“Viet Nam...a Turning Point”

    To the readers of this column: The following is an account from a family friend, Joe Payne, about his time in Viet Nam, a remarkable story:

    “I grew up in Southern California. My parents considered themselves Christians even though we rarely went to church. I knew that Jesus Christ was a person who lived 2,000 years ago and died on a cross. I had no understanding of what it meant to have a personal relationship with Him. By the time I reached college, the only things which interested me were parties, beer and girls.  

   In 1968, after graduating from college, I received orders to go to Vietnam as a 2^nd lieutenant in the U. S. Army.  I was assigned to a combat engineer battalion stationed in Pleiku in the Central Highlands. When I arrived, there was another young lieutenant who had almost completed his tour of duty and it was my job to take his place.  

   During his last week, he and I drove out to various job sites so that he could familiarize me with the duties that I would need to assume. It was during that week, the two of us driving down the same road, me first and him following, that his jeep hit a mine and he was killed. That caused me to be very angry at a God that I didn’t even know. I felt like that should have been me and not him. He had completed his year in Vietnam. He had a wife and two young children waiting for him and I was single.

   A month later our battalion received orders to move south. The night before we were to leave, the Viet Cong started shelling our base camp with mortar rounds. We were sleeping in tents and all of a sudden, the first round came in and then the second and then the third. I heard a round hit right next to our tent and then I waited for the next one to hit us, but it never came. Then one exploded on the other side of us and the rounds began to move farther and farther away.  

   When the shelling finally stopped, we found that the tent next to us had taken a direct hit. One soldier had been killed and the other seven men were all critically wounded. When the sun came up in the morning, we discovered a trailer full of explosives had been mistakenly parked right outside our tent. The mortar round that I had been waiting for had landed right in the middle of that trailer and had failed to explode. If it had gone off, there was enough dynamite to blow up everybody within 50 feet and I was only 10 feet away.

   There were other incidents during that year: night attacks where 122 mm rockets whistled in on top of us; other mortar attacks; going out on night patrols; running convoys along jungle roads where ambushes were common. But God protected me and I left Vietnam not knowing Him, but believing that maybe there was a God and maybe He had a plan for my life. 

   In Vietnam, everybody had their own god. For some, it was their girlfriend or their wife who wrote to them every week. However, I knew that human relationships could not take the place of God. Sometimes these soldiers received “Dear John” letters telling them how their wives or their girlfriends had been unfaithful. One of the guys in our unit received one of these letters and went out and blew his brains out. Other young soldiers dreamed about the new cars they would buy or the new stereo equipment or the new cameras. But I knew that material possessions would never give meaning to my life.

   When I returned to California, I started attending a Bible study in the home of some Christians. I wanted to intellectually determine for myself whether or not the Bible was true and whether or not there really was a God. After five months of studying and reading the Bible, I was convinced that everything written in the Bible was the truth. On January 1, 1970, I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart and I felt Him enter my life in a very real and personal way. He has been with me ever since.”

   Many thanks to Joe for sharing his experience with us and many thanks to all of our veterans who have served our country so selflessly. Happy Veteran’s Day!