VIETNAM CHAPLAIN: JULY 1968

Jack Day's

Worlds

Vietnam Chaplain
Central Highlands Diary
July 1968

Sendoff. Midmorning on July 7th, 1968, I arrived at San Francisco Airport after visiting high school friends in Oregon. Not needing to report in to Travis Air Force Base until that evening, I spent the afternoon on a tour bus looking at the San Francisco sights. Finally arriving at Travis, I waited for sometime and then an announcer called out a number of names, including mine. Our plane had been double manifested. We should report back in 36 hours.

Renting a car, I drove back to San Francisco. On the tourbus I had met a young lady named Cecelia, a school teacher from Kentucky. She'd treated me to dinner. I wrote the poem July 11 in Saigon.

Assignment. On the plane I met another chaplain who was very interested in doing hospital work. Landing at Tan Son Nhut, we spent a day at "Camp Alpha", a transient area for new arrivals where we got our bearings and were issued jungle fatigues and other in-country necessities. Then we were bussed to the MACV Chaplain Office at Bien Hoa. Unlike many others, chaplains got their assignments once they arrived in Vietnam. We walked in to get ours. I was assigned to a hospital in Nha Trang, and he was assigned to a combat unit. "Couldn't we switch," I asked. The accomodation could be made and my friend went to Nha Trang, while I was assigned to the First Brigade of the Fourth Infantry Division.

Letter to home, 13 July. "I'm sitting in a barbershop at Long Binh, 90th Replacement Battalion. I've just been assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, with base camp at Pleiku. They say it is cooler there. Facilities here are primitive. Toilets are basically of outhouse variety and shower and shave is cold. Exception: USARV headquarters is air-conditioned, flush toilets, water coolers, civilian female secretaries. Lt. Col's have an air-conditioned trailer each.

"Saigon is a mix-up. Crowded streets, POV's (privately operated vehicles), motorcycles, bicycles, chickens – and some buildings and areas just blown up. We came thru yesterday. Landed Thursday at Ton Son Nhut and stayed there overnight because we weren't supposed to come through Saigon without armed convoy. So when we came thru we saw BOQs and troops wandering around in fatigues getting off busses. What a mixture.

"I may have to wait here two more days to leave for Pleiku – the mimeo machine broke down so the orders are slowed up. Planes go by night to prevent being visible targets."

Flights by Chinook helicopter took me to Fourth Division headquarters at Camp Enari, just south of Pleiku and then, after a couple of days of being outfitted and oriented, on to Dak To. A half year before, Dak To had been the scene of a tremendous battle, but it was now relatively quiet.

Dak To Seen From Air Strip

0302 Dak To Seen from Air Strip

Map -- Large file/long loading. See a map of the entire 1st Brigade Area of Operations in the latter part of 1968, from Pleiku in the south to Dak To in the north, compliments of Ray Smith, Web Master, 69th Armor Association

Brigade Headquarters was at Dak To, a couple of miles to the west of Dak To town, where Route 14, the north-south road and Route 512, an east-west road intersected. The north-south road was abandoned north of Dak To town, and the east-west road, which entered Laos a dozen miles or so to the west, was abandoned west of the Dak to base. Flying by helicopter to the Ben Het Special Forces camp, you could look down and see an old, abandoned, destroyed French bridge on the road. I think on Ray Smith's map, above, it's the little circle where road 512 crosses a river between Dak To and Ben Het.

The Brigade was comprised of 3 Infantry Batallions, 1/8 ("First Batallion, 8th Infantry), 3/8 and 3/12. I was assigned to work primarily with 3/8, while another Protestant chaplain covered 3/12. The Brigade Chaplain, who was also Protestant, covered the 6/29 Artillery, Brigade Aviation, and the Headquarters units. We had one Catholic chaplain who had to be everywhere. Consequently we got used to having Protestants at Catholic services and Catholics at Protestant services.

Entrance to Chaplain's Bunker

0303 Entrance to Chaplain's Bunker at Dak To

At Dak To, buildings occupied in the day time were above ground. Areas used for sleeping were below ground. As Chaplain, I shared a bunker with my assistant.

Walkways at Dak To

0031 Walkways at Dak To

The heavy rain during the monsoon season quickly turned everything that wasn't paved into a clinging clay muck. The solution was elevated wooden walkways covered with wire mesh connected all the tents and bunkers. Walking around one day -- August 23 -- I tried my hand at picturing Dak To in haiku poetry:Haiku for Dak To

Chaplains were itinerant preachers. Among the papers preserved from those days are notes for several of the sermons preached. On the backs are the dates they were preached, to which units, at which location.

Sermon 2: "You are a Son of God", with Galatians 3:26-4:7 as a text, written for the week of 28 July. The three points were, "you are valuable, you are free, you are a participant." I noted that sons help run the shop. It may seem that our lives and the world is out of control, but if we look deeper, God is creating something and we are involved in how it's going to turn out. In retrospect, I wonder how many of those who listened

Sermon 3: "It's what's happening," based on John 5:8-17 which says "My Father in Heaven is working, and I am working." The message was not to sell oneself short, God is creating something. I pointed out the positive race relations achieved in the Army in combat in contrast to the racial divisions back home; when you return to civilian life, don't sell short the buddy who was in combat with you.

Sermon 5: "The Secret". God has made us so that we're not happy or fulfilled until spiritual energy is flowing through us. After DEROS, the record shows this sermon was also preached at the Hospital and the 16th Street Chapel in Fort Lee, Virginia, on 10 August 69.

Map -- Large file/long loading. Detail map of Dak To 2, on the left, where I Bde had its headquarters, and Dak To town to the right compliments of Ray Smith, Web Master, 69th Armor Association

0110 Closeup of doorgunner

Getting to the forward units generally meant flying by helicopter and with that came a full year of unparalleled views.

Sandbags

0111 Building sandbag walls on mountain above Dak To

Units visited, according to the sermon record:

Friday 26 July -- A Company, 3/12 at Firebase 15 -- Sermon 2 (21 in attendance)

Sunday 28 July -- Trains 3/8, 1/8 at Dak To -- Sermon 2 (15 in attendance)

Sunday 28 July -- I Bde HHC at Brigade Chapel -- Sermon 2 (31 in attendance)

Sunday 28 July -- D Company, 1/8 at Firebase 6 -- Sermon 2 (22 in attendance)

Sunday 28 July -- 2d Platoon, B Company, 1/8 at Hill 1314 -- Sermon 2 (18 in attendance) Dak To Wildlife

0029 Dak to Wildlife

In Memoriam, July, 1968

6 July, 1968

SP4 Geronimo Lerma, Buckeye, AZ; C Co, 3/8

20 July, 1968

SP4 Rene Carbajal-Azmittia, New York, NY; C Co, 3/8
PFC Robert Conrad Shannon, Bountiful, UT; C Co, 3/8

23 July, 1968

SSG Billy Monroe Gross, Columbus, GA; D Co, 3/8

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©1999-2004 Jackson H. Day. All photos taken by Jackson Day or by Chaplain Assistant Danny Warshauer unless otherwise noted. "Letter to Home" contains actual excerpts from letters written at the time. All Rights Reserved. Updated June 24, 2004