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Articles
My First Real Christmas: Vietnam 1967
By: Staff at Storyteller.net
I arrived in Vietnam in the middle of December, 1967, a well-trained Airborne Ranger and Jungle Expert ready to save the world from the "domino effect" of communism in Asia. I discovered soon after arriving that the U.S. Army could not figure out where I belonged. The very first of several assignments was to an "Aero Rifle" platoon of a company in a battalion in the First Cavalry Division. I was flown by helicopter to a company perimeter of my new unit, on the North edge of the A Shau Valley, at that time, the most dangerous place on earth. When I arrived, the guys already there were not impressed with my training, badges and patches and promptly assigned me to perimeter guard. I spent several days there, either alone or with another "grunt" I did not know. Soon, I was sent with another guy to man a listening post about 500 meters outside of the perimeter. I had already lost track of the date by this time. Sometime during the night, the guys in the perimeter began singing Christmas songs, which we could hear out at our listening post.We tried radioing back to the command post to find out what was going on, but got no answer. Soon, it got quiet and a huge fireworks display began over the valley. The command post had called the FDC (Fire Direction Center) to have artillery units fire what is called, "time on target" rounds. This meant that all the artillery pieces from several fire bases fired at specified times so that the rounds all arrived at the same time. The rounds were all air-burst starclusters. The display went on for what seemed like 30 minutes. Afterwards, it got very quiet. Then we heard singing again, this time from somewhere else. We called back to the command post again and were told our guys weren’t doing the singing. We later discovered it was midnight, Christmas Eve, 1967. The singing came from the many thousands of North Vietnamese troops in the surrounding hills, and they were singing "Silent Night" in English! The most amazing thing was that the guys inside our perimeter joined in and sang several verses of "Silent Night" along with the North Vietnamese! I never felt so alone and depressed in all my life. The singing soon stopped and the artillery soon started landing on the pre-designated targets, and the war was on again. The fact that we on both sides took a few minutes out of the war to "celebrate" Christmas was, at the time, both uplifting and saddening, and was a metaphor for what a grunt’s life was like. Of course, I didn’t understand this until many years later. To this day, I cannot ever sing or hear "Silent Night" without crying. I’m not sure it has to do with the war so much as memories of those we have loved and have lost. Or it may have to do with a frightened, homesick boy in a valley in Viet Nam longing to be with family and loved ones. God’s peace to us all. ***
Chris is the author of this personal reflection. Chris did not wish to be identified by last name so none appears here in the article.
(Editor’s Note: This story was submitted to us by Chris who wished to remain anonymous. Sean is not the author of this Reflection.) Author Information:
Name: Staff at Storyteller.net
Website: http://www.storyteller.net/tellers/sstoryteller.net
The contents expressed in any article on Storyteller.net are solely the opinion of author.
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