This is a great story by itself.

He was ordained in 1989 and spent five years at a parish on Chicago’s west side and then six years in Mexico. He returned to the west side of Chicago in 2000 where, in 2006, he presided over the funeral of Pfc. Daniel Zizumbo, a soldier killed by a makeshift bomb in Afghanistan whose parents were Foley’s parishioners.

Zizumbo’s death was motivational for Foley, whose brother and college roommate served in the Army and whose uncle was an Army chaplain in Vietnam. On the second anniversary of Zizumbo’s death, Feb. 27, 2008, Foley was sworn in as an Army officer by his brother Michael, a lieutenant colonel.

“I’m a Catholic priest and I know there’s a shortage of Catholic priests in the Army. I thought it was my time to serve,” Foley said in his office at Enduring Faith Chapel at this large air base north of Kabul.