Chaplain dies 5 years after being wounded in Iraq

[AlphaCentauri]

The Rev. Tim Vakoc, a Minnesota priest who was gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq five years ago, has died, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Sunday. He was 49.

Vakoc, who was believed to be the first military chaplain wounded in Iraq, died at a nursing home in suburban New Hope on Saturday. The cause of death was not immediately released.

Vakoc was an Army chaplain on May 29, 2004, when the blast cost him an eye and severely damaged his brain as he was returning from celebrating Mass with troops near Mosul.

"A man of peace, he chose to endure the horror of war in order to bring the peace of Christ to America's fighting men and women," Archbishop John Nienstedt said in a statement. "He has been an inspiration to us all and we will miss him. We ask everyone to remember him in prayer."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j26cAapGpXboYRoRzUHqpVWfd5sAD98VC3JO0

[atreides1]

1. RIP Chaplain

[predfan]

2. All the back patting by the previous administration as to the lack of fatalities

in Iraq, comparing them to the 55,000 plus deaths in Nam, fail to mention the horrendous injuries that would have been deaths had they occurred in the jungle as opposed to minutes from a field hospital.......this story illustrates the sad state of our wounded vets. Their war will never be over.