on Veterans Radio, their military
service is sort of an extension of a family affair.
So I'm wondering if there was something like that in his background?
In Staten Island, especially Italians and all of the denominations, but back in those
years, up through the mid-60s, it was kind of expected that everybody would, remember
the draft was there, and everybody would partake.
And he was young, he had World War I veterans there, and then later on, Korean veterans.
I believe his brother, Jim, his oldest brother, who died about 18 months ago, two years ago,
he was a veteran.
And so he, growing up, would, without a doubt, have been surrounded with families, with the
fathers in particular being veterans.
And there's also a tremendous sense back then, and back now, even today for a lot of people,
a great sense of loyalty to the country and the need to contribute.
I mean, if you become a marionole missionary, and going to places like Taiwan and the other
places that went all around the world, I mean, they were losing missionaries to martyrdom
over there, you know, several times a year.
So I think this is dedication to the values that many of us have, and a loyalty to the
country and a loyalty to God and his faith that first made him a priest and ultimately
made him come to understand that God's place for him was in Vietnam, not Hong Kong.
And George, can you tell us a little bit about Father Vincent Campadano, maybe when you first
met him when he first got to the unit?
Well, let me give you just a little prelude to that, okay?
The, when he went in country in 65, you know, when he was commissioned, he went in country
in April 66, Holy Week, and Father Campadano was in there more than six months, and we
started hearing about this priest they called the Grand Padre.
You know, it was not, well, one, it was not policy, and two, you rarely saw chaplains
going out on patrol.
Usually they stayed in the headquarters, which is where the policy said they should be.
But we started hearing stories, you know, when you would, all the units would go say
Da Nang for a three-day R&R, and so you would sit around on Hill 327 and you'd meet people,
Marines from all over the, you know, Vietnam.
And so you sit and talk, and this, this father, that's when I first heard of Father Campadano.
And then Starrs and Stripes published a few articles on him.
So by the time he came to us in August of 67, everybody, especially the Catholics, had
heard of the Grand Padre.
And I first met him going to Mass, and then he would stay and, you know, talk to folks.
I was, I talked to him probably on six or eight occasions, Mass several times, confession.
Although confession over there was great.
They didn't have a lot of time, so it was all general absolution.
Clear everything up.
Yeah, I mean, you get a couple hundred guys in ten seconds, you know.
So for our listeners who may be a little younger than you are and younger than I am, talk a
little bit about his, this name, the gun Padre that was put on.
Yeah, the Marine Infantry guys are called grunts primarily because they walk every place,
which today they tend to ride more.
But you know, they're the kind of the dogs of war for the Marine Corps, and everybody
else is in a supporting role, artillery, fixed wing, helicopters, amtrakts, all the other
branches of the Marine Corps and all the other different jobs in the Marine Corps basically
support the Marine infantry, the Marine riflemen.
And so for a hundred years they've been called grunts.
So when he started doing what the infantrymen do, which is go on patrol, get in firefights,
go into, you know, Carmsway, that's when he became the grunt Padre, because he was no
longer just another chaplain.
And in that going out on patrol and getting in firefights, he's not carrying a weapon
in this, is he?
Probably not.
You know, he didn't like them, you know, the thing with the chaplains and even some
of the corpsmen, the policy would change where you have to carry one, you don't have to carry
one.
I don't think I ever saw him carry a pistol.
You know, he would never carry a rifle.
But the, never really carried a pistol that I can recall.
That doesn't mean he didn't.
And he was a combat guy.
I mean, when he started out in 7th Marines before he came to 5th Marines, and he got
a blonde start with the combat V, you know, I don't think I've ever seen one of those
on a chaplain.
So he's in country for about a year and a half.
Right.
And then he extends.
Tell us what you know of that period for him in country.
He was in 7th Marines, 1-7, and went on, we were all up north, 1-7, 3-5, and we actually
went on some ops together.
You know, we have different operations, you know, Union 1, Union 2, DeSoto, you know,
all the names are in history books.
But 1-7 was a unit that kind of like Mike 3-5, always getting in trouble.
And he was right there in the middle of it.
Towards the end of his first year, which was typical of, you know, anybody who was going
to extend, they would put them on 30 days leave.
And he came back to the states, met with his family, the guild, we have a lot of his writings
and testimony to people who talked to him at that time.
And it was very clear to all those folks how comfortable he was at this point in his life
and how happy he was to be doing this mission.
But for then he comes back into Vietnam and he goes to first medical battalion, which is,
and other than in the field, that was the triage facility and also, you know, some small
hospital.
But if people were bad, they got sent either to the hospital ships or onto other Japan or
Okinawa for treatment.
And he was there, you know, working with the Marines and sailors that were there.
A lot of corpsmen assigned to hospitals and he worked very closely with the corpsmen.
And then came a point in time when he was actually August of 67 when he was transferred
to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines.
And about a month later on September 4th of 1967, while Operation Swift is ongoing and
why don't you walk us through what happens that day?
It actually starts on September 3rd.
Back here in the U.S., it was Labor Day weekend.
We didn't really celebrate those things in Vietnam.
But 1-5, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Alpha Company, was out on patrol and they got into
a very heavy firefight.
A lot of injuries, a lot of people killed.
And so as the firefight continued through the night, it became clear to the command
elements that this was more than just a briefing encounter with, you know, Vietnam.
But these were probably NVA regulars.
So Mike 3-5 that day was what we used to call Sparrowhawk.
Actually I think they still use the term.
Sparrowhawk is just a unit that has to be ready to go within four hours in case somebody
gets in trouble.
Well, at midnight, Alpha Company, there was very little left of it.
And so they decided.
And now they knew they were NVA.
So anyway, so we get ready to go.
Father Capodano goes up and gets all the briefings, just like the Company Commanders, Platoon
Commanders, Platoon Sergeant.
And he gets all the briefings and he gets told by the Company Commander, JD Murray,
don't be getting on any helicopters.
And so he doesn't, you know, I'm sure JD would tell you the story.
He didn't say, he just kind of looked at them and said, I'll be where I have to be.
And so as the night progressed, we got our marching orders about where to go and what
we were likely to see, which was not going to be good.
So we go down to the LZ.
And who's down in the LZ but Father Capodano?
And he's got all his gear with him.
But he had set it off to the side.
You know, I saw him talk to him several times down in the LZ.
He always had two things that he carried with him.
Cigarettes.
He was like a cigarette machine.
He smoked like a cigarette machine.
And he always had cigarettes for, I don't know, there was 10 or 50 people there, he
always had cigarettes for him.
He also had St. Christopher medals, which was St. Christopher was the, and still is,
the protector of travelers.
And he would hand the St. Christopher medals out.
And he was doing that down at the LZ.
Eventually the helicopters come.
And there are, there's a dozen stories that could go, but because we only have a limited
amount of time.
The helicopters come.
I was in first platoon, we go out, second platoon goes out, third platoon goes out.
And you know, of course, who gets on the very last helicopter when there's nobody left in
the LZ to tell him he can't go?
Is Father Capodano.
So I'll jump forward now, several hours.
We landed, they put us down about a thousand kilometers from where we needed to be.
So we, we all start, you know, what we call movement to contact.
We come up over a, first platoon comes up over what we now call the knoll, which is
a small hill.
And we're going down the front of it.
And the point man yells back to, and I can tell you all the names, but my memory is sometimes
not perfect.
And says, I think I just saw a bush move.
And so, and so, he yells back, well, if it moves again, shoot it.
And about 30 seconds later, you hear about 10 rounds fired off.
And, and then the whole world opened up.
First and second platoon, we were out on the front slope.
First platoon had moved up on top and along the sides.
And we were engaged not only with rifle fire, but with 7, 6, 2 machine guns, 50 cal machine
guns, mortars up to 120.
This fight or fight went on for quite a while.
This went on for, well, it went on through the night in varying degrees.
And during this time, and I'm going to move this along because of time, as you say, Father
Campadano's going among the wounded in the dying, giving last rights, giving counsel.
And unfortunately, you know, finding himself being one of the folks who gets injured and
ultimately killed.
Yes, late in the afternoon after a day, you know, this started early afternoon.
And as you said, Father Campadano was up and down the hill and I could tell you again for
time I won't, but I'll just, so as it was getting dusk late in the afternoon, there
was a corpsman treating a Marine about halfway down the hill.
Father Campadano saw them and also saw a 50 cal machine gun moving up and being put
in place.
So he went down, ran down the hill to try to get them back.
When he couldn't, he threw his body over them and immediately took 26 50 cal shots.
He had already been wounded earlier that day twice and well, and you know, just took care
of himself.
His right arm didn't work.
But he was killed then.
And listeners, this is a man who could have stayed in the safety of the company command
post and in some regards was told to and refused medical aid through this firefight so that
he could continue to serve as his Medal of Honor citation notes.
George, you were there that day when Father Campadano's body was recovered.
Did the men with you and with him know that this guy was extraordinary?
Everybody did.
And I will tell you that had you met him, the first thing that you would see and the
first thing that you would realize is that that everything was in his eyes.
His eyes just were so full of compassion and so full of caring and so full of God's love
that it was impossible not to feel that this is a special man that you're talking to.
And when he was talking to somebody, it didn't matter what was going on all around him.
He would focus generally on one person at a time.
And for those of us that had that experience, when you talk to him, you felt like there
was nothing else going on.
He had such a calming effect when he was treating the dying Marines and the wounded.
He always said to them, and he would tell us before we left, God is with us all this
day.
And he would repeat that over and over again to whoever he talked to.
I want our listeners, as we wrap up here, to realize that Father Campadano's selfless
acts have been recognized by the country in a Medal of Honor.
He has been advanced for canonization within the Catholic Church.
That George Phillips, who we're talking to, is the President or Chair of the Father Vincent
Campadano Guild.
George, how do people continue to follow the ongoing story of this incredible chaplain?
There is a, we have a website.
It's capadano guild.org.
And we also publish newsletters to people who contribute, because that's the only way
we get their names, although you could sign up for the newsletter on the website.
And it's a pretty good website.
There's a lot of history in there.
There are pictures, some of the information that we've gathered to support the cause for
canonization.
But if you wanted to keep up with it, that would, or if you want to become just more
familiar than we can over a short phone conversation, it's all up on the website.
Again, capadano guild.org.
It's important for our listeners to, I think, know this story, just like it's important
for them to know of the four chaplains from World War II or Father Emil Capadano from
Korea.
These are all inspiring men who bring out and shine the best in all of us.
This is also a story that you hope to bring to TV and film here.
You want to talk a little bit about that, George?
Yes.
The guild's mission is twofold.
One, of course, to raise funds to pay for all the efforts that have to take place.
But the other part of the responsibility and equally important is to spread information
about the servant of God, Father Vincent Capadano, as broadly as we can to as many audiences
as we can.
Not only Catholic, but non-Catholic alike.
We decided back in March of February that there's an old EWTN clip, runs about an hour
or 45 minutes, but it's old.
It's not up to date.
There were some errors.
There's still things in there that are not true.
We decided to put together a documentary and we were able to convince EWTN, which is the
Eternal Word Television Network founded by Mother Angelica.
They became our partners in this.
We have been working on that.
We intend to go to Vietnam shortly back to the Nol where Father Capadano was killed.
We're bringing back three or four Marines who were there that day plus a film crew.
We certainly want our listeners on Veterans Radio to learn more about this story.
Go to CapadanoGuild.org.
Look for the grunt Padre servant of God story that should be coming out in the near future
by EWTN.
Pass this story along.
As I say, it's inspirational on so many different fronts, whether you are religious or not.
This story is about a man who sacrificed himself for his fellow men.
It's a great inspirational story.
George, I want to thank you for making time available today to talk to our listeners.
Thank you for listening to Veterans Radio today.
I am Jim Fossown.
It's been a pleasure to be your host.
I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us at
800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com.
You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to our podcasts and internet radio shows
by going to veteransradio.net.
And until next time, you are dismissed.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for
Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.
They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.
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