VIETNAM CHAPLAIN

Jack Day's

Worlds

Vietnam Chaplain
Central Highlands Diary
November, 1968

Letter to Home, 5 November, 1968 (3/8, LZ Oasis)

Yesterday at Camp Enari Bruce made a routine check on his R&R, discovered he's got one end of this month, they didn't notify him because since he left Dak To they've forgotten where he is. Then they told him he also got promoted to SP5. Then they told him they lost his pay records.

I'm trying to get a bird out to Plei Djereng this afternoon to cover a platoon protecting the artillery out there at a Special Forces camp. Things are quiet here, but more active up at Dak To, so today they're sending two companies of 3/8 back up there. Whether we'll move or not I don't know.

We're expecting more trouble since Uncle Ho doesn't have to worry about his supplies being bombed. Reaction to the bombing halt is pretty negative here. Hope it doesn't cost too many lives.

Went out with S5 team the other day to a nearby Montagnard village. Strictly loin cloth for the men and topless for the women.

0128 A civic action excursion takes us down a narrow lane in what is (hopefully) a secure area.

Life at the Oasis The Oasis, on the road from Pleiku to Cambodia, continued to be our home. A history of the war notes B-52 raids taken place near the Cambodian border on November 8 and 9.

0122 On the drive from Camp Enari to the Oasis, children would watch

flowers

0123 At the intersection where QL 14 continues south to Ban Me Thuot and QL 19 turns west toward Cambodia, there was a field full of the brightest yellow folowers.

Maps -- Large files/long loading.

LZ Oasis and Camp Enari compliments of Ray Smith, Web Master, 69th Armor Association

Pleiku and West on QL 19, compliments of Maps of South Vietnam by Jim Henthorn.

Where our quarters at Dak to were mostly in underground bunkers, at the Oasis we lived in tents surrounded by sand bags.

Oasis Chaplain Tent

0014 At the Oasis, I slept above ground in a tent rather than a bunker like Dak To

View from Chaplain Tent

0124 Looking out from the Chaplain Tent

Chaplain and Assistant

0013 Danny Warshauer had been my assistant initially; now Bruce Chaffee was Chaplain Assistant

Oasis Vietnamese

0045 Vietnamese employees did much of the work, including filling sandbags.

0125 But we washed our own altar linens

Letter to Home, 13 November, 1968 (3/8, LZ Oasis)

Went to Dak To last week, was there two nights, then was out at LZ Betty last night and the night before, when I got stuck out there. This is the first night in my own tent in a week – and we're going to move back to Dak To tomorrow.

Word just came down. We're not going to Dak To after all. Letter to Home, 15 November, 1968 (3/8, LZ Oasis). Think I'll go out to Plei Djereng tonight, spend the night, go to Betty tomorrow, spend the night there, too. Back Wednesday.

More Mountaintop Photos

Mountain Range

0115 Vietnam's mountains are a source of enduring beauty.

Mountaintop Bunker

0001 Still, the mission of the unit was to block infiltration of North Vietnamese from the Ho Chi Minh trail on the Laotian and Cambodian side of the border, and the terrain consisted of a series of north-south mountain ranges and hilltops. Most of the time, our units were on the hilltops, and were there long enough to build bunkers for safety and security.

Heating with C4

0020 Here time was passed. A quick way to heat water was to use C4 Blasting Compound. You lit it with a cigarette and it flared hot.

0106 Special Forces Camp

To the west of the Oasis, much closer to the Cambodian border, the Special Forces had a camp which houses Special Forces soldiers and their Montagnard allies. Not part of the South Vietnamese forces, the Montagnard fighters were organized into "Civilian Irregular Defense Groups."

0142 Posing for the Camera

Regardless of where the Brigade was, the 'grunts' were out on mountain top firebases. Each new firebase was freshly hacked from the jungle using explosives and power saws.

0116 "Doughnut Dolly joining in a volleyball game"

This photo--[sorry for the poor quality, it was scanned from a slide, which magnifies bits of dust]--obviously wasn't taken on a mountaintop but somewhere vehicles could get to. Perhaps at the Oasis; developed in December, it's not likely it was taken at Dak To. Red Cross Workers -- called "doughnut dollies" because they sometimes brought refreshments -- attempted by their presence to help the morale.

Some time in the middle of the tour all insignia went to basic black and olive drab. Thanks to Scott Tackett for sending me this "subdued" 4th Div. patch!

In Memoriam, November, 1968

9 November, 1968

PFC Gary John Allen, Hanover, NJ; C Co, 3/8
SGT Richard Edwards Jr, Leesburg, FL; C Co, 3/8

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©1999-2005 Jackson H. Day. All photos taken by Jackson Day or Chaplain Assistant Bruce Chaffee unless otherwise noted. All Rights Reserved. "Letter to Home" contains actual excerpts from letters written at the time. Updated January 25, 2005