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Fort Lewis chaplain fights for his life

Jun- 8-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

Michael Gilbert reports on the condition of a Ft. Lewis chaplain seriously injured in an IED attack near Mosul on May 30th.

[Link to Full Article]
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

Friends and colleagues are keeping vigil for a Fort Lewis chaplain who was critically wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq.

The Rev. Tim Vakoc, 44, was in critical but stable condition Monday in the intensive care unit at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He suffered significant injuries to his head and left eye, and doctors have been keeping him in a chemically induced coma to allow his brain to heal.

He's also struggling with fever and infection, his family reported Monday on a Web site they created to update friends on his condition.

Officials at the U.S. Central Command said Vakoc is believed to be the first military chaplain wounded in the war in Iraq.

The Catholic priest had said Mass for soldiers out in the field, and he and his assistant, Spc. Nathan Copas, were returning to the Mosul Airfield when their convoy was attacked May 30.

"He took the brunt of the blast," his brother, Jeff, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Vakoc is a native Minnesotan.

He is the chaplain to the 44th Corps Support Battalion from Fort Lewis and deployed to the Middle East with the unit in November. The 44th - a mix of active-duty and reserve soldiers - provides logistical support to the Fort Lewis-based units working across northern Iraq, including the Task Force Olympia headquarters and the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the Army's first Stryker brigade.

The website mentioned in the article is www.caringbridge.org/mn/timvakoc.


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