Henry Timothy Vakoc ("VAH-kitch") (January 8, 1960 – June 20, 2009) was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

and a United States Army chaplain during the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

, attaining the rank of

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

. He was critically injured on May 29, 2004, when his

Humvee The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the ori ...

was struck by an IED (

improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechan ...

) as he was returning from celebrating

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

for soldiers. He was also the first documented U.S. Army chaplain seriously injured during Operation Iraqi Freedom.Minnesota Army Chaplain Timothy Vakoc receives Purple Heart"
CatholicMil.org (Catholics in the Military), July 5, 2004. Retrieved 2009-09-13. He died on June 20, 2009.

Early years

Vakoc was born on January 8, 1960, in

Robbinsdale, Minnesota Robbinsdale is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota,. The population was 13,953 at the time of the 2010 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Minnesota ...

. He graduated in 1978 from Benilde-St. Margaret's School, Minneapolis."Humor and Guts: Stories abound about injured priest hero"
CatholicMil.org (Catholics in the Military), June 20, 2004. Retrieved 2009-09-13. He graduated from St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota and was a member of

Tau Kappa Epsilon Tau Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as or Teke, is a social college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and Canada, making the Fraternity an internat ...

fraternity. He was also a member of the fraternity staff, visiting chapters in the midwestern and northeastern United States.

Seminary and priesthood

He attended

Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity The Saint Paul Seminary (SPS) is a Roman Catholic major seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. A part of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, SPS prepares men to enter the priesthood and permanent diaconate, and educates lay men and women o ...

, at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. On May 30, 1992, he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

, for the

Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. Vakoc's first assignment was as associate pastor at St. Charles Borromeo Church, in St. Anthony, Minn. (1992–1993). He later served as associate pastor of St. John Neumann Church, in Eagan, Minn. (1993–1996). He left that post to join the Army.

Military service

Vakoc became an Army chaplain in 1996, receiving his commission as a lieutenant in the Army chaplain corps. His first assignment was Garrison Catholic Priest in Heidelberg, Germany. He then was reassigned to Hanau, Germany, During that time he deployed to Bosnia. He was assigned to

Fort Carson Fort Carson is a United States Army post located directly south of Colorado Springs in El Paso, Pueblo, Fremont, and Huerfano counties, Colorado, United States. The developed portion of Fort Carson is located near the City of Colorado Springs i ...

, Colo., where he served for three and a half years. He was then assigned as chaplain for the 44th Corps Support Battalion from Fort Lewis, Wash. The 44th provided logistical support to the Fort Lewis-based units in northern Iraq, including the Task Force Olympia headquarters and the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the Army's first

Stryker The Stryker is a family of eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicles derived from the Canadian LAV III. Stryker vehicles are produced by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C) for the United States Army in a plant in London, Ontario. It ...

vehicle brigade. The 44th was sent to Iraq in November 2003. While in Iraq Vakoc endeavored to celebrate Mass for soldiers in the

296th Brigade Support Battalion The 296th Brigade Support Battalion (296th BSB) is a battalion of the United States Army composed of four companies that support the operations of the 1/2 ID SBCT. The companies are Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), Alpha Company (A Comp ...

– stationed in

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...

– no matter where they were located, in an area the size of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, sometimes for only two or three soldiers in remote outposts.Drake, Tim
"Chaplain Dies After Being Wounded in Iraq"
(including photo of Vakoc celebrating Mass in the field), NCRegister.com, June 22, 2009. Circle Media, Inc. (National Catholic Register). Retrieved 2009-09-13. In a letter to his sister, Vakoc said, "The safest place for me to be is in the center of God's will, and if that is in the line of fire, that is where I will be." Vakoc was injured on May 29, 2004 – the day before his twelfth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood – while returning from saying Mass for soldiers in the field in Iraq when his Humvee struck a roadside bomb (IED). He sustained a severe brain injury. He was treated at an Army

field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile A ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

and was then evacuated to

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC), also known as Landstuhl Hospital, is a U.S. Army medical center, located in the German town of Landstuhl, near Ramstein Air Base. The installation is an amalgamation of Marceau Kaserne (german: Infan ...

in Germany. On June 2, 2004, he was transported to

Walter Reed Army Medical Center The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in the District of Columbia, it served more than 150,000 active and ret ...

, Washington, D.C.

Post-injury

Vakoc received the Purple Heart in his room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center during a private ceremony limited to immediate family members, Army personnel, and then-U.S. Senator

Norm Coleman Norman Bertram Coleman Jr. (born August 17, 1949) is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a United States Senator for Minnesota. From 1994 to 2002, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota. First elected ...

, who presented the medal. Due to the seriousness of Vakoc's injuries and his unstable condition, Coleman was able to expedite the granting of the award. After several months, he was transferred to the Minneapolis

VA Medical Center The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the component of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) led by the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health that implements the healthcare program of the VA through a nationa ...

,"Flag Presented to Fr. Vakoc"
CatholicMil.org (Catholics in the Military), June 1, 2005 (posted June 6, 2007). Retrieved 2009-09-13. where he lay in a coma for six months. In the late spring of 2005, he began to show signs of improvement. With the help of the

Yellow Ribbon Fund The ''Yellow Ribbon Fund'' (YRF) is a charity that primarily helps returning American service men & women, injured during active service, who are recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital. The charity was founded ...

, a special computer was donated so that he could communicate with others. On June 1, 2005, a flag – signed by Vakoc and his unit – was given to him. His first message to the visitors who presented the flag was "TIM 4F" (the military code for unfit for duty) and then "OK".

Death

Vakoc died on June 20, 2009, at a nursing home in

New Hope, Minnesota New Hope is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 20,339 at the 2010 census and 20,907 at the 2019 estimate. History New Hope was originally a farming community called Hope in Crysta ...

. His body was interred in

Fort Snelling National Cemetery 3 Fort Snelling National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory adjacent to the historic fort and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. It is the only National Cemetery in Minneso ...

, Minneapolis.

Awards and decorations

Vakoc was awarded the following medals: * Bronze Star ribbon

–

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

–

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, w ...

* –

Combat Action Badge The Combat Action Badge (CAB) is a United States military award given to soldiers of the U.S. Army of any rank and who are not members of an infantry or special forces MOS, for being "present and actively engaging or being engaged by the enemy, a ...

Honors

On June 1, 2007, Vakoc received the 2007 Distinguished Alumnus Award from his alma mater, the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity."Father Tim Vakoc dies; remembered as 'a man of peace'"
CatholicMil.org (Catholics in the Military), June 24, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-13. In spring 2011, the Father H. Timothy Vakoc Council 15269 received its charter from the Supreme Council of the

Knights of Columbus The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. It is led by Patrick E. Kelly, the order's 14th Supreme Knight. ...

. The council is located at

, Colorado, and is one of more than 15,342 councils around the world and including 1.9 million members.

Footnotes

References

* "Army Chaplain Lived Vocation", ''The Priest'', September 2009, page 90 (

Our Sunday Visitor Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) is a Catholic publishing company in Huntington, Indiana, which prints the American national weekly newspaper of that name, as well as numerous Catholic periodicals, religious books, pamphlets, catechetical materials, i ...

External links

* Pronechen, Joseph
"In Iraq, Soldiers Find Their Greatest Allies in Chaplains"
NCRegister.com, May 30, 2004. Circle Media, Inc. (National Catholic Register). Retrieved 2009-09-13.
Minnesota Army Chaplain Timothy Vakoc receives Purple Heart"
CatholicMil.org (Catholics in the Military), July 5, 2004. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
"Updated on Chaplain Timothy Vakoc"
CatholicMil.org (Catholics in the Military), September 2, 2004. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
"Priest, injured in Iraq, utters first words in over 2 years"
Catholic News Agency, November 9, 2006. Retrieved 2009-09-13. * Lerner, Maura

''Star Tribune'', December 18, 2006. Retrieved 2009-09-13. * ttp://www.catholicmil.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79:army-priest-accepts-his-cross&catid=40:vakoc&Itemid=76 "Army Priest Accepts His Cross" CatholicMil.org (Catholics in the Military), February 28, 2007 (posted March 1, 2007). Retrieved 2009-09-13.
"Chaplain Dies From Iraq War Injuries, Priest Embraced God's Will in Line of Fire"
ZENIT.org, June 22, 2009 (posted on EWTNews,

EWTN The Eternal Word Television Network, more commonly known by its initials EWTN, is an American basic cable television network which presents around-the-clock Catholic-themed programming. It is not only the largest Catholic television network in ...

.com, June 23, 2009). ZENIT.org News Agency. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
"Henry Timothy Vakoc / New Hope, Minnesota / June 20, 2009"
Iraq/Afghanistan War Heroes, June 22, 2009. Q Madp, Portland, Ore. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
"Brave Catholic Army chaplain dies from injuries suffered in Iraq"

Catholic News Agency The Catholic News Agency (CNA) is a private institution of EWTN that provides news related to the Catholic Church to the global anglophone audience. Founded in 2004 as the English section of the worldwide ACI Group, it is headquartered in Denver ...

, June 23, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-13. * Lerner, Maura
"Hundreds paid respects to the Rev. Timothy Vakoc at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Gravely injured in Iraq in 2004, he died last Saturday at 49"
''

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'', June 26, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-13. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vakoc, H. Timothy 1960 births 2009 deaths People from Robbinsdale, Minnesota People from St. Anthony, Minnesota American military personnel killed in the Iraq War Military personnel from Minnesota Religious leaders from Minnesota Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis United States Army officers United States Army chaplains St. Cloud State University alumni Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity alumni Catholics from Minnesota 20th-century American Roman Catholic priests United States Army personnel of the Iraq War