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Chaplain Cpt. Jack Park
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My year in Vietnam began on May 28, 1968 to May 27, 1969. This was a year of adventure, travel, hundreds of friendships, seeing war real close up and even far away, yet a year I will always treasure in that I never felt
more needed or fulfilled in Christian ministry.
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Capt. Park At Honai Village North Of Bien Hoa Near The Orphanage - These little girls are neighborhood children, surely not orphans. They
lived close to the orphanage. The little girls were so shy.
I volunteered to serve in the Army Chaplaincy in March of 1967 and took my training in New York and New Jersey. The Army was needing chaplains badly, so they took me, a 36-year old pastor, who had three prior pastorates under my belt. I was told
on my first day of duty that I'd be in Vietnam in one year, and it was just a tiny bit longer that I left my wife and four sons at home in Oklahoma. I had been deferred while in college in 1949 to 1952, so I always felt an obligation to serve my country for
at least three years. It worked out that I just put on different clothes, a uniform, and served as a pastor in uniform. I never regretted a day of duty in the Army.
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Newport Chapel Service Attendees - November 17, 1968 - Starting At Left Front Row - Cpt Kimmel, In Charge Of Security Guards At
Newport - Johnny Huff - Eddie Krumwiddy - Cpt Hall - SP4 Milligin - Jerry Bradley - Col O'Sullivan, Newport CO At The Time Now At Cam
Ranh Bay
I was met at the 90th Replacement Battalion by Chaplain Bob Wills, who derosed two days later. I was introduced to my first Transportation C/O, Lt Col Jack Santry, and Major Jim Dowds, my X/O, and the men of the various companies of the 71st
Transportation Battalion, who were scattered at work sites everywhere, it seemed. Soon Chaplain Wills took me into Saigon on business and at Tan Son Nhut, we had to go to the morgue. It shocked me to see so many bodies of servicemen being
prepared for flight "home" for burial.
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Don Beatty - My Assistant Fred Bielfelder - My Driver Me With Fred Bielfelder And Our Carpenter - Working On Offices
71st Transportation Battalion Chapel At Camp Camelot
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Soon we were under attack by units of the VC and possibly NVA right in the streets of Saigon, where traffic became unmovable for a while. For days it seemed we'd be attacked spasmodically, and we were for the entire year I was there. We were
rocketed and mortared often. You could see our helicopters and planes strafing and bombing right outside our camp (Camp Camelot) at Long Binh. We spent a lot of time running to our bunkers.
Our men unloaded ships, barges, trains, and planes at different sites, doing lots of hard labor in their year in country. Everything you could imagine was unloaded, but bombs and artillery shells were the biggest or most popular item. My duties were
to serve all troops by becoming, hopefully, a friendly pastor in uniform who really cared for them and wanted to minister to them in any way. Along with my assistant, Don Beatty of Texas, we had "chapel" services or Bible studies at five locations on
Sunday, going to all of them by jeep. Our numbers sometimes were small, but we had lots of fun, humor and singing, and friendships were many.
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Two Photos Above - Members Of The 402nd Terminal Transfer Company At The Cogido And Binh Hoa Barge Sites - Part Of The Sunday Afternoon Chapel Crowd - Two Of The Sites I Ministered At
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During my tour, our Orphanage children that once lived at the area of the Newport docks were moved to a new facility that our Battalion built several miles north of Long Binh. It took about a year to build, and it was a nice building, painted white, all
masonry, which the children were moved to and, not too many years afterwards, was probably destroyed by the NVA.
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It was a delight to get to know the priest that took care of these children, as well as them. They visited our Battalion Headquarters at Camp Camelot at least once or maybe twice while I was there and were given gifts at Christmas plus a meal of
strange looking and tasting American food in our Mess Hall.
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SP5 Don Beatty ( Chaplain Assistant ) With One Of The Younger Orphans Unloading Gifts For The Orphanage
1968 Christmas Gathering Of Orphanage Children Outside The 71st Battalion Chapel
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Chaplain Park With All The Battalion Mamasans
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I was privileged to meet many foreign missionaries who came often to visit in Saigon. Our Battalion gave money to the orphanage and to a Baptist Seminary for Vietnamese young adults once a month. We got to hear Evangelist Billy Graham and,
later in December, Bob Hope at Long Bien. It was a thrill to fly to Japan for a three or four day Chaplains and Missionaries meeting. In January 1969, I met my wife Mary in Hawaii for seven days. I had a simple boil surgery on my back that became
infected and caused me to spend a few days in the hospital. Afterwards I spent a lot of time visiting in the stockade and hospitals.
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Lt Krebiel - Our Next Door Neighbor From The 64th Quartermaster PFC Bruce Tharp
Chaplain Park With Fellow Chess Player Jack Grom Chaplain Park With Bill Duggins Behind Chapel
We were next door to a POL unit (64th Quartermaster), I believe, and they had a watertight canvas swimming pool, which our men enjoyed. After derosing, I spent another year and a half in the service. I chose to get out of active duty and took civilian
pastorates again. I have kept up and even got to visit a few of the men I knew while in the Republic of Vietnam. I have many happy memories of my service years, even the ones in the National Guard or Reserves that I joined while pastoring Baptist
churches after I got off active duty. I'd like to hear from anyone. .
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Another Photo Of Chaplain Park And Bill Duggins
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Armless Christ On Street In Saigon
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Major Park - Veterans Day 2004
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This concludes my first photo page. Hope you have enjoyed looking at my photos and reading the memories of my tour with the 71st Transportation Battalion in Vietnam.
E-mail Pastor Jack Park
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Wings Of A Dove - Ferlin Husky - 1960
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Jack Showing Off His 71st Jacket
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SP4 Lynn Heckart - Manager Of The Battalion PX
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Me - Chaplain Park On Left - And Orphanage Priest At The New Location
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Photo Of Camp Camelot Taken From The 65 Foot Observation Tower
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Pastor Park With His Wife Mary - 2004
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Mr. & Mrs. Bob Dung - They owned the laundry and gift shop.
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