VIETNAM CHAPLAIN

Jack Day's

Worlds

Vietnam Chaplain
Central Highlands Diary
April 1969: An Khe

April 2-7, R&R

I was eligible for a second R&R, and took it in Hawaii. Getting there meant driving from Firebase McNerney to Camp Enari, getting my civilian clothes and suitcase out of the Brigade storage area, then going to the Airport near the 71st Evac Hospital to catch a plane for Cam Ranh Bay.

Waiting for RR

0042 Waiting at the Airport. Even in Vietnam, it's a small world. At the Pleiku airport, I met Captain John Grabowski, a classmate and fraternity brother from Western Maryland College. I had not seen him since we graduated in 1963. It turns out he was on the 4th Division Staff and spent most of his time in Camp Enari.

10 April, 1969

Letter to home. (Camp Enari)

It's lunch hour and I'm sitting in the headquarters company orderly room waiting for the offices to open back up so I can run some errands, then up to McNerney about 3. Understand we're closing up McNerney and the Brigade is moving to An Khe, although my people may stay at Kontum and I'll have to move the tent there.

Had a good time at Cam Ranh yesterday. The beach was magnificient and the waves nice. Caught a couple of nice waves and rode them 30 or 40 feet.

0134 Beach at Cam Ranh

Filipina Entertainer

0043 At Cam Ranh the club had entertainment provided by Filipina singers and dancers.

12 April, 1969

Letter to home (Camp Enari). I'm definitely switched to 3/12 now. Leave for An Khe Monday or Tuesday. Just came back from Kontum this evening, having gone yesterday to see if there was anything I could do. There wasn't. Nice trip, anyway.

15 April, 1969 (Polei Kleng)

Visiting our units continued to take me to back to the area west of Kontum. On April 15, 1969, I spent the night at Polei Kleng, which had been a focus of activity in March. There was an abandoned airstrip and I wrote Dusk.

17 April, 1969 Letter to home (An Khe).

Got here four days ago and have been on the run ever since. Not unpleasant. The 1st Cav, then 173 Abn Bde really built the place up. Brigade Chaplain Brown flipped over the very beautiful chapel we inherited. (I get less impressed by such things. I flipped more over Father Gusnier's chapel at the 17th Field Hospital – "Peace Chapel" with Sister Corita type hippie posters and murals, or whith his hootch – painted pink on the outside and decorated with daisies, butterflies, etc.)

0046 "Peace Chapel" at the 17th Field Hospital in An Khe

Peace Chapel Altar

0090 The Altar inside the "Peace Chapel"

0133 Catholic chaplain Rene Gusnier at Peace Chapel

My men have been on stand down – several days to cool it in a base area nad ahve a good time. My job – to be where the troops are – would you believe, at the USO snack bar, the Red Cross Recreation Center, the Special Services beach, the NCO and O clubs, where some charbroiled steak, pizza and floor shows.

This base is so huge the perimeter is 12 miles around. It includes a mountain. We have the top and bottom of it, Charlies has the middle. How he survives inside the perimeter I don't know. But there's enough jungle on post to hide a regiment. When the Cav moved out a year ago many sections were deserted. Really blows your mind – buildings board up with off-limits and condemned on them are fancier than anything 1 Bde has seen. Should be a wild couple of months.

First Cav Chapel

0032 First Cav Chapel at An Khe. The Cav had built a thorough base camp at An Khe, including a stone chapel.

0136 Formation at An Khe. Along with the amenities of what resembled a 'rear' area came the military penchant for 'spit and polish.'

0102 Working Girls at An Khe. The An Khe post was just outside An Khe town, which had its own distractions.

Letter to home, 21 April. An Khe.

Moved into my new hooch yesterday. 3 rooms - office, reception room, and quarters. Classy, eh? An Khe is so nice after all the rest. A real floor and roof now, and so much less dust. (The people here could spot 1 Bde troops a mile off when we first got here because wer were a different color.)

Am now Protestant chaplain for the hospital chapel, the "Peace Chapel." I may have told you about the fabulous hippie posters and wall murals and hanging Father Gus has it decorated with. Gus is so fantastic (Father Rene Gusnier). Was listening to his tape recorder when Zorba the Greek came on. He jumps up and shows me how to dance to it. Says he learned it in a buddy's hooch in a Benedictine Abbey one night at 32 AM. Had I seen the movie? No. "Zorba was the most Christian person I've ever seen – complete freedom.

Gus has been trying to knock out his congregation's feeling that priests should be holier. Dropped in on a skin flick the other night where some of his people were. But apparently, his CO drew the line on his ebullience. Having gotten away with painting his hooch pink, decorating it with daisies and doves, putting up avant-garde posters in the chapel & mess all, the axe came when he had colored electric lights strung up above his door, blinking on and off, spelling out "Rene's" Seems that lights on his hill could have been visible across the whole valley.

Letter to home, 26 April. An Khe.

Being Protestant chaplain for the hospital here is a pleasant addition to everything else. Was going through the wards this morning and came to one where a tiny Vietnamesse baby was in an incubator next to the bed of its mother. Mama-san was brought in this morining in the midst of a birth complication, one of the baby's feet apparently having emerged first. They did an immediate Caeserian and everything apparnetly turned out fine. Mamasan had a weary but happy look, and papasan, sanding beside the bed, had just about the biggest grin I've ever seen.

William F. Day, the Red Cross field director here, needed an office area until the 1st Cav clears out of the area he will occupy. I offered him my reception room and the use of my phone. Now when Bruce answers the phone he sometimes has to ask if the call is for Chaplain Day or Mr. Day.

Sermon tomorrow on the text form John, "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." From long practice, and reading, and thought and experience, I will talk about freedom, and what it's all aboutand how it fits into Christianity, in an off the cuff and simple fashion which will be as good and interesting and helpful as any other sermon being prached for miles around; I have become good at it.

Letter to home, 30 April. An Khe.

Have been sitting here in the hooch drinking bourbon and coke with my buddy Bill Day, the Red Cross Man who is becoming a good friend. A wealth of stories from his air force days, hassling with the army in the Red Cross, and his concern for the ghetto.

At the General's Mess they rotate which captains get to fill the two extra seats at the head table. My turn tonight. Right opposite General Schaefer. Everybody else was talking toe verybody else. Feeling a little sorry for the General, a mildly retiring type, I engaged him in conversation. He's settled in Hawaii and owns property above Kona.

Had a conference on drug abuse in Pleiku yesterday. Cooler climate was a pleasant change. Conference was amusing; besides some good statistics from the CID chief at 4th Division, got quite a bit of support for idea that use and abuse of marijuana was comparable to use and abuse of alcohol. What became hilarious was the way the Southern Baptist contingent lapped this up on the premise that this confirmed grass as a great evil, and both should be banned. Which raised the ire of the Catholics present, who have not been noted for their moral ferver for temperence. It was a pleasant change for a chaplain trianing conference to have so much humor hidden in it.

I continued to get out to the field. On a visit to one company, incoming rounds forced us to take cover.

Taking cover

0041 Taking cover in a trench

In Memoriam, April, 1969

3 April, 1969

SP4 John Thomas Montgomery, Newton Falls, OH; B Co, 3/8
PFC Edward Francis Morrill, Medford, MA; B Co, 3/8
SGT Gene Lewis White, Lansing, IL; B Co, 3/8

5 April, 1969

Burley Kiracofe; D Co, 1/22

6 April, 1969

SP4 Robert Anthony Wojtyna, Pittsburgh, PA; 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