Sunday, August 28, 2016
Avalon Chronicles #65: "East Meets West"
Avalon Chronicles #65: "East Meets West"
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
They Came by Air, Land, and Sea
On April 30, 1975, when the final evacuation of Saigon in Vietnam occurred, I had been returned from Vietnam for eight years. After transfusions of twenty pints of blood, fifteen months at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio from June 1967 to September 1968, twelve surgical procedures, probably 150 stitches, and a very severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, I was in Dallas with a wonderful job at a bank, two young daughters, and a new found faith walk in which I was growing by leaps and bounds. I began to perceive that my involvement in Vietnam as an Army captain assigned to the Green Berets in an intelligence gathering operation in Vietnam was as a white pawn on a huge chess board of history with the two king antagonists being good versus evil, my Lord God, combating in spiritual warfare the forces of evil, led by Satan, commanding the dark set of pieces on the board.
There began to be news reports of the Vietnamese "Boat People" escaping the now Communist country of Vietnam. At the time I paid scant attention to the news because I was consumed with my new civilian career and family life. In 1981 I was in the third year of my service to my state of Texas as a special assistant to Texas Governor Bill Clements. Some of the "Boat People" had immigrated as new refugees on the Texas coast in several fishing communities where they were making a new life for themselves by building fishing boats and working long hours to make a living in competition with long-time native Texas fisherman, who had derived their own living for decades in the fishing industry. The competition and imposition of the Vietnamese refugees into the business environment in quiet Texas fishing communities was reaching the stage where it was close to violence. The Governor assigned me the responsibility to conduct a fact-finding trip to the coast to present him with recommendations to address the issues. My very small "task force" visited three towns within which we met separately with all the five affected and involved parties; law enforcement, government officials, American fishermen, Vietnamesese, and culminating with a town hall meeting at one of which my answer was displeasing to about fifteen members of the local Ku Klux Klan, who staged an immediate walkout from the room! After my visits and some actions accomplished, the towns became more quiet and for the time being things settled down. My gratitude was expressed by the American fishermen in Rockport inviting me and my family on a shrimp boat fishing trip and a spaghetti dinner at one of their homes. After that I moved to Washington D.C. and had no further involvement for many years with the refugees from the country to which I had deployed as a soldier to preserve their freedom.
My involvement began anew in a very significant and deeply emotional fashion on August 25, 2016, when an American of Vietnamese ancestry, Andy Nguyen, invited me to Arlington, Texas for a celebration commemorating his sixth year as an elected public service as a County Commissioner in Tarrant County (main city Fort Worth). It was my honor to be able to relate the story of my time in his former homeland of Vietnam and especially my healing from my wounds, which had necessitated the amputation of both my legs below my knees. Many of his guests were Americans, who had escaped from Vietnam at the end of the war or in the following years. To report to you that the evening, the conversations, the stories related to Linda and me of their refugee sagas, and their starting all over to fulfill their "Living the American Dream," so magnificently reflected by Andy Nguyen and his wife Julie, was not of such a nature admittedly literally to tear at our heart strings would do it an injustice.
During the course of the evening I offered for purchase my two published books, one especially Valor in Vietnam, and the purchasers allowed Linda and me to hear first hand many poignant, compelling, and, yes, harrowing accounts of these warm and wonderful first generation immigrants from the country where I had made such a huge sacrifice as a soldier to maintain their freedoms. We heard the narratives of the lives of families, wherein their parents were members of the Vietnamese Army and Navy, policemen, public officials, and merchants. Some I had heard previously such as a small family with only wife and two children being crowded into the cockpit of a small plane, which landed on the deck of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. Another story was of a family escaping on a small boat, which was intercepted by pirates, who raped and killed the wife and mother and threw her overboard.
That night we had extended conversations with several attendees. Andy and Julie Nguyen had departed Vietnam at separate times and on different boats. As a young student another related how two groups of students had begun traveling cross country to traverse Laos to reach safety in Thailand through the area in Kontum province near my Special Forces camp of Dak To. One group made it, but the attendee with whom I spoke was apprehended and imprisoned. He later left by boat and displays in his living room a picture of the U.S. Navy ship that rescued him.
Another gentleman to whom Linda and I became quickly attached had escaped on a boat with his high-ranking Vietnamese Army officer father. He has been successful in business and has not forgotten his original homeland where he returns to help in building schools and bridges and donating shoes.
I have left my final story to the older couple with whom I spoke at the end of the evening. She was four months pregnant on April 29, 1975, the day before the final evacuation of Saigon. Her husband had been a police officer who got on a boat still in uniform. She had gone behind him to board to be sure he got away because he would have been targeted for death as a police officer by the fast-approaching Communists. The wife would have been left behind as the boat pushed away from the pier, but one of the men placed a board across to the pier and she got aboard! The passengers survived several days with no food nor water. When the boat was met again by the angels of the U.S. Navy in international waters, she was the last to disembark and discovered on the deck among the residue a Christian cross left behind! I inquired whether she had been of the Buddhist or Christian faith upon her escape. She related she had been neither, but rather adhered to "ancestor worship" only. I noted she now wore a Christian cross adorning her neck and asked her about it. She said after being the last passenger on the boat, discovering the cross, coming to America only with the clothes she wore on the boat, and working several jobs without federal assistance to become self-sufficient as a refugee, she knew there was a God!
At the culmination of my presentation, literally with tears wetting my cheeks, I looked over at Julie and Andy and the audience of very much so assimilated refugees, who sincerely appreciated America and did not take their freedom here for granted, and said I had often agonized over the worth of my sacrifice in their former country, but, being there with Julie and Andy as the living embodiment of successful immigrants, who represented "Living the American Dream,' I proclaimed that their successes and the assimilation of all in meaningful pursuits in the land of the free because of our bravery as Vietnam veterans made much of it finally worthwhile! It was an amazing closure fifty years after my Vietnam War experience commenced in August 1966. I complete this message again with tears of gratitude in my eyes for my freedom and theirs. God has blessed America. May we continue to deserve the gift.
Monday, August 15, 2016
Avalon Chronicles #64: "Compromised-Part One"
Avalon Chronicles #64: "Compromised"
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
Fifty years ago in August 1966 I was deployed to South Vietnam to serve my country in our effort to preserve freedom from communism for that troubled land. My assignment as a prisoner of war interrogator was unfulfilling as no prisoners made it to my military intelligence detachment located in Nha Trang, the Riviera of South Vietnam. It would have been a comfortable and safe war for me as I enjoyed Nha Trang's beautiful beach every day, when I finished my daily duties. A chance encounter with fellow West Pointer, Lieutenant Colonel Lee Parmly (class of 1946), on a plane motivated me to a probable much more satisfying and rewarding opportunity by transferring to his unit of the Army's Special Forces (the Green Berets), also headquartered in Nha Trang. As occurs sometimes, my orders were changed from his unit to that of Detachment B-57 of Special Forces, a newly-formed clandestine organization headquartered in the capitol, Saigon, where I was required to be clothed in civilian apparel and to store my military uniforms. That led to an incredibly exciting tour of duty, encompassing debriefing a defector from Cambodia (who was later murdered with his case making the front page of the New York Times), residing in safe houses as I trained young Cambodian anti-communists for helicopter infiltration missions on the border, and eventual assignment in the spring of 1967 to an isolated Special Forces camp in what was called the "Tri-Border" area, where South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia come together.
Cambodia was targeted by the United States because it was a supposed "neutral" country in which Chief of State Sihanouk acquiesced to allowing the North Vietnamese Army, after their travels down the Ho Cho Minh Trail, to establish base camps from which they attacked our troops and the South Vietnamese, and then retreated to the safety of their sanctuaries. He probably did it out of fear for his personal safety, if not for political belief.
At Dak To I was an infantry captain under cover with an assumed name with a mission, through a Vietnamese interpreter and a Montagnard mercenary, to recruit other Montagnards, the mountain natives of the rugged triple canopy jungle area, to travel through the jungle toward Cambodia to collect intelligence on enemy bases and activities. My mission was nearly impossible as it was a fifteen mile trek to the border through what I discovered later was the most heavily populated enemy positions possibly in the country in underground supply points, hospitals, and base camps. In early June 1967 my Vietnamese interpreter informed me that one of our "agents" had informed his village chief that he was to be paid for his mission by someone in the Special Forces camp. My mission had been "compromised" and I was at risk of being targeted when I made my frequent visits to neighboring villages. This was an example at the lowest tactical level of a "compromised" spying operation. My operation actually was closed down a few days later because one of those North Vietnamese Army units from Cambodia attacked our camp in an intense mortar barrage on June 17, 1967 in which I was wounded, losing both my legs below the knee from heavy shrapnel wounds.
With my background in Army intelligence it has always spurred on my interest in reading spy stories. The world of spying at the higher strategic level, way above where I had been, is pregnant with individuals and operations being compromised, sometimes due to agents being revealed and sometimes to moral problems of either the agents or their "handlers" due to disloyalty or being desirous of intrigue, money, substance abuse or illicit romantic escapades.
When a compromise occurs, there is a breaking down of a commitment and obligation to perform as expected to fulfill the "handler's" mission for their country, etc. or for that of the agent. As an Army officer I took very seriously my loyalty to my country and my mission to be disciplined to perform my duties. Many missions are aborted or compromised due to alcohol or drug abuse, corruption in handling of the monies involved for paying agents, or inappropriate romantic activities in an arena that lends itself to immorality.
Even when we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and thereby become a committed "Christian", we are forever tempted, as we enter the next level of faith, the "Lordship" phase of our faith walk, to compromise ourselves with disloyalty to our principles, those we love, and ultimately in each case to our Lord with sins, big and little. Our self with its attendant pride becomes preeminent in guiding us to forego what we know to be appropriate behavior. One of the most important aspects of the Christian faith is that we can be returned to "friendly territory" after entering "enemy territory" by sincere repentance and confession of our sins in the Name of Jesus. We reenter the friendly lines for our safety and peace. Just as I was loyal to my country, we must be loyal to our Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit with righteous living. If there is a final judgment in Heaven and I believe there will be, we should all hope it is short because we maintained our loyalty to our faith and our principles
We must praise our Lord for His mercy, grace, and love that endures forever. It should be the ultimate motivator for our righteous behavior in our earthly life.
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
Fifty years ago in August 1966 I was deployed to South Vietnam to serve my country in our effort to preserve freedom from communism for that troubled land. My assignment as a prisoner of war interrogator was unfulfilling as no prisoners made it to my military intelligence detachment located in Nha Trang, the Riviera of South Vietnam. It would have been a comfortable and safe war for me as I enjoyed Nha Trang's beautiful beach every day, when I finished my daily duties. A chance encounter with fellow West Pointer, Lieutenant Colonel Lee Parmly (class of 1946), on a plane motivated me to a probable much more satisfying and rewarding opportunity by transferring to his unit of the Army's Special Forces (the Green Berets), also headquartered in Nha Trang. As occurs sometimes, my orders were changed from his unit to that of Detachment B-57 of Special Forces, a newly-formed clandestine organization headquartered in the capitol, Saigon, where I was required to be clothed in civilian apparel and to store my military uniforms. That led to an incredibly exciting tour of duty, encompassing debriefing a defector from Cambodia (who was later murdered with his case making the front page of the New York Times), residing in safe houses as I trained young Cambodian anti-communists for helicopter infiltration missions on the border, and eventual assignment in the spring of 1967 to an isolated Special Forces camp in what was called the "Tri-Border" area, where South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia come together.
Cambodia was targeted by the United States because it was a supposed "neutral" country in which Chief of State Sihanouk acquiesced to allowing the North Vietnamese Army, after their travels down the Ho Cho Minh Trail, to establish base camps from which they attacked our troops and the South Vietnamese, and then retreated to the safety of their sanctuaries. He probably did it out of fear for his personal safety, if not for political belief.
At Dak To I was an infantry captain under cover with an assumed name with a mission, through a Vietnamese interpreter and a Montagnard mercenary, to recruit other Montagnards, the mountain natives of the rugged triple canopy jungle area, to travel through the jungle toward Cambodia to collect intelligence on enemy bases and activities. My mission was nearly impossible as it was a fifteen mile trek to the border through what I discovered later was the most heavily populated enemy positions possibly in the country in underground supply points, hospitals, and base camps. In early June 1967 my Vietnamese interpreter informed me that one of our "agents" had informed his village chief that he was to be paid for his mission by someone in the Special Forces camp. My mission had been "compromised" and I was at risk of being targeted when I made my frequent visits to neighboring villages. This was an example at the lowest tactical level of a "compromised" spying operation. My operation actually was closed down a few days later because one of those North Vietnamese Army units from Cambodia attacked our camp in an intense mortar barrage on June 17, 1967 in which I was wounded, losing both my legs below the knee from heavy shrapnel wounds.
With my background in Army intelligence it has always spurred on my interest in reading spy stories. The world of spying at the higher strategic level, way above where I had been, is pregnant with individuals and operations being compromised, sometimes due to agents being revealed and sometimes to moral problems of either the agents or their "handlers" due to disloyalty or being desirous of intrigue, money, substance abuse or illicit romantic escapades.
When a compromise occurs, there is a breaking down of a commitment and obligation to perform as expected to fulfill the "handler's" mission for their country, etc. or for that of the agent. As an Army officer I took very seriously my loyalty to my country and my mission to be disciplined to perform my duties. Many missions are aborted or compromised due to alcohol or drug abuse, corruption in handling of the monies involved for paying agents, or inappropriate romantic activities in an arena that lends itself to immorality.
Even when we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and thereby become a committed "Christian", we are forever tempted, as we enter the next level of faith, the "Lordship" phase of our faith walk, to compromise ourselves with disloyalty to our principles, those we love, and ultimately in each case to our Lord with sins, big and little. Our self with its attendant pride becomes preeminent in guiding us to forego what we know to be appropriate behavior. One of the most important aspects of the Christian faith is that we can be returned to "friendly territory" after entering "enemy territory" by sincere repentance and confession of our sins in the Name of Jesus. We reenter the friendly lines for our safety and peace. Just as I was loyal to my country, we must be loyal to our Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit with righteous living. If there is a final judgment in Heaven and I believe there will be, we should all hope it is short because we maintained our loyalty to our faith and our principles
We must praise our Lord for His mercy, grace, and love that endures forever. It should be the ultimate motivator for our righteous behavior in our earthly life.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Avalon Chronicles #63: "No Dread of Death"
Avalon Chronicles #63: "No Dread of Death"
by Allen B. Clark and Linda Frost-Clark
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
allenbclark@aol.com
The triggers of our memories are rarely deleted. Yesterday Linda went to lunch at Northpark Shopping Center in Dallas and passed the area in front of Neiman Marcus, where she looked wistfully and nostalgically upon a simple structure, that children instinctively with great glee, liked to slide down. She recollected, when her young son Vincent would rush off ahead of her to slide over and over, until she passed him and he would run to catch up.
August 10, 2016 marks the one year anniversary of the demise of Vincent, who, at 52 and as her only child, succumbed to a probable heart attack. The normal order of life is that parents predecease their children. It has been a tumultuous year for Linda, but herewith we present you an uplifting update.
Awhile back I recommended that Linda read Imagine Heaven by Pastor John Burke. She has read it three times! We heartily recommend it as a book to relate collected reports of a multitude of individuals, who encountered what is termed "Near Death Experiences (NDEs)," wherein they were transported to Heaven after some life-threatening situation, where they viewed Heaven's awesomeness, beauty, and unimaginable tranquility. They were allowed to return quite and decidedly unwillingly to the mundane normalcy of Mother Earth, never again to be the same. The book is an eye and soul-opener to be sure!
Linda has had a full year to grieve Vincent's death, but she is delighted to express some of the spiritual happenings that have transpired.
It is indeed challenging for us to hear of certain encounters and happenings in our lives that verge on the supernatural and we are wont not to lend them credence. However, when they are related by the balanced, credible, and stable person that is my dear Linda, they are distinctly believable. One morning during her quiet time she had a demonstrably strong impression from Vincent declaring, "Mom, I am so happy. Now you try to be happy too." Linda knew it was a divine communication from Vincent allowed by our Lord to comfort her. It granted her tremendous contentment and peace to know he is free from the bonds of our lives, free from pain and conflict. Because of that she knows she will be reunited and see him again. For her there is no dread of physical death because her spirit will live on.
Linda is assured that the Lord is her strength and Vincent is with him. For several decades she has been consumed in the hours upon hours dedicated to her formal worship, Bible study, and prayer life. She received another impression from our Father, that, those endeavors and strivings to understand His Word, had created a sustenance/deposit, which can now be drawn upon to support her during this time of her grieving.
We commend to all reading these words to be convicted and convinced that there is life in the spirit after physical death. It is available to all who confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus is Who He said He was, died on the cross for the redemption of our sins, and all who believe this simple message need not dread death. For us it means we pass on to an incredible existence in Heaven.
"We can have the joy that overcomes the spirit of heaviness, with which we are burdened so painfully so many times and in so many ways," declares Linda. For Linda the bottom line is that God the Father in the Name of Jesus and by the Holy Spirit is the power that has sustained her because she knows her beloved Vincent is with our Lord.
When Linda returned from her walk this morning, she related how she had prayed to the Lord to gift her the spirit of joy instead of the spirit of heaviness. With the confidence this joy displays and with the certainty that Vincent is with the Lord, this is a witness to the hope of eternal life.
by Allen B. Clark and Linda Frost-Clark
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
allenbclark@aol.com
The triggers of our memories are rarely deleted. Yesterday Linda went to lunch at Northpark Shopping Center in Dallas and passed the area in front of Neiman Marcus, where she looked wistfully and nostalgically upon a simple structure, that children instinctively with great glee, liked to slide down. She recollected, when her young son Vincent would rush off ahead of her to slide over and over, until she passed him and he would run to catch up.
August 10, 2016 marks the one year anniversary of the demise of Vincent, who, at 52 and as her only child, succumbed to a probable heart attack. The normal order of life is that parents predecease their children. It has been a tumultuous year for Linda, but herewith we present you an uplifting update.
Awhile back I recommended that Linda read Imagine Heaven by Pastor John Burke. She has read it three times! We heartily recommend it as a book to relate collected reports of a multitude of individuals, who encountered what is termed "Near Death Experiences (NDEs)," wherein they were transported to Heaven after some life-threatening situation, where they viewed Heaven's awesomeness, beauty, and unimaginable tranquility. They were allowed to return quite and decidedly unwillingly to the mundane normalcy of Mother Earth, never again to be the same. The book is an eye and soul-opener to be sure!
Linda has had a full year to grieve Vincent's death, but she is delighted to express some of the spiritual happenings that have transpired.
It is indeed challenging for us to hear of certain encounters and happenings in our lives that verge on the supernatural and we are wont not to lend them credence. However, when they are related by the balanced, credible, and stable person that is my dear Linda, they are distinctly believable. One morning during her quiet time she had a demonstrably strong impression from Vincent declaring, "Mom, I am so happy. Now you try to be happy too." Linda knew it was a divine communication from Vincent allowed by our Lord to comfort her. It granted her tremendous contentment and peace to know he is free from the bonds of our lives, free from pain and conflict. Because of that she knows she will be reunited and see him again. For her there is no dread of physical death because her spirit will live on.
Linda is assured that the Lord is her strength and Vincent is with him. For several decades she has been consumed in the hours upon hours dedicated to her formal worship, Bible study, and prayer life. She received another impression from our Father, that, those endeavors and strivings to understand His Word, had created a sustenance/deposit, which can now be drawn upon to support her during this time of her grieving.
We commend to all reading these words to be convicted and convinced that there is life in the spirit after physical death. It is available to all who confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus is Who He said He was, died on the cross for the redemption of our sins, and all who believe this simple message need not dread death. For us it means we pass on to an incredible existence in Heaven.
"We can have the joy that overcomes the spirit of heaviness, with which we are burdened so painfully so many times and in so many ways," declares Linda. For Linda the bottom line is that God the Father in the Name of Jesus and by the Holy Spirit is the power that has sustained her because she knows her beloved Vincent is with our Lord.
When Linda returned from her walk this morning, she related how she had prayed to the Lord to gift her the spirit of joy instead of the spirit of heaviness. With the confidence this joy displays and with the certainty that Vincent is with the Lord, this is a witness to the hope of eternal life.
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