I Found Your Card In My Sons Wallet

Saving Sergeant Vanek
By Dr. William Blazek, S.J.

A small manila envelope I opened this past January contained a Mass card and funeral program for Sgt. Joe Vanek. I felt sick to my stomach when I realized what I was reading. As I stood before the department mailboxes, our far distant war rushed closely home in his mother's sad words: "I found your card in my son's wallet...Joe was killed in action in Baghdad on Nov. 12, 2007." Vanek, 22, a Chicago-area native, had been serving with "America's Guard of Honor,"

the 82nd Airborne Division. An Army press release related only that he was killed by small arms fire. Not too many months before he was taken up to God, the pleasant paratrooper had made a heartfelt plea to me that more priests volunteer to serve the needs of Catholic Service Members fighting in the combat zone. He rightly noted that there is a great shortage of such ministers accompanying our forces in Southwest Asia. The consolation this young warrior received in the Sacraments of Confession and Eucharist shortly before his death makes his request that more Catholic clergy consider serving as wartime chaplains all the more poignant.

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Photo: Srgt. Joe Vanek is in the center with his squad with clear glasses next General David Petraeus