Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

http://www.aattv.iinet.net.au/advisor.htm

Memories

I received this from Chaplain James L. Burnham USA

Shortly after arriving in Viet Nam (July '67) I was assigned as battalion Chaplain to the 2/327 Battalion of the 1st Bde, 101 Abn Div. There were several colorful characters in the battalion - the Battalion Commander was a man of Arab descent, Lieut. Edmund Abood; we had a Polish Cpt Stephanovich; and a Cuban Cpt. with the call sign Cacique, an Indian word meaning chief.

But to me, the most colourful was Karl W. Baudistel, an Aussie Captain assigned to our unit. I loved his bush hat, his accent, and the little 9mm automatic rifle he carried.

On Sept.13, l967, our unit made a combat assualt onto a hill top inland from Chu Lai (If my memory is correct). We went in under intense fire, then as we were digging in, a major accident occurred - a smoke grenade set the grass on fire. Our ammunition dump exploded, we lost our artillery and mortars, and we had to abandon the high ground due to the fire and explosions. Karl told me that he had a bad feeling about the place, for he said that he had been there before and was run off by superior forces.
Many of us lost our personal belongings. Karl showed me something he had salvaged, a badly burned New Testament.
That night we were attacked by a large enemy force. We suffered about a dozen men injured, some seriously, and one killed. Thanks to Black Panther's (Ltc Abood's) cool directing, and Puff the Magic Dragon overhead, we survived the night.
The man killed, the man who had a bad feeling about that hill, was Karl Baudistel, call sign Kangaroo. I was told that though badly wounded, he refused to leave his strategic spot on a saddle between the hills that was one of the places where the enemy had concentrated their attack. He died from loss of blood.
Within two months of my arrival in Nam I had lost two of the first three men I had considered as special friends.
Signed:

Chaplain James L. Burnham