Most sites show you Vietnam pictures as seen through the eyes of a Soldier.
These are pictures as seen through the eyes of a Chaplain.
My most difficult and hazardous ministry was certainly my year in Vietnam, 1967 - 1968, which included the TET Offensive of 1968, and found me in the middle of the Battle of Hue City.
The men were hungry for the Word.
They were responsive to the Word.
My motto became:
I wrote these words on my helmet cover, which was a visible
There have been some real horror stories, gross exaggerations and many out-right lies concerning our troops in Vietnam. Picturing our men as being civilian killers, baby killers, hopped up on drugs, demoralized. I saw none of that, and I lived with the Marines during that time. I was with the elite 1st Marine Regiment, and we were too busy in one hot spot after another to have time for drugs or to get demoralized.
I found them to be men hungry for God, men of God. I baptized in a leech infested pond near Phu Bai, and also in the Cua Viet River near the DMZ. Perhaps the words written on the back of a Marines flak jacket in Khe Sahn said it best:
It was an honor for me to be there in Vietnam, and many other places in the world, to bring God to men, and men to God.
BUT, that year was surely my most rewarding year of ministry.
(Attendance, commitments, baptisms, New Testements distributed)
"God is with us always, especially in Vietnam"
(my own parapharse of Matt. 28:20)
testimony and reminder wherever I went.
"Just You and me, God."
When life is reduced to it's lowest common denominator, that's where it should be, "Just you and me, God!"
Chaplain Elden H. Luffman
Pictures as seen through the eyes of a Chaplain
Picture 1
Christmas card handed out by 1st Marine Division for men to send. Christmas 1967.
Picture 2
August 1967, preparing to head to Vietnam
Picture 3
September 1967, Marine Division Headquarters across the Da Nang rice paddies.
Picture 4
September 1967, 1st Hospital Company, Chu Lai.
Picture 5
The Chapel of Hope, 1st Hospital Company, 1st Marine Division, Chu Lai, 1967
Picture 6
Interior of The Chapel of Hope, 1967
Picture 7
Hootches, Chu Lai, 1967
Picture 8
Memorial Service for Crashed Helocopter, 1st Marines, Quang Tri, 1968
Picture 9
Services Held, CAP Company, South of Phu Bai, 1968
Picture 10
Old French fortification near Hi Van pass, South of Phu Bai, 1968
Picture 11
Chapel at MAC V Compound, Hue, February 1968
Picture 12
Worship service during lull in fighting, Hue City, during TET Offensive, February 1968
Picture 13
Area between Phu Bai and Da Nang. Taken from Hi Van pass, March 1968
Picture 14
Hue City stadium, March 1968
Picture 15
Overlooking Ca Lu, south of Khe Sahn, March 1968
Picture 16
Mortar emplacement at Ca Lu, March 1968
Picture 17
Chaplain Luffman, Khe Sahn, "God is with us, especially in Vietnam", April 1968
Picture 18
Hill 881
Picture 19
Pocked marked hills near Khe Sahn, April 1968
Picture 20
Medical Bunker, Khe Sahn, June 1968
Picture 21
Hill 861 North West of Khe Sahn, June 1968
Picture 22
Aerial view of USMC & USN Base, mouth of Cua Viet River, July 1968
Picture 23
C-4 just south of DMZ, August 1968
