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, D.C. He was ordained in the Marist order in 1962 and en-listed in the Navy in 1967 while teaching at immaculate Seminary in Lafayette, La. The Navy lieutenant was killed on Feb. 2, 1968, in Kite Sanh, Quang Tn Province, Vietnam, at the height of the Tat offensive, when a Fiat Cong mortar round bit 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 be requested overseas combat duty in Vietnam," recalled a family member. Survivors included two sisters.