The attack came before dawn on September 4, 1967, while most of the 1st Battalion 5th Marines’ Delta Company still slept. The evening before, the Americans had set up a nighttime defensive perimeter, but with 2,500 North Vietnamese soldiers aligned against them, it didn’t help. D Company was outnumbered and outgunned. The battle raged for hours. The gunfire was relentless. So too, however, was the D Company’s chaplain, Father Vincent Capodanno. Under heavy artillery fire, the Staten Island native administered Last Rites to the dying and pulled the wounded to safety. The injured men were heavy, but Father Capodanno had...