Chaplain Angelo Liteky, a Brother-in-Arms

Being a brother-in-arms means many things to different people.  To me it certainly means being a bullet pusher and a ground pounder while being in the line of fire.  But I also include others, like the support personnel who are attached to line units or the precious few who throw themselves into harms way of their own accord.

This is one such example.

Captain Angelo Liteky was a 36 year old Roman Catholic Chaplain, serving with Headquarters, 199th Infantry Brigade, in the Bien Hoa Province during the Vietnam Conflict.  Even though he was, by specialty, a non-combatant, on 6 Dec., 1967 he attached himself to a reinforced patrol consisting of Company A, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry.  They were transported by helicopter to conduct a search and destroy mission near the village of Phuoc-Lac. 

The patrol was on the hunt and the chances of sustained conflict were excellent.  Just after clearing the landing zone (LZ), one segment of the patrol came under fire from a battalion sized enemy force.  The violence and intensity of the fire momentarily overwhelmed the unit and threw them into disarray.  They froze in position, hugged the ground and didn’t properly return fire.  The overall response was sporadic, totally disorganized and ineffective.

Observing two severely wounded men and seeing the lack of response from the attached medics, Chaplain Liteky moved to within about 20 yards of a firing enemy machine gun position to reach them, placing himself between the wounded and the fire.  When a lull in the fighting developed, the Chaplain dragged the wounded back to the LZ and its relative protection.

Encouraged by the sight of the Padre moving through the kill zone and motivated by his lifesaving actions, the patrol rallied and began to lay down a concentrated volume of direct fire on the enemy positions.

When Father Angelo saw the response that his actions had on the men, he became more overt in his tasks, moving from man to man, giving last rites or encouragement as needed.  Any wounded he came across, he personally removed to the LZ.

Upon seeing another severely wounded Soldier and realizing that he was being targeted by enemy fire, the Chaplain low-crawled to him and pulled him out of the vegetation.  Chaplain Liteky then, in an inspired moment, rolled onto his back and pulled the wounded man on top of his chest.  He dug in with his heels and elbows and through sheer determination and bullheadedness managed to crawl with the man back to the LZ.

At this point, Father Angelo was exhausted and wounded, suffering from combat injuries to his feet and neck as well as sustaining massive cuts and abrasions to his entire body.  Nonetheless, he persevered.  When he came upon yet another man entangled and severely wounded, he again bent to his task and pulled the man free.  Even though he was drawing fire, he picked the man up and carried him back for evacuation.

Seeing that the LZ was under fire with wounded awaiting evacuation, the Chaplain stood up and directed the helicopters to hover while wounded were loaded.  When they were out of the area, he moved back to his unit’s defensive positions, again inspiring the men by performing his lifesaving actions as well as giving religious succor as needed.

This continued until the next morning when a response in strength finally reached them and allowed the patrol to pull back.

Chaplain Liteky managed to bring more than 20 wounded members of the patrol back to the LZ, most of whom survived their injuries.  Furthermore, he acted as an inspiration to the remainder of the patrol and undeniably enabled them to rally sufficiently enough to repel the enemy.  He therefore likely saved all of their lives.