I THINK OF VIETNAM EVERY SINGLE DAY

I just finished your memoir, Gun - Totin' Chaplain.  Thanks for writing it; I thoroughly enjoyed it.  My difficulty in reading a true accounts, i.e. books and soldier stories, is that I start questing my recollection and that is a healthy thing.  Some how I thought you deployed with the division in Dec. of 68.  My first day on the ground as 3rd Platoon Leader with Delta Company was March 30, 68.  I believe you arrived in May 68 and one of my platoon members,   Roger Underwood  recalls your participation in one of our 3rd Platoon ambushes.  If that was you it had to be mid to late May.  Underwood was wounded on his birthday 26 May 68.  I remember the Chapel at LZ Sally and the Chapel/Church at Bien Hoa.  FSB Mongoose I thought was between Hueand Coco Beach.  I don't recall a FSB Sandy or Sandy Star.

 

I believe I recall reading an article in Time Magazine about the "Gun - Totin' Chaplain after I returned home sometime in the Summer of 69.  Thanks again for the great read and please be patient with my confusion.  I am attempting to fill in the gaps in "My Story."  I had a much narrow experience in being the 3rd Platoon Leader for 7+ months then the XO and relief CO all with Delta CO 1/501. 

 

I will miss not visiting with you at the 40th Reunion at Ft. Campbell this June.  As I told you before, you are my HERO.  You always raised my spirits when I encountered you and that was an incredible gift in caring.  At one point as XO I really missed you when you were reassigned down south at Bien Hoa.  I wanted your guidance in helping me break bad news to a 3rd Platoon Soldier who's younger brother and sister drowned in a pond at their family ranch inOklahoma.  I was extremely judgmental since I thought your replacement Chaplain was a wimp and I don't believe he was respected by the troops as you were.  I describe this as one of the toughest tasks.  I wish you were there to do it for me.  I did it by speaking from the heart.  We cried, we hugged and I emptied my wallet as he headed to the Red Cross representative then home to attend the funeral and grieve with his family.

 

Well thanks again for writing your story.

 

Dan