European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 06, 1969, Darmstadt, Hesse By Hugh a. Mulligan a staff writer nce on that Savage never to be forgotten wednesday afternoon when people All around him were dead and dying father Angelo Liteky picked up an m16 Rifle from a fallen go an cradled it under hts arms like a Soldier. "1 thought if 1 were going to die i would be the Jungles on every Side were exploding in a deafening maelstrom of machine gun and rocket fire. The whole world seemed to be crumbling Wither ing chaplain made it to the bomb Crater that served As a helicopter land ing zone just As the machine guns on the left flank Cut Loose with another bar rage. Rubber Trees blew apart and top pled As if chewed up by a giant Power saw Spe Ying Latex in a soggy Sticky Milky White Shower. He looked at the Rifle in his hands and suddenly Laid it aside in the pile of discarded weapons near the dead bodies waiting for the evacuation helicopter."1 thought this would be a hell of a Way for a priest to go so i got rid a Telephone was ringing in the Little office off the Vestibule of the White clapboard Chapel. A chaplain s assist ant picked it up. Would the father give the Benediction at a voice of democracy banquet next week in Miami outside in the snowy company Street a ragged file of recruits was Hup two three ing to the mess Hall taking their first cadence Steps on the inexorable Road to Vietnam. The Telephone rang , father they want you on the Sullivan priest in the starched Khaki fatigues with the Captain s bars on his Collar and the camouflage Green Cravat about his Throat looked out the wind wat it. Bragg s wintry landscape. The Only army chaplain Ever to Winthe medal of Honor was far away try ing to flee a legend before it trapped him. You Are a priest forever the Bishop was saying according to the or Der of Melchisedech. It was Ordina Tion Day 12 years ago but be really was t Back there either. He was Back there where he would always be for a Long time to come any Way Back there in Phuoc Loc a Nameon the map in Bien Hoa province. It was wednesday dec. 6, 1967, Lovely Day. Warm sunny but with a refreshing Breeze out of the East. The were having lunch there in the Jungle in the Shade of a Bamboo night the base Camp of the 199th Light infantry brigade had come under mortar fire. The Camp was a collection of tents and Sheds set up at the end of the Long line of Supply depots and am munition dumps arrayed along the High Way in the Long Binh area less then 30 Miles from platoons of a company 4th battalion 12th infantry had been sent into the Jungles to locate the site from which the mortars had been usual one of the chaplains went along for the exercise. The 199th was draftees outfit the kids were Young and More talkative than the professional sol Diers. Going along on patrol was one Way of getting close to them. Jul ast time out the protestant Chap Iain bad gone along. Now it was Fathe Liteky the Catholic chaplain s turn. Since arriving in Vietnam in March the 37-year-old priest who really looked a lot younger had been on 20 such operations and had no trouble keeping up. The kids seemed to like having him along he did t try too hard to talk their language but he was a Good listener a regular Guy who d sit there under the Hal track and split a Bee with them. Like most of the others he had been sniped at a couple of time but never had seen a Viet Cong. After lunch the patrol moved out on a father Angelo Liteky i just want to keep doing my Job to keep being a 130-degree azimuth in a general South Easterly direction with the fourth Pla Toon under sgt. Daniel Garrison of be Loit wis., taking the Lead. Father Liteky was in the dead Centero the column with capt. Bruce Drees the company commander and the radio operator. Thirty men in front of them 30 behind a Basic Man Euver that use the other platoon in a flanking and blocking position. At 2 . A Shaft of sunlight parted the radio trying to make himself heard above that deafening cacophony. Ill see if there s anyone wounded the priest said. He got up and moved off the path into the treeline where the fourth Pla Toon had Given Chase. The concussive fury of the assault had ceased for a time but the Earth still trembled with a strange first Man he met was a Young the Jungles to reveal a faint Trail cutting medic named Mcelroy hardly 20 year North. Suddenly less than 100 meters old he was sitting against a blackened ahead three men in Khaki uniforms tree with his leg curled up under him i nto the except it was t his leg it was a blood dashed across the Trail an Woods at the right. The Lead scouts opened fire. The fleeing enemy returned the fire. No one was hit on either Side. Then quiet. Dead quiet. Drees had the fourth platoon the Lead platoon move into the Wood line just off the path. The second platoon crouched Down in the Bushes and again. Except for the swish of fatigue uniforms moving through the dense undergrowth and the occasional snapping of a Twig. Then a tremendous Roar and a Brown hailstorm someone called it. Claymore mines bellowing out their thousands of steel pellets. The murder Ous pop pop of heavy machine guns searing the elephant grass in a blur of blown leaves. Most terrible of All the Banshee Wail of rockets singing in the thin tropical air and impacting with thunderous explosion that Shook the was on the radio calling in the company coordinates to it. Col. William Schroeder the battalion commander. Is there anything you want me Todo father Liteky asked. Drees did t answer. He was still on stump. Strangely he was you say a prayer for me padre he asked still with that strange Sweet smile. Of course i did. You la be Mcelroy Mcelroy the priest remembered him now. Just the other night on perimeter guard they had sat around bulling a Friendly talkative self assured kid who seemed to know where he was going. Back Home he had made a fair Suc Cess in a singing career and when his time was up spoke of becoming of Al things a beautician. Now he was sitting in the Woods somewhere near Bien Hoa holding a bloody stump of a foot and cocky As Ever talking about what life was All about to two buddies who were waiting with him for the dust off Thern Divac helicopter to come in. You la make it father Liteky told him and he moved on further into the Woodbine a Little to the left this time in the direction the Point had turned. Tom Samv i m i they my that the medal can a trap you can change your me and end u to 11 in. 9with an endless round of ceremonies. Free gis were lying in a Row face Down just off the path. He checked the pulse. Dead All of them but it seemed More like they were asleep. No lacerations no mutilations but deep Chest went off with a quaking Roar or. Maybe &3w� Ota Sussine ther Liteky to pick up the m16 Rifle with the thought of maybe defend ing himself it it came to that. The chaplain seemed to be doing everything instead he put it aside and crawled to where the three men were lying. All were stunned and in deep Shock two had severe lacerations of the face one had part of his nose blown off another was bleeding freely from both forearms. The latter a puerto rican boy seemed to be slightly better off than the others. Small arms fire was still ripping onto the landscape but the priest decided to risk getting him out. Lying on his Back he got the boy to lie on his Back on top of him and hooked his hands under disarm pits. Now push with your feet and i Lukick with mine the priest told him. Crab like foot by foot stopping when the bullets whined and slashed they made their Way to the path. It too nearly half an hour. Now try to stand up. Lean on puerto rican boy nodded dazed assent and together they staggered Dow the path. A helicopter was coming in the first that Day trying to beat an squeeze its Way into the Little Crater Between the tall Trees it was t a Medl vac ship it was loaded with ammo but at least there would be room for the wounded and dead on the Way out. Father Liteky deposited us Bur Den at the tiny Landing zone and started Back in after the other two. To his Hor ror he saw a second helicopter a gun ship loom Over the Trees and make its run in the direction from which be had was hosing Down the area Spray ing rockets and tracer rounds into the tree line where a company had been ambushed and where now the two me with the deep facial wounds Lay sprawled in even greater danger from Friendly fire. The chaplain turned right a few Hundred feet into the Jungles and came to a a shaped Trench where 1st it. Waym Irris of Oak Ridge tenn., the platoon Sejdor and sgt. Garrison his platoons Freant had piled six to eight dead Aid wounded. Another mortar barrages it up a blizzard of shrapnel. He priest dived into the the depth and shape of the Tench the infantrymen now knew that they had stumbled into some kind of enemy fortifications. They did t know Itil weeks later that it was the base Cemp of the Dong Nai regiment a crack i it of North vietnamese regulars mov in into position for the tet offensive inst Saigon. Ust off helicopters were coming Inow a few at a time when the pilots hiked the Tricky set Down amid har King ground fire aimed at crippling sir Tail rotors let s try getting some of these people out of Here to the la the lieutenant suggested. They sure Ain t Gonna mute it Arrison and the priest agreed. Against was a crawling operation on your Back keeping Low enough to avoid Thek Nae High curtain of fire Only this time ther Liteky s Burden was too weak Tosh with his feet. He died later in a Pital. Mind. Every time the gunship Madea pass i thought of a Rescue helicopter had come in no with some stretchers and Drees decided they would t need As Many in the res Cue am to go in after the missing men. Father Liteky who thought he knew where they were went along. The Ter rain All around was blackened an scarred almost treeless from constant raking by two machine gunners were where the priest had left them just beyond the Little Knoll. Miraculously the gun ship s searing volleys had skipped Over them. Father Liteky was even More in Awe of a second Miracle a manmade one. I went to see them a few Days Lateran the Hospital. I could t get Over the Job the doctors had done. After that never worried too much about face he priest does t remember How Many times he Garrison and Morris digged wounded gis from the Trench the Landing zone but somehow the them All out. But he does remember that most of the time his thoughts were on the two machine gunners who had been blown in the air and abandoned near the Little Liefl where the gunship was screaming out its rockets. F l could t get them out of my Daylight was beginning to die in pinkish pallor that tipped the jagged landscape in a sudden splendor when the reinforcements arrived b company on foot seven armoured personnel carriers loaded with cavalrymen and by Heli copter another company of infantrymen. Stunned As it was a company or what was left of it pulled itself together to join in the counterattack on the enemy base Camp. Again the fighting was Furi Ous ear splitting screams of shrapnel screams of dying. Just ahead at the rim of snaking trenches that marked the beginning of the main enemy Camp a wounded Manas trying to crawl Clear of a snarl of t go not yet sgt. Garrison implored the priest grabbing him by the foot. When he released him there was heroes who received medals of Honor from president Lyndon b. Johnton tit White House ceremonies last november included left to right spec. 4 Gary Wetxel sped 5 Dwight Johnson sir. Sammy Davis capt James Taylor and chaplain Teky. For at Home with Mother and brother John father Liteky displays medal of Honor. Blood on the sergeant s hands. The Chap lain had been hit in the foot diving into the Trench when the gunship made it final pass. A few minutes later a Shrap Nel burst lacerated the Back of his citation detailed his extraordinary heroism at this Point ignoring painful shrapnel wounds in the neck and foot he returned through intense fire to Rescue another wounded Man. The enemy concentrated his fire Power on chaplain Liteky but he re fused to take cover freed the Soldier from entanglement in heavy vines and aided the Man to safety. As darkness fell he continued to move among the infantrymen administering Aid an comforting the wounded the dark eyed priest in the Grimy shirt seemed to the men of the 199th to be everywhere that sgt. Robert Moore of Portland ore., squad Leader of the second platoon remembers seeing him everywhere carrying stretchers lugging ammo handing out water and cigarettes i still Don t know where he got All those cigarettes but he was just tremendous and he never would get Down that chaplain seemed to be doing everything recalled it. Henderson Garnett who led the Relief column in. There was sporadic fire All Over the Atli but he never stopped caring for the wounded and encouraging the dark the draftees of the 199th had rallied regrouped and burst through the perimeter of the base Camp which turned out. To be an elaborate setup of More than 100 bunkers Complete with a cooking Man will Ever know but Many believe that the difference Between Suc Cess and at least partial defeat was the Catholic chaplain named father Lite by said col. Frederic e. Davison of Washington d.c., the Deputy brigade commander in All probability the brigade Wouldhave overrun the Camp bad not darkness fallen on the smoking Jungles. At 8 . The Forward element was ordered to pull Back and let the air Force and artillery take Over a Rol Call listed 21 dead four missing 74 night there was no time to gather the men for group prayers. There was too much else to do. Anyhow most of the men were too numb even to they weren t carrying the wounded or unpacking ammo for the counterattack that was expected any minute they preferred to be by themselves alone with the horror of it All. Morning came and no enemy had pulled Back into the Jungles evacuating its elaborate Kasecamp. The first americans into the Cam found food on the tables waiting for men who never came to breakfast. The Colo Nel wanted the chaplain to go out on the first helicopter he was exhausted emotionally drained but he insisted on go ing into Camp with the men. There were still the wounded to be looked after and the missing to be accounted four missing finally were found All Liteky refused evacuation until he had personally checked the condition of All the men in Daylight it. Col. Schroeder the battalion commander said in his report. The Dong Nai regiment never did Getto Saigon for the big bust up at tet. It died there in the Jungles that fateful wednesday. The colonel s report listed the enemy dead at 167, body count. Day father Liteky was standing on the deep Blue Rug in the East room of the White House and the president of the United states was hang ing the medal of Honor around his neck. His widowed Mother was by his Side and he was worried about her heart condition. And she was worried about him. Son she said i Don t care about the medal. You just stay now he was looking out into the blur of another body of men Maiv Hing through the Snow on a Winter s Day att. Bragg trying to ignore the torment of the , they want to know if you la appear next month in California the priest listened to the Bugle blow ing recall and to the colors and though of the Silver Sweet notes of another Bugle blowing far away Over the blackened Jungles of Bien Hoa at the memorial service for the men of the 199th who had died that wednesday. They say the medal can trap you can change your life and end it with an endless round of ceremonies. I Don twant that to happen. I just want to keep doing my Job to keep being a Page 12 the stars and stripes the stars and stripes Page 13 5 ill
