12. THE FRENCH NUNS

Jack,

Not sure if you'd remember, or were ever there, but myself and another man from the commo section spent several days in a French Nun hospital at one of the Montagnard camps. They were sweet gals, and couldn't speak English, and neither of us could speak French. It took my Vietnamese handbook, their English/French dictionary and some hand signals to communicate sometimes. We rebuilt an Old French generator and strung some lights up for the sisters, as well as did some other work for them. It was right around Christmas, 1967. They were very grateful to have lights and the other work we did for them. I still don't know which yard camp it was but tend to think it was up towards Ben Het. The Old French barracks the nuns used were on a hilltop overlooking the Montagnard camp. It was along a road, and I remember a church on the other side of the road, down towards the Montagnard camp. You wouldn't have any idea where that would be, would you?

Best Regards -- A soldier

REFLECTIONS: - And so the circle closed for me - I spent Christmas Eve of 1967 at that hospital with those French nuns. The hospital was for people who were lepers and I was a guest for dinner with the commander of the FOB 2 Special-Forces camp. We gave out small presents to the children and they sang Christmas carols for us. They even sang "Silver Wings Upon My Chest" in near perfect English. It was an amazing night. The nuns wanted to thank us for helping them. I was invited because we had done some small things to help these people. The children were dressed in little Christmas clothes and the gifts - small toys and candy - had been donated and flown in from Saigon. The nuns allowed us to sit in a chair and pass out the gifts to the children. I will never forget those smiling little faces. The youngest children came up first. In the darkness, in the back of the room, we could see the parents, many of whom were badly disfigured from leprosy. That night we drove back in a jeep with the mother superior. As we drove through the night on that small dirt road I was sure we were going to be hit. Several times in the lights of the jeep I saw figures fade back into the jungle as we drove by. I know if she had not been in the vehicle with us we would not have made that trip safely. Strange things in a strange land at a time still filled with mystery for me.