VIETNAM CHAPLAIN

Jack Day's

Worlds

Vietnam Chaplain
Central Highlands Diary
May 1969, An Khe

Letter to home, 3 May (3/12, An Khe).

Social work may be my forte. This guy walks in and I discover he's got this girl expecting a baby in 10 days. Had everything just about set up for a compassionate leave to marry her in February and then transferred to 3/12, some dufus sergeants sent him to the field in the middle of it, and he just gave up.

Spent 5 hours on the telephone authenticating his story – whole thing checked out pretty well, so set things up to try to get him out. Usually about a month's paperwork involved, but with my strong letter, red cross records from Feb, and a recent letter from the girl guilelessly giving all needed supporting evidence, thought it would go. Then the trains CO hassled with me, wanted to send him back to the field. I insisted. "Got to have his Company CO's OK" "Well, dammit, call him on the horn and get it." Then they discovered his first sergeant who could OK it, which he did very grudgingly, chewing the guy out for bucking channels to see the chaplain, which pissed me off but didn't want to take the them to hassle.

Guy spluttered and tried to talk back with a couple of obscenities for which he could have been court martialled; I shushed him and took him over to Brigade to find him a helicopter, giving him fatherly heart to heart talk on the tactical disadvantages of waving red flags in front of bulls.

Got him to Enari – he signed in, they typed up a new set of papers on the spot and sent him to Division, where at 9:45 when I called last night, it was being considered with good chance of approval. He may be on his way to Texas today.

Letter to home, 12 May (3/12, An Khe).

Sappers hit An Khe last night and blew up some oil tanks. When the siren went off at 2 AM, and we went to our bunkers; the all clear was at 4 AM.

Things going mostly OK where we are here. Feel kind of guilty, though, 3/8 back at Kontum is really catching hell near the Cambodian border mountains. Just heard this afternoon of a company commander friend who was killed last night. When it's someone you've shared daiqueries with on prior occasions and admired pictures of his wife and how sexy her voice is on the tape recorder, and seem him come back simply beaming after R&R, god, it hits you so hard.

Thunder. It may be going to rain; would be wonderful, it's been so deathly hot here.

Am blowing some minds here with a telephone hook up I discovered I could do – I picked up responsibility for a battalion and chapel halfway across post. Bruce just DEROSED, that battalion has a chaplain assistant but no chaplain, so we teamed up. I discovered all they had to do was attach two wires in the dial central office, and that chapel's telephone becomes an extension of mine here. Dial 2018 and it rings in both places. People dial the number from either battalion and whichever place I am I answer, then they get shaken up when they find I'm halfway across post. Ah, the machine age.

0140 Unit Sergeant

0143 Cookout

0145 Vegetables at An Khe Market

One of the pleasures of the year was the amount of time spent in helicopters and the magnificent views that awaited one.

0137 Waiting for a Ride

0139 What you could do while waiting

0138 The Ride

Pilot's View

0007 Pilot's view approaching a firebase on the saddle between two hills

Helicopter View

0033 Another pilot's view

Helicopter View 2

0040 Pilot's View of flat terrain

0135 NVA Tunnel Entrance seen from the air

0144 The mail is delivered

Letter to home, 17 May (3/12, Pleiku West).

Would you believe I moved again? Left An Khe yesterday noon. Now we're in :Pleiku, not Camp Enari, but a quartermaster place west of Pleiku near the hospital and the air force base. It's nice to be back in a tent for some reason. And it's cooler here, even if it means candlelight till they get some power.

Everyone is so friendly here and tickled to have the infantry in. Had a party at the NCO club to which all the officers and NCOs were invited. Had a couple of fantastic steaks and pieces of chicken.

The chaplain here is S. Baptists, somewhat reminiscent of poor chaplain whatsisname at Eustis – old and bumbling – seems well liked, had a beautiful chapel built, but I still blew some minds by comparison getting a series of rum cokes at the bar. Met all kinds of people and really had a heap of fun.

Charlie's acting up, maybe trying to grab as much land as he can before any peace treaty is written. So far have had good luck, places haven't gotten hit till just after I've left.

Elsewhere in the War

On May 10-20, 1969 56 Americans are killed and 420 wounded in the fight for Ap Bia Mountain, known to Americans as Hamburger Hill. The battle is one of the last major actions of this type in the war.

History of the 225th Aviation BN at Phu Hiep records: "11 May 1969...Ben Het went "hot" again this morning and received 74 rounds of incoming. This time it was 85mm gun....In addition to tube artillery, the enemy also can, and does, employ 37mm radar controlled anti-aircraft guns....14 May 1969: More and more ground fire emitting from the Ben Het area of the Plei Trap Valley...While conducting a visual recon of a road network west of Ben Het, [members of the 225th] encountered airburst approximately 500 feet below them and tracking with their flight path...June already and still Charlie pounds Ben Het (first week). ... Relentlessly, Charlie launches rocket after rocket at the small compliment of GI's and Montagnards in Ben Het....By the 5th of June, Charlie's supplies are apparently waning, for the rocket and artillery attacks slacken, going down to only 26 rounds on the 4th.

In Memoriam, May 1969

1 May, 1969

2LT Richard Stephen Sly; Macomb, IL; B Co, 3/8

8 May, 1969

PFC John Sargent Merriman; Pittsburgh, PA; D Co, 3/8

9 May, 1969

PFC Harold Dean Beach; Boone, NC; B Co, 3/8
SSG Samuel Christopher, Jr, Hilton Head Island, SC; HHC 3/8
SP4 Gerald McCorvey, Hamtramck, MI; B Co, 3/8
CPT Victor David Morales, New York, NY; HHC 3/8
PFC Juan Ortiz-Ramirez, New York, NY; B Co, 3/8
SP4 Larry Wayne Watkins, Kannapolis, NC; B Co, 3/8

11 May, 1969

CPT Edward Wilson Griffith, Jacksonville, AR; B Co, 3/8
PFC Robert Gary Koval, Fairmont, WV; A Co, 3/8
PFC Terry Kay Maready, Okemah, OK; A Co, 3/8
SP4 Charles Thomas Neal, Atlanta, GA; A Co, 3/8
SP4 Richard Manuel Paco, Pacolma, CA; A Co, 3/8
PVT William Henry Swanson, Nashville, TN; A Co, 3/8
PFC Michael Arthur Walters, Gloucester City, NJ; A Co, 3/8
PFC Richard Lee Zody, Phoenix, AZ; D 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