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In Loving Memory
KIA November 8, 1966
U.S. Army Chaplain Captain Michael Quealy
Tribute by:
Father David Brooks
I was a jarhead, but I’d like to leave a memorial to the
one of first Chaplains killed in Vietnam, Captain Michael Quealy, US Army. I’m
including the text from an article which was published in Time Magazine at his
death:
“…Assigned to the 1st Division, Quaely –
against the advice of senior officers at field headquarters in Dau Tieng –
insisted on boarding a helicopter of medics and troop reinforcements flying to
the relief of the Big Red One’s 1st Battalion, under attack in War Zone C,
northwest of Saigon. Landing at the battle site, Father Quealy hurriedly gave
last rites to dying soldiers from a platoon of B Company. Just then, a Viet
Cong soldier stepped out from the brush, fired at the chaplain with a machine
gun…Within moments, Quealy was dead. From his pocket fell his diary: the last
entry was a passage copied out from the Gospel according to Matthew: “So will
my heavenly Father treat you unless each of you forgives his brother with all
his heart.”…
Thank you for all you are doing to keep alive the memories of the heroes
who died for our country in that unpopular war.
Yours in Christ,
Father David Victor Brooks
(Formerly Captain, United States Marine Corps)
North Carolina
Official
Information:
MICHAEL JOSEPH QUEALY
CAPT - O3 - Army - Reserve
37 year old Single, Caucasian, Male
Born on Sep 11, 1929
From NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Length of service 1 year.
His tour of duty began on Jun 13, 1966
Casualty was on Nov 08, 1966
SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE
Body was recovered
Religion:
ROMAN CATHOLIC
Panel 12E - - Line 43
PRESS RELEASE:
Information Office
1st Infantry Division
APO 96345
Rel No. 1484-11-66
Nov. 16, 1966
DI AN, RVN, (1st INF DIV IO) –
It was a short ride from Soui Da to the battle area, but the fighting was
so intense on November 8th that the Dust Off chopper was forced to circle the
“clearing” for more than an hour. “When we finally went in,” the pilot
remembered, “we were being fired at from three sides. I don’t know how we ever
got out. But Father jumped out and helped load on the first wounded. I never saw
him again.”
Chaplain (Captain) Michael Quealy of New York City
joined the Army in early 1965 because he wanted to serve the soldier who had no
time to search for the Sacraments. He knew that if there is no priest to
celebrate the Mass, to serve Communion, to hear Confessions, to Anoint the sick,
then the soldier will go into battle and perhaps into eternity, spiritually
unarmed. And Father Quealy did not want that to happen.
Commissioned a First Lieutenant, Father Quealy
underwent training at the U. S. Army Chaplain School, then was assigned to Fort
Ord, California. In January, 1966, he was promoted to Captain. In June, he was
assigned to Vietnam, to the 1st Infantry Division.
Serving with the 2nd and, more recently, the 3rd
Brigades, Father Quealy gradually formulated a solution to the question he was
forever asking: How can I be sure to be in the right place at the right time? He
rode the Dust Off medical evacuation helicopters into the battle area, then,
when there was more than one wounded, would jump off into the action, there to
help treat and evacuate the wounded, to pray with the injured, give Extreme
Unction to the dying, and to console the shaken survivors.
He had seen battle in Operation El Paso, Operation
Shenandoah, and, finally, in Operation Attleboro. For him, the battle of
November 8 differed only in the way it ended.
“He was talking to the wounded who were laying on
litters around the Command Post. Bullets were coming from everywhere, but he
kept going from one man to another, doing his job,” said one lieutenant.
“He asked me where the most action was,” a sergeant
recalled. “Then I saw him run right down there and start pulling the wounded
out. I know at least five of those guys owe their lives to him.”
“The bravest man I have ever seen, said Jack Whitted,
the commander of the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry.
A soldier who was near him when he died explained
how it was: “there were three machine guns firing at us down in this corner. One
of them got Father Mike and he fell, right on the edge of the battle area.” And
so, trying to save a soldier’s life and soul, Father Michael Quealy was killed.
“Greater love that this no man has, that a man lay
down his life of his friends.” “As long as you did it for one of these, the
least of my brethren, you did it for Me.”
Official Website Link
http://www.war-stories.com/t_quealy-chaplain.htm
Note:
I would be thrilled to see any additional
recognition for Michael Quealy -- a real American Hero. Although
I tried to get his Silver Star Medal upgraded, I've met with something
of a wall of silence from "the Big Red One." Maybe having his story
publicized will help get someone to remember. Yours in Christ, Father David
Brooks
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