Two brothers, both priests, to be buried together on Arlington’s Chaplains Hill

Two brothers, both priests, to be buried together on Arlington’s Chaplains Hill

By Eric Jorgensen, Chaplain Corps

On Wednesday, Apr. 24 2019, two brothers who grew up in a large Irish Catholic family, and who both became priests and decorated military chaplains, will be reunited in Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Va. The ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m.

The ashes of Rev. Francis “Frank” Brett, who died two years ago at 86, will be placed in the grave with the remains of his brother, the Rev. Robert Brett. Robert was interred at Arlington in 1998, in a ceremony three decades after his death at age 32. He was killed in action in 1968, while serving as a Navy chaplain in Vietnam.

Stirred by the death of his brother, Frank became an Army chaplain and soon deployed to Vietnam, like Robert had. Frank was a chaplain for 30 years, until he retired from the Army in 1998.

The Rev. Robert R. Brett, U.S. Navy Chaplain by Society of Mary excerpt 

Five years after his ordination, he realized that he needed to do more to support the men and women serving in Vietnam. He joined the Navy as a chaplain. After chaplain school in Newport, R.I. and Marine training at Camp Pendleton, the now Lt. Robert Brett requested overseas duty and assignment to a Marine unit in Vietnam.

It was customary for each infantry battalion to be assigned a chaplain, and Father Brett was assigned to the 26th Marines stationed at Phu Bai. He arrived in Vietnam in October 1968 and moved to Khe Sanh when the 26th moved in January 1968.  He was well-liked and highly regarded by the men he served. The men respected him because they saw him out wherever they were, not simply at the masses he performed every Sunday. His base was at Hill 558, where the 26th Marines had their command post, but it was common for Father Bob, as the Marines called him, to be out at the Marine positions, regardless of weather or enemy fire. In his book Walk With Me: A Vietnam Experience, Lt. Col. Jerry Kurth remembered the risks that Father Bob was willing to take in order to minister to the men of the 26th Marines after they had suffered an attack that caused many casualties: “Around 7 a.m. a couple of choppers arrive at Hill 558 to pick up the replacements. Just as the last replacements board, Father Brett runs up to a chopper and tells the pilot that he will be accompanying the replacements. He never bothers to ask permission or seek approval; he just feels he is needed on Hill 861A after their ordeal.”

For most of Father Bob’s time in Vietnam, Pfc. Alexander Chin could often be found right next to him. Chin was a 24-year old PFC Marine from Maryland who, because of his religious beliefs, had transferred to a non-combatant post. He was not willing to take another life, but he stood by Father Bob and together they risked their lives ministering to their Marines. The two performed every conceivable religious duty, from baptisms and communions to confessions and last rites. As the base was being attacked, Father Bob would have to perform multiple masses to make sure all could attend. He sometimes said mass ten times a day, and each service was always packed. Kurth called him “utterly tireless as well as utterly fearless.” Before his death in 2011, Kurth told Father Bob’s family that Father Bob moved around to be with his troops, regardless of what any commanding officer ordered.

The Siege of Khe Sanh began in January 1968, just after Father Bob and the 26th Marines had arrived in the area. North Vietnamese Army forces attacked the Marine base on January 21, beginning a massive coordinated attack that would last for 77 days and take the lives of more than 200 American troops. As always, Father Bob was in the thick of the action, ministering to his Marines.

U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Alexander Chin, Father Bob’s assistant. The two men served their Marines together and died together during the siege of Khe Sanh.

On February 22, Father Bob and Chin were at the Khe Sanh Combat Base awaiting helicopter transport back to the command post at Hill 558. Kurth had not wanted Father Bob to leave Hill 558, but relented when Father Bob accused him of “preventing him from doing his duty as a priest.”  As the chopper landed and Father Bob and the others made their way to it, NVA rockets began hitting the base. As the rocket fire increased, Father Bob told the helicopter to take off. He headed back to the trenches, with Chin at his side. Almost immediately upon their arrival at the trench, a rocket struck directly on the trench. When the smoke of the rocket attack cleared, eight men lay dead in the trench, including Father Bob and Chin.

Father Bob was buried on the grounds of the seminary he had attended, and Chin was laid to rest in a family plot in Princess Anne, Maryland. In 1998, the Brett family moved Father Bob to Chaplain’s Hill in Arlington National Cemetery. As a sign of their gratitude for the faith, devotion and courage of Chin, they petitioned to have him buried right beside the chaplain. In 1999, Chin was buried with full military honors on Chaplain’s Hill. Father Bob and Chin are side by side, just as they were so often in Vietnam.

Chaplains Hill is located in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery.

04 Jan 2003 The photo and following article is taken from The Philadelphia Daily News, special supplement entitled ‘SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTY,’ October 26, 1987. The special supplement was issued in conjunction with the dedication of the Philadelphia Viet Nam Memorial. The Roman Catholic priest grew up on S. 29th Street in South Philadelphia, graduating from nearby St. Gabriel’s School and later Catholic University in Washington DC. He was ordained in the Marist order in 1962 and enlisted in the Navy in 1967 while teaching at Immaculata Seminary in Lafayette, LA. The Navy lieutenant was killed on February 2, 1968, in Khe Sanh, Quang Tri Province, Viet Nam, at the height of the Tet offensive, when a Viet Cong mortar round hit a bunker in which he was celebrating Mass for members of the 3rd Marine Division. He was 32 years old. Brett “was neither a hawk or a dove, but he wanted to be where the men needed him most, so he requested overseas combat duty in Viet Nam,” recalled a family member. Survivors included two sisters. SEMPER FIDELIS, FATHER! LT Robert R. Brett, USN, is claimed by Philadelphia as one of its fallen sons. LT Brett’s name appears on the Philadelphia Viet Nam Memorial. From a native Philadelphian and Marine, Jim McIlhenney christianamacks@comcast.net

Chaplain Robert Brett and his assistant, Marine PFC Alexander S. Chin, died together during a rocket attack on the Marine base at Khe Sanh. Their bodies were returned to the United States for burial, LT Brett in Penndel, Pennsylvania, and PFC Chin in Princess Anne, Maryland.

In late 1998, LT Brett’s family arranged to have him reburied on Chaplain’s Hill in Arlington National Cemetery – but they felt that PFC Chin, who had guarded and assisted LT Brett in life, should be afforded the opportunity to rest with him in death. A nephew, Edward Rouse, tracked down PFC Chin’s family, who concurred. In the spring of 1999, Private First Class Alexander Chin joined Chaplain Brett at Arlington.

There is a Washington Post article on PFC Chin’s memorial, entitled
“A Reunion at Arlington”

Chaplains Hill and Monuments