OCR Text |
Show Family Weekly / June 29, 1969 What OurGIs in Vietnam Are By Chaplain (Capt.) ANGELO LITEKYastold to Kevin V. Brown There are at least four of them. Thefirst is the professionalsoldier, Father Angelo Liteky, a member of the missionary order of Roman Catholic priests known as Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity and a captain in the United States Army, is the first Army chaplain in history to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, this nation’s highest award for gallantry in action. Father Liteky, who as often as possible accompanied the troops into combatareas, was cited for bravery in Vietnam when a small infantry force was ambushed by a North Vietnamese battalion. Though wounded himself, Father Liteky continually returned to the battlefield to evacuate the wounded or administer the last rites to the dying. As you read this, he is en route back to Vietnam, having volunteered again to be with the young Americans he admires sc much. OMETIMEafter I returned home from myfirst tour in Vietnam I was watching a newstelecast of a helicopter operation there. The tv reporter had gone along on the mission, an attack on a Viet Cong position. His film showed the firing of the rockets and the explosions of the shells when they hit, and toward the end he commented, “Some of these pilots kill for pay, some of them for pleasure. . .” I sat there appalled, finally convinced of what I had always suspected. There is more than distance separating the fighting man in Viet- nam from the people back home. There is a considerable gap ‘n understanding both him and his motives. And if news stories about young Americans at home and on campus are as unfair and one-sided as sume of those that come out of Vietnam, then there is a gap in un- derstanding them here, too. I believe I can tell you what the young American in Vietnam is really like. I spent a year and half with him. I stood in the same chowlines with him. I walked the sametrails into combat with him. I saw him when he was relaxed, and I saw him when he was under the most severe can be quite proud of him. i can’t blame the newsmenfor the one-sided view you often get of our young people. Most of the reporters are honest men doing an honestjob, but, as one admitted, “Father, we're in the man-bites-dog business, The exception makes a better story than the rule.” So, in Vietnam, there are more stories reported of Americansfiring inio villages (where Viet Cong are known to be hiding) and more pic- tures taken of women and children fleeing from burning buildings. No one shows these same Americans sharing their food and clothing with the refugees. And, at home,I’m sure there are more stories of campus riots and draft-card burners than there are of young people quietly going about their studies or willingly entering the service. Yet I can blame the reader and viewer for not understanding this, for not recognizing that any story has to be unusualor it wouldn’t get printed. I can blame you further for not distinguishing, even in the stories you do see, betweenthe facts in the story and the opinion imposed on those facts by the reporter. Despite that tv reporter's comment, I never knew any American fighting man who killed for either pay or pleasure. In fact, I doubt if there’s an American stress any human being can suffer, in Vietnam who wants to kill for any when he is under mortal attack and friends are dying around him. I believe I know the young American GI well enough to say that you reason except survival, his own or that of others. What, then, is the American fight- 4 Family Weekiy, June 29, 1969 ing man really like? the man who has made the military life his career. He is a man of great integrity who believes deeply in his country and his uniform and is proud that America is always the one nation in the world which will rush to the defense of the weak. If 1 could sum up this man’s attitude in one word, it would be frustration. He’s a professional, he knows his job, and he’s convinced we could have won the war long ago—and could still winit today, quickly—if he were allowed to fight to win. Instead, he is working under a “no-win” policy, restricted in the type of operations he can employ, restricted in the areas he canfightin, and sent into battle like a fighter where casualties were high. His shirt was soaked through with sweat, and, as he sat back against the trunk of a tree, he said bitterly to no one in particular, “We could take those guys if they’d turn us loose.” The second type is the idealist. Not a professional scldier, he’s just as convinced that our cause is just, that we're there to stop communism and preserve freedom for the people of South Vietnam,and he’s proud to do what his country asks him to. I rememberonein particular who became very upset when he heard of the bombing halt. He felt it would prolong the war even moreand upset his plans. He had developed a real feeling for the Vietnamese people and was concerned about the conditions of poverty under which many with one arm tied behind hin and told to do the best he can. It’s worse on those who are on their second or third tours. The war of them lived and what the ravages has gone on so long, and they see no change. Thereis no win in sight, and menarestill dying. The third group is at the opposite end of the scale from the idealist. i guess you could call him the grum- Large areas are zonedoff, even in South Vietnam, where no combat activity is allowed. This is largely for bler. He loves his country and appreciates its benefits, but he’s not con- humanitarian reasons, to preventci- vilian casualties. Obviously, the Viet Cong, whofight by no humanitarian rules, know about them and use them as sanctuaries. Theprofessional's frustration was best summed up by one commander who came back from a skirmish of war had done to them, “I'd stay here and fight for them even if we pulled out,” he told me. vinced of the validity of our involvement in Vietnam. Manyofthis type, in fact, are there only because they’d go to jail if they refused. They’d rather take their chances there than suffer through life here with a dis- honorable discharge. The tragedy of this group is that they’re the most vocal of all. They |