DOB/DOD: November 8, 1921 (Philadelphia, PA) – February 17, 1968; 46 years old
RELIGION: Roman Catholic (Jesuit)
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
COLLEGE: Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. Ordained on June 23, 1953.
SERVICE NUMBER: O-4070348
ENLISTMENT: 1957
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY: 5310, Chaplain
TOUR START DATE: October 26, 1967
UNIT: I Corps Advisory Group, Hue, Advisory Team #1. With the 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, when he was killed
CASUALTY LOCATION: Hue, Thua Thien Province
ON THE WALL: Panel 39E, Row 75
FAMILY: Born to John F. (1882-1960) and Mary E. Baylie McGonigal (1884-1929). Sisters Maria C. McGonigal Phalan (1913-2007), Sister Margaret F. [a nun] (1915-2002), Rose Letitia [a nun] (1916-2013), and Ann Regina “Jean” McGonigal Barry (1924-2019). Brothers John J. (1910-1993), Francis J. (1917-1963), James A. (1923-1995), and Edward J. “Gooch” (1926-1995).
DECORATIONS: Awarded the Silver Star Medal and the Purple Heart Medal.
St. Joseph’s Prep yearbook Class of 1940
1957 Loyola Blakefield Jesuit School, Towson, Maryland, faculty photo
Citation to accompany the award of the Silver Star Medal
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Major (Chaplain’s Corps) Aloysius Paul McGonigal (ASN: O-4070348), United States Army, for gallantry in action involving close combat against an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam. Chaplain McGonigal distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions from 15 to 17 February 1968, while serving as Chaplain with Advisory Team 1, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, on a combat mission in the Republic of Vietnam. During the battle for Hue City, Chaplain McGonigal learned that the Marines of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, were without a chaplain and would be tasked with crossing the river under heavy fire to storm the walls of the enemy-controlled Citadel. After obtaining permission to join these Marines, he went into battle with them for three days of intense urban warfare, consoling the wounded and administering Last Rites to the dying. Chaplain McGonigal’s extraordinary heroism in close combat against an enemy force is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself and the United States Army.
From army.togetherweserved.com: He extended his tour for a second year at the U.S. Advisory Compound in Hue, beginning his tour on 26 October 1967. It was during the Battle of Hue at the Citadel that he went out across the Perfume River and joined with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, serving as their priest. On the third day, he was shot in the head while giving Last Rites, on 17 February 1968. He died of that wound. Father McGonigal was not an official member of the 5th Marines but was there of his own power and despite warnings regarding his safety. He was 46 years of age. In 1992, the Marines named the Chapel at Camp Pendleton, California, in his honor.
From VirtualWall.org, posted on April 2, 2007
I met Father McGonigal when I was a Freshman at Georgetown (Class of 1964). I was doing very badly in Freshman math (required course – I was an English Major), and Father McGonigal was kind enough to tutor me in preparation for the final. I survived with a “C” – for me equivalent to an A+ – and was able to continue and complete my four years at GU. The next time I ran into Father McGonigal was in III Corps just prior to Tet in 1968. (I was then attached to MACV, rank of 1st Lieutenant) The occasion was a field Mass at which he officiated and conducted a General Confession as part of the service. We spoke over coffee afterward, and it was very reassuring to me to know he was there. It was to be my last contact with him as Tet broke out a few days thereafter, and we went our separate ways. When I heard of his death, I was profoundly saddened, and I remember him each year on the anniversary of that campaign – and thank him for enabling me to get over the Freshman math hurdle without whose help I’d still be trying to pass that course!
From a student and friend,
Michael P. Shea
Researched and written by Bob McNulty, May 21, 2020. Used with permission.
Chaplain (Major) Aloysius (Al) Paul McGonigal S.J. was born into a large, devout Irish-Catholic household in Tacony on November 8, 1921. His family lived at 6323 Torresdale Avenue along the southern fringe of St. Leo’s Parish from 1916 until 1960. Al’s parents were John F. McGonigal, a 27th District patrolman, and Mary Ellen Baylie McGonigal. Mary Ellen gave birth to twelve children during their twenty-year marriage, nine living and three stillborn. Sadly, she bled to death at age 44 while giving birth to a stillborn son on February 22, 1929.
Even before he started first grade at St. Leo’s Parochial Elementary School (Keystone and Unruh), Al knew that he wanted to be a Jesuit priest. Two of his older sisters also had a religious calling: Margaret (Daughters of the Heart of Mary) and Eleanor (Sisters of Saint Joseph). In the early and mid-1930s, Al and his younger brother Jimmy (also a student at St. Leo’s) would walk three miles every Sunday to their mother’s grave in St. Dominic’s Cemetery (on the 8500 block of Frankford Avenue). Before returning home, Al always stopped first for prayers at St. Dominic’s Church.
Despite his diminutive height (5’4″), Al enjoyed sports and was a fierce competitor. He played baseball, basketball, tennis, and was a strong swimmer. After graduating from St Leo’s in 1936, more than anything, he wanted to continue his education at St. Joe’s Preparatory School (17th and Stiles). Al asked for the Blessed Mother’s intercession and vowed to refrain from swimming for two years. His prayers were heard and, true to his word, despite family vacations to Wildwood in 1936 and 1937, Al did not even put one toe into the water. To pay for his schoolbooks, he sold soft pretzels on the southeast corner of Torresdale and Levick.
Al was a member of the track team at St. Joe’s Prep and was the manager of the crew team. He graduated on June 14, 1940. On October 26, 1987, the Philadelphia Daily News mistakenly listed North Catholic as his high school alma mater, and others have since misprinted the error. Nevertheless, Al was a Hawk, not a Falcon.
Six weeks after graduating from St. Joe’s Prep, Al entered the St. Isaac Jogues Jesuit Novitiate at Wernersville, Pennsylvania. His older brother Frank had a notion that perhaps he, too, had a calling to the Cloth and went along with Al. The Lord, though, had other plans for Frank, who left the novitiate in December 1941 after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the Coast Guard and was soon thereafter assigned to a patrol boat protecting Cramp’s Shipyard on the Delaware River in Port Richmond.
Al was ordained on June 23, 1953, at Woodstock College, a Jesuit Seminary (closed 1974) near Baltimore. He continued his education at Fordham and Georgetown Universities, earning a master’s degree in physics. During those years, Al had two assignments. First, at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., as the prefect of studies (earning a reputation as a stern disciplinarian), and then as an instructor at Loyola High School (now Loyola Blakefield) in Towson, Maryland (teaching religion, mathematics, Latin, and physics).
In October 1961, Al joined the U.S. Army as a chaplain (Captain) with the 1st Cavalry Division stationed on the Imjin River in Korea. After completing his enlistment, he returned home in 1963. His brother Frank had died suddenly earlier that year, and Al wanted to be there to comfort his loved ones. For the extended McGonigal Family, the highlight of every Christmas season was when “Uncle Al” would come home for a visit. He adored his nephews and nieces and cherished every moment that he spent with them.
In 1966, Al was working on obtaining a doctorate in physics from Georgetown when his superiors decided to send him to the Jesuit missions in India. Al instead volunteered to go to Vietnam, where he felt he could do the most good. He arrived in Vietnam in December 1966, assigned to the 1st Infantry Brigade, 9th Infantry Division. Expected by his commanding officers to stay in the rear, Al frequently strayed out to the front lines. His calm, fearless demeanor during the thickest of battles won him the love and respect of everyone who witnessed him going about his work.
In 1967, Al extended his enlistment and was granted one week’s leave, which he spent in Ireland. Upon his return to Vietnam, he was reassigned to the U.S. Advisory Compound in Hue. His duties there were minimal, saying two or three masses each week, which left him time to scour the northern provinces for those in need of spiritual succor. Al was in the north on January 31, 1968, when the Viet Cong captured Hue at the start of the Tet Offensive and had to make his way back with a Vietnamese Airborne unit.
By then, combined elements of the U.S. armed forces and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam had retaken most of the southern portion of the city. However, the Viet Cong still controlled the northern half (above the Perfume River), which included the ancient walled Imperial Citadel.
Upon his return to Hue, Al received orders to report to Da Nang for a desk job. He was to leave as soon as southern Hue was secured, and until then, he was to remain in the safety of the advisory compound. The fight for the city was fierce. Fought at close quarters, house to house, the casualties were high. Al ignored his orders and tended to his flock on the battlefield.
On February 11, Al learned that the Marines of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment were without a chaplain and that soon they would be tasked with crossing the river under heavy fire to storm the massive walls of the Citadel. Al asked his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Petree, for permission to go along with them. Petree balked at first but changed his mind after Al pestered him for three days, insisting that his place was with the men fighting on the front line.
With a .45 pistol strapped to his side, Al followed the Marines through the gates of hell. For three days, during intense urban warfare, he stayed with them, administering the last rites to the dying and consoling the wounded.
On February 16, John Olson, an Army combat photographer for Stars and Stripes, captured Al in action, praying over a soldier who had just died from his wounds. Within twenty-four hours, Al, too, was dead. A search party found him the following day in the rubble of a bombed-out house two blocks from the front line; he had been shot at close range in the back of his head.
Ten days after his death, Al was back home in Philadelphia. His viewing and funeral took place on March 1st and 2nd at the Church of the Gesu (next to St. Joe’s Prep). He was then interred at the Jesuit Novitiate in Wernersville.
Major Robert H. Thompson, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, wrote the following letter to the Philadelphia Daily News, published March 20, 1968:
“In the few short days that we spent with him inside the Hue Citadel, I found him to be a man of unshakeable faith and unbelievable courage. Father McGonigal spent every day with the assault companies, administering to the dead and wounded and giving spirit to every Marine who saw him. Without regard to his own personal safety, he continually exposed himself to intense hostile fire to do what he strongly felt was his duty to his God and his Country. Even though he was an Army chaplain, we feel that he belongs to us. The members of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines who fought in the walled city of Hue, will never forget Father McGonigal, and I’m sure that we will be just a little stronger for having known him.”
Al was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, and his name appears on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. (panel 39E/075). In 1989, the Marine Corps named a chapel in his honor at Camp Pendleton. There is also a memorial monument for Al at the Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 17 at 7163 Hegerman Street in Tacony.
From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin on February 20, 1968
PHILADELPHIA 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 on Sunday. His body lay in the rubble of a blown-out building, a bullet wound in the back of his head. Officially, 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 insecure jungle. “He was a real circuit rider,” said Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Petree, of El Paso, Texas. The MACV deputy adviser said the priest was “never concerned about his personal comfort or appearance.” 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.” 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 on June 21, 1953, at Woodstock College in Maryland. 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 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 Ave.; 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 Streets. 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 Ave., Tacony. His father, John F., was a policeman who was attached to the Rising Sun Ave. and Benner St. station when he retired in the mid-1940s. His father died in 1960. His mother, Mary, died on February 22, 1929.
Buried at Jesuit Cemetery, 501 North Church Road, Wernersville, Pennsylvania.
END