Letters Exhibit
In a Letter to Friends Back Home, Chaplain Ray W. Stubbe Marvels That in Spite of the “Despicable” Living Conditions in Vietnam, He Sees Examples of Faith All Around Him
Personal commentary: The photograph on the cover of Grace Under Fire is of Chaplain Ray Stubbe ministering to troops in Vietnam. (Stubbe was at Khe Sanh when it came under attack in 1968.) Ray, who is very much alive and well, has become a dear friend, and I love his letters because they are vividly written and often quite profound and philosophical. I also value them because they remind us that, whatever we might feel about the war in Vietnam, the vast majority of American troops served honorably and never received the Welcome Home they deserved. Ray has the longest series of letters in the book, and the following, written to two friends back in his home state of Wisconsin, is an excerpt from just one of them.
25 November 1967
Dear Ellen and Jim:
Thank you so much for the thoughtful letter and the first seasons card which I have received. I am not able to reciprocate with a card since we have none of those luxuries here where I am, so a letter will have to suffice….
Things around here are good and bad, mainly the latter. This week I had a memorial service for a young man, with under 30 days left to do here, who attended my worship services, who was kind, with a smile and made people laugh and lift them from depression, anger, and anxiety….
The men live in the most despicable of situations. They carve out holes in the hills in which to live, so that they are always damp and cold. I frankly don’t know how they do it. From water shortages, they must go from 6 weeks to two months without a shower. Since they only have one set of utilities (the green uniforms we wear) they go out in patrols, get all wet from rain or river crossings, caked with mud, and must sleep in the same clothes. There are rats all over, and men are continually getting bit.… There is always the fear of enemy attack. There is the continual awakening at night from artillery suddenly going off at all hours of the night.
Yet, you would be amazed at the faith expressed here. There are evidences of genuine and deep prayer life, of reading and knowing the Bible backwards and forwards, of sacrificial concern for others. The men usually come out in large crowds for religious services….
I truly believe that it is when people face death, when they face the loss of all the trivia of modern day society and are face to face with the “bare essentials” of what is human, that they are the happiest, with less to gripe over and less to worry about….
Please write whenever you get a chance, about some of your experiences in the classroom, about your dissertation and its ideas, etc.
Faithfully yours,
Ray
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