THE WALL OF FACES

Phila.-Born Priest Killed
With Troops at Hue Front

Hue, Vietnam-(UPI)-Leathernecks pleaded with Chaplain Aloysius P. McGonigal not to go up front.
But the Philadelphia-born Roman Catholic priest had heard his Marines were going to make a charge into the Communist-infested Citadel of Hue and he would not stay behind.
They found Father McGonigal Sunday. His body lay in the rubble of a blownout building, a bullet wound in the back of his head.

Went With Troops

Offically, Father McGonigal was a Major and a desk man. They gave him an office in the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) compound in Hue. His chair was usually dusty.
The Major with the golden crosses sewn onto his lapels strove to be with U.S. fighting men in Vietnam. The Jesuit would use any means of travel to be with his men. Often he walked. Sometimes he hitchhiked through some of South Vietnam's most insucure jungle.
"He was a real circuit rider," said Lt. Col. Bruce Petree, of El Paso, Tex.

Scorned Comfort

The MACV deputy adviser said the priest was "never concerned about his personal comfort or appearence." Father McGonigal, he said, was "rumpled but always on the go." Last week he asked Petree for permission to join in the amphibious landing on the Perfume River bank adjacent to the Citadel.
"Colonel, would you have any objections if I go out with the Marines?" he asked. Petree asked why he wanted to go. The chaplain told him he felt he could do more up front than in the compound.
"Be careful," said Petree.
The Marines tried to stop him. First Sgt. Arcadio Torres, 38, of Mt. Holly, N.J., and a Captain led Father McGonigal into a corner.
"We told him that a dead man can't help people," Torres said. "But he said his job was to be with the men."

Ordained in 1953

Father McGonigal, 46, entered the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues at Wernersville, Berks County, in 1940, after attending St. Joseph's High School. He was ordained June 21, 1953, at Woodstock, Md. College.
He was assistant prefect of studies at Gonzaga High School, Washington D.C., and taught at Loyola High School, Baltimore. Later, he studied physics at Georgetown University.
He first served as a chaplain in the Army from 1961 to 1963. He returned to the Army as a chaplain in 1966 and went to Vietnam that year.

He Felt Safe

He was attached to the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus with headquarters in the Provincial House of the Jesuit Fathers in Baltimore.
A letter received at the Provincial House about a week ago reported that Father McGonigal was in Hue and that he felt "pretty safe" because the Marines had the enemy surrounded there.
Father McGonigal is survived by three brothers and four sisters. They are James A., of 4529 Teesdale st.; Edward J., of 4527 Aldine st., John, of Newburgh, N.Y.; Mrs. Maria Phalan, of 4404 Cottman av.; Sister Rose Letitia, of Our Lady of the Rosary Convent, 339 N. 63d st.; Mrs. Regina Barry, of Metuchen, N.J., and Margaret, a nun with the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, Allentown, N.J.
His brother, James, is a letter carrier working out of 9th and Market sts. His brother, Edward, is a school custodian. His sister, Maria, works for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co.
The family home was in the 6300 block of Torresdale av., Tacony.
His father, John F., was a policeman who was attached to the Rising Sun av. and Benner sts. station when he retired in the mid-1940s. The father died in 1960. His mother, Mary, died February 22, 1929.

SEMPER FIDELIS, FATHER!

Safety Pleas Ignored
Body of Phila. Priest Found in Hue Rubble

A Communist bullet has ended the restless ministry of Philaddelphia-born Father Aloysius P. McGonigal, the best known battlefield priest with American forces in South Vietnam.
The slim, 46-year-old Jesuit who consistently ignored his safe desk job to follow Marine units into action, was found Sunday in the bloodly rubble of Hue. His spectacles were nearby-unbroken, but a slug had torn away most of his forehead.
Thus Father McGonigal died among the men he most loved, the battle-torn veterans of the Marine Corps.

UNIT HAD NO PRIEST

Though his assignment was to the U.S. Advisory Compound in Hue, he had been expected to leave for a desk job at Da Nang. But Father McGonigal heard that the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, was assaulting the walls of the Imperial Citadel at Hue, and he learned the unit had no priest.
After pacing the advisory compound for three days, Father McGonigal asked Lt. Col. Bruce Petree, of El Paso, Tex., for permission to go to the front.

IGNORED PLEA

"Be careful," warned Petree. A plea to remain within the safety of the compound was delivered by First Sgt. Arcadio Torres, of Mount Holly, N.J. It was unheeded.
So, while American and South Vietnamese troops huddled behind protective embankments, the 5-foot, 6-inch priest made it to the north bank of the bullet-spattered Perfume River and into the thick of battle.
An Army major, Father McGonigal had traveled all over the northern provinces and extended his year-long tour of Vietnam to continue his close friendship with the First Corps.
He attended St. Joseph's High School and in 1940 entered the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues at Wernersville, Berks county (PA). He was ordained June 23, 1953, at Woodstock, Md., College.
He was assistant prefect of studies at Gonzaga High School, Washington, D.C., and taught at Loyola High School in Baltimore. Later, he studied physics at Georgetown University.
He served as an Army chaplain from 1961 to 1963 and returned in 1966, going to Vietnam that year.
Surviving are three brothers, James A., Edward J. and John; four sisters, Mrs. Maria Phalan, Sister Rose Letitia, of Our Lady of the Rosary Convent, 339 N. 63rd st., Mrs. Regina Barry and Margaret McGonigal.

Photo and article appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer on February 21, 1968.

SEMPER FIDELIS, FATHER!

Father Aloysius P. McGonigal
Tacony, Philadelphia

The 46-year-old Roman Catholic priest, the sixth of 12 children, grew up in Tacony and was one of seven men from the neighborhood to die in Vietnam. Six of the seven, including McGonigal attended St. Leo’s Elementary School at Keystone and Unruh streets. McGonigal enjoyed studying foreign languages and loved music and sports, especially tennis, baseball and basketball. He graduated from Northeast Catholic High School and received degrees from Woodstock (Md.) College and Fordham University in New York City. He was attending Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., when he was
called into the Army Chaplain Corps. The major was assigned to units in Korea in 1962-63, and shipped out to Vietnam in December 1966 where he was first assigned to the 1st Infantry Brigade of the 9th Infantry Division, and later to Headquarters, US. Army Vietnam. He had a comfortable desk job at the USARV compound in Saigon, but seldom was there because of his devotion to the men in the field. McGonigal was killed on February 17, 1968, during the Battle of Hue in Thua Thien Province. He administered the last rites to dying soldiers and comforted the wounded through three days of intense fighting near Hue Citadel before being fatally wounded. McGonigal was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. Survivors included several brothers and sisters.
... from The Philadelphia Daily News