WHAT TO SEE: Remembering the ‘Grunt Padre’ – who gave his life for his comrades

The Field Afar
Tim Moriarty (narrator), Al Lambert, Jim Hamfeldt, Dr. Thomas Rzeznik, Dr. Vincent Maligno, George Phillips, Leo Roseta, Henry Hernandez
52 min. • Unrated

In the relatively few images of Fr. Vincent Capodanno among the Marines serving in the Vietnam War, he looks like one of them, or perhaps like an older officer among the mostly 18- and 19-year-old infantrymen. He insisted on serving alongside them, sharing the dangers and drudgeries they faced, advancing with the first wave into any conflict so as to tend immediately to the spiritual needs of soldiers who would fall on the battlefield’s front lines. 

That’s how he wanted it. That’s why they called him “The Grunt Padre.” And that’s how he died. 

Through interviews with family members, soldiers, and priests who knew him along with historians, The Field Afar provides a striking portrait of Capodanno, whose cause for canonization has been introduced by the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services. Born into an Italian-American family in Staten Island, NY, Capodanno worked for six years as a Maryknoll missionary in rural China before requesting permission to serve as a U.S. Navy chaplain. Once commissioned, he asked and was assigned to serve among the Fleet Marine Force in Vietnam, where he quickly earned a dual reputation for fearlessness and holiness.

When his year in the country was up, he volunteered for a six-month extension and was reassigned to a new battalion. Three months in, while moving about an active ambush zone tending to wounded and dying soldiers, he pulled several men to safety before being riddled by machinegun fire while administering Last Rites.

Forty-plus years later, the men who served alongside him still well up with emotion when speaking about his bravery and his impact on their lives. 

Clocking in at under an hour, The Field Afar is not a film that requires a massive time investment along the lines of PBS documentaries, but it’s enough to obtain a compelling picture of a chaplain who exemplified the meaning of Christ’s words: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

 GERALD KORSON is a Legatus magazine staff writer.