Chaplain's Death

As a boy, Michael Joseph Quealy of Manhattan dreamed of becoming a missionary in Asia, and it was in Asia last week that he died.

Father Quealy, 37, a Roman Cath olic priest for ten years, volunteered for duty as an Army chaplain and was shipped out last January to South Viet Nam. Assigned to the 1st Division, Quealy -- against the advice of senior officers at field headquarters in Dau Tieng -- insisted on boarding a helicopter of medics and troop reinforcements flying to the relief of the Big Red One's 1st Battalion, under attack in War Zone C northwest of Saigon (see THE WORLD). Landing at the battle site, Father Quealy hurriedly gave last rites to dying soldiers from a platoon of B Company. Just then, a Viet Cong soldier stepped out from the brush, fired at the chaplain with a machine gun. Within moments, Quealy was dead. From his pocket fell his diary; the last entry was a passage copied out from the Gospel according to Matthew: "So will my heavenly Father treat you unless each of you forgives his brother with all his heart."

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