My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

.Growing up during the late 60's and 70's, I remember the Vietnam War more than I want to.  Every night on the evening news Walter Cronkite would give a report on the war, including the number of dead.  The numbers always made me think we were winning this terrible war, but now I know poor Walter just reported what he was told to.

Along with coverage of the war, the television also reported other stories that made an 11 year old girl like myself terrified that we were all going to hell in a hand basket.  The year 1968 is the year I remember most for constant unrest.  April of that year, Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, TN, June 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles while campaigning for President of the United States.  The funeral trail was shown on television for what seemed liked weeks, and August 1968 saw riots in the streets of large cities during the Democrat and Republican conventions. 
 
I had uncles that had been soldiers in World War II, Korea and one in 3 wars, so a solider held a special place in my heart. I wore a bracelet engraved with the name of a Prisoner of War everyday.   Every solider  I saw on television reminded me he was some one's son, grandson, brother, cousin and boyfriend.  A lot of home town boys served in Vietnam.  Every week the local newspaper ran a column with the names of those young men who had been drafted.  By 1975, I had met my soul mate, Michael Childress.  I was 17, he was 21 and had a draft card. The draft started in 1969 and lasted until 1972.  Mike was 1-A which meant there was a good chance he would have to go to war.  By the time we had met, the war was in it's final stage and Mike didn't have to go to war. The War in Vietnam lasted almost 20 years.  It started on Tuesday, November 1, 1955 and ended Wednesday April 30, 1975.

Years later, in the spring of 2002, I was working as the Accounts Payable Clerk for Rockcastle Co. Schools in Mt. Vernon. I shared an office with Sue Rowe, who was the Payroll Clerk. Sue was planning on attending her 35th. Brodhead High School Class reunion.  She had been in contact with some of her classmates who asked her to prepare a memorial for a classmate that had been killed in Vietnam.  Sue asked if I had time could I help her find some pictures and info. on David Chaney from a little wide spot in the road named Bloss.  During my lunch breaks, I checked on the World Wide Web, as we called it back in the day, for anything about David Chaney.  Right away I found a web site,  http://thewall-usa.com/. I typed in all I knew about David, which was just his name and state.  From there I was directed to a page that listed his name, David Glenn Chaney, age 20, born March 7, 1950, was a protestant and was single.  Sue made a nice poster with included David's picture and the personal information I had found on the web including that he had died on August 31, 1970 in South Vietnam. \

 
Several web sites invited the reader to leave a message so that a dead solider's family could read it. For some reason I felt lead to wright something on David Chaney's page.  I can't remember the exact words, but I indicated that I worked with one of his classmates and was so sorry that he didn't make it home.

Jump forward to April, 2005.  I had left the Accounts Payable job and was now working at Rockcastle County High School.  I hadn't been in good health and when the job for an assistant to the director of the Youth Services Center, came open, I applied and was transferred.  I had started working at RCHS as an Instructional Assistant in 1990.  I knew what working at the high school entailed and I was ready for a change.  Late in the day, I took the time to check my email before I went home.  I saw that I had mail from a name that I didn't recognize.  The e-mail started with, Hello Ms. Childress, my name is Tony Dodson. The letter went on to say that Mr. Dodson had served with David Chaney at the time of his death and the reason he had contacted me was in hope that I might be able to help him locate David's family members.  Mr.Dodson went on to say that if I would give him a moment he had a story to relay to me.  He had gotten my name from the posting I had made in 2002 on the Vietnam Veterans Virtual Memorial Wall.  He told me a story about having attended a  reunion along with several of his comrades the past summer.  He said that himself along with five other men from the old army outfit, Troop A. 2nd. Squadron, 1st. Armored Calvary, met at least once a year.  This was the outfit that David Chaney served with.  The last reunion he had learned that a promise one of the men from the unit, Richard "Reverend" Hines, had made to David 35 years earlier hadn't been fulfilled. He said he would send me more details via another e-mail.  Mr. Dodson went on to ask if I could find a phone number or address of any of David Chaney's family members.  He along with 5 others needed closure and if they could talk to family members they felt they could complete their task.

I sat at my computer reading the e-mail over and over.  I got the attention of other workers in the office with me and none of us could hardly believe what we were seeing.  Really?  Seriously?  Someone living in Philadelphia that had been in the Vietnam War had contacted me asking for help?  It was almost too mind boggling to be true, but yet it was.Tony's second e-mail had arrived.  It stated that David had bought a Bowie Knife at the Western Auto store in Mt. Vernon in 1969.  He had told his buddy, "Reverend" the story about how he intended to use the knife when he went deer hunting that fall. When Deer season came around, David was already serving in the United States Army. David was a shy, soft-spoken solider, but  had became good friends with all his war buddies, especially, "Reverend".  He had told "Reverend" about buying the knife back home. He also told "Reverend," "If something happens to me over here, please get this old knife back to my family in Kentucky.  I don't want it left over here." When Tony and members of the Blackhawk Squadron had last met, "Reverend" felt it was time that he told David's story as well as ask for help.  He had never forgotten  his promise, yet after 35 years, he had kept it a secret.

   I hadn't known David Chaney, but I did know one of his brothers, Stanley.  Stanley Chaney was a year ahead of me in school.  He often sat with my cousin, Kaye and myself at the home basketball games.  I had lost contact with him through the years, but a look in the phonebook shown me that Stanley was still in the area.  I called his number, and the number of  his cousin, Judy Chaney Bullock with no answer.  The next day I started calling again.  I called the number of Steve Chaney and Woo Hoo someone answered.  It was Steve's wife, I explained who I was and asked if Steve had a brother named David that hadn't came home from the war in Vietnam. "Yes, she said.  Let me tell Steve." Steve Chaney came to the phone.  He was a very soft spoken man.  I could tell he was apprehensive of me and my strange phone call.  I went on to tell the story about Tony Dodson contacting me via e-mail regarding the memorial post I had written.  Steve listened quietly on the other end of the phone and when I asked if I could give him Tony's phone number, he said, "yes, I'd sure like that."  Can you imagine how Steve Chaney must have felt? 

On April 18, I sent an e-mail to Tony Dodson letting him know that I had made contact with David Chaney's family and had given Tony's number to Steve Chaney.  I got mail back thanking me for helping us old Jungle Rats out of what was becoming a dead end street.  He said when he got the call from Steve he was floored.  He passed on Steve's phone number and address to the others and a a ceremony was planned at the graveside of David Chaney.  He finished by saying, "God is good. The Lord truly works wonders." 
                       
The guys kept me in the "loop" as far as plans were going.  It was going to be hard to get everyone together at the same time, but they would be having a ceremony soon.  The Chaney family, along with friends from church and the local honor guard handled all the plans. 
 

 On Saturday, July 23, 2005, myself, my friend Sue Rowe who was David's classmate, along with a host of family and friends met in the hot Kentucky sun at the McKiney Cemetery.  I had no idea what a day I was going to have.  Rick Anderkin, Editor of the local newspaper, The Signal, along with reporters and cameramen from the Lexington television channels and reporters from the Lexington Herald-Leader.  I couldn't wait to met the Calvary members.  I wanted to put faces with the e-mails.  Finally, a van pulled up and six of Amercia's Finest stepped out.  Seven members from American Legion Post #71, (Rockcastle Co.), marched toward the grave carrying the American flag and the MIA, missing in action, flag.  One flag was held over David's grave during the service. A band student from the high school played Taps.  The six soldiers joined arms and marched over to David's grave.  They knelt down in a circle and prayed.  They prayed for David Chaney, prayed for the others that hadn't made it home with them, prayed for a time gone wrong and for forgiveness for taking 35 years to fulfil a promise.  When they cried, everyone cried.  If I live to be 100 I don't think I will have ever seen anything as moving as what I witnessed that day. 

 

Reverend stood up and faced the somber crowd.  Out of his back pocket he pulled a worn scabbard holding a Bowie Knife. "I made a promise," Reverend said softly, "and I'm here to keep that promise."  He then placed the knife into the hands of Dennis Chaney, David's brother.  The ceremony continued with spoken prayers, an Eulogy, prayers and the presentation of the flag that had been held over David's grave that day, to Chaney family members. 

The "Reverend" later took the time to tell reporter Jim Warren the story of how he became caretaker of the knife. He also remembered the day that David had died.  He was in a lead tank that bore the brunt of an ambush in the Song Mao AO in II Corps. Another solider was also killed with David.  The Chaney family indicated that upon hearing of David's death and later during their grief, they wondered what happened to the knife.  They came to the conclusion that it must have been destroyed along with David and the tank.  Having that knife back in the hands of brothers Steve, Stanley, Dennis and sister, Twilia Leuning was the final step in the healing process for the Chaneys and the Blackhawk Squad members, especially Richard Hines.  He had pulled David out of the burning tank somehow and then kept the knife close to him, probably never intending to give it back.  He wanted to keep part of David with him and did until he told his secret in 2004. At first Tony and the others had wanted to return the knife to the family privately, but when word was spread by the family here in our small community, it soon turned into a full fledged memorial ceremony. One of the local boys, Bobby Phelps, had gone through basic training with David but wasn't in the same squad.  Bobby was there when he was needed and that was to escort the body of David Glenn Chaney back to the hills of Kentucky.

After the graveside service, we all met at the community center for a wonderful home cooked meal.  I bounced around having my picture taken with the soldiers and talking with them like I had known them all my life.  They had came from all over the U.S.  Richard Hines, St. Helen, MI, Larry Drummond, Overland Park, Kansas, Randy Teal, Ocean Springs, MS, Vic Reyes, Berwyn, IL, Tony Dodson, Philadelphia, PA, Jon Kosteck, New Haven, IN.  They recognized me as the angel who made it all happen.  I didn't feel like an angel, I just felt lucky.  The soldiers fighting during the war had all been dear to me, now they had wonderful names and faces that made them even dearer.  Time has passed and I often wonder where they all are and how they are doing.  For some reason, I can't make myself look them up on the Internet.  I'm sure it would be easy, but I guess I want to leave things just like they were that day: peaceful.

(Visit this website for more information: Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters & Fighting Techniques. . .: Soldier's Bowie Knife Returned to Family

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