Capt Doug Chamberlain - Bury Him: A Memoir of the Viet Nam War

Copyright 2019 by Doug Chamberlain.

Published 2019.

Printed in the United States of America.

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the author.

Paperback ISBN 978-1-950647-03-3

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data

Names: Chamberlain, Doug, 1942. author.

Title: Bury him / Doug Chamberlain.

Description: Parker [Colorado] : Bookcrafters, 2019. Hardcover.

Identifiers: ISBN: 978-1-950647-05-7

Subjects: LCSH: United States. Marine CorpsHistoryVietnam War, 1961-1975. | United States. Marine CorpsOfficersBiography.

BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military

Classification: LCC E840.5 | DDC 920 CHAMBERLAINdc22

The front cover photograph of Marine Corporal Joseph T. Wnukowski was furnished courtesy of Corporal Wnukowski and Marine Corporal Joseph W. Freda, who took the picture.

Ebook services by YellowStudiosOnline.com

Love the West Publications

Publishing Services by BookCrafters, Parker, Colorado. www.bookcrafters.net

For most of his life, Captain Doug Chamberlain has lived and worked on his family ranch in LaGrange, Wyoming. Doug has had experience in public education as both a classroom teacher and administrator, in radio broadcasting, and the transportation industry. He has been a community and state leader serving in the Wyoming State Legislature for 18 years culminating in his election and service as Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives.

Perhaps his greatest public service, however, was his time as a Marine Company Commander in Viet Nam. It was a time for him to serve his country, but at the same time, the source of one of his greatest regrets. Like many Viet Nam vets, Doug went over alone and came home alone. And, like many other vets, he came home with baggage, violent memories and unfinished business. He was haunted by what he did and failed to do in the war.

In this frank, engaging memoir, Captain Chamberlain casts a long look back to his service in the Marines. He chronicles the missions, personal courage and sacrifice of the Marines he was privileged to command; painfully recalls the unspeakable order he and his Marines were forced to obey; and the cover-up which followed.

Nearly four decades later, Captain Chamberlain makes right what was wrong; brings closure to the family of a fallen and abandoned warrior; and attempts to put to rest the guilt which plagued his military career and life.

Unlike most books on the Viet Nam War, this book is written at a tactical level by a Marine Company Commander who was there. Unlike most books on the Viet Nam War, this book is written at a tactical level by a Marine Company Commander who was there. Serious historians, Viet Nam War scholars and military commanders at all levels and branches will laugh, cry and identify with the lessons of war found in Chamberlains memoirs as he writes about the indelible connection between Marines in combat.

Readers will marvel at Captain Chamberlains tenacity in uncovering and ultimately correcting a lie and highlighting the phony heroes, weak politicians, liars, and fabricators who tarnished the reputation and sacrifice of the men and women in uniform who fought and died in Viet Nam.

A must read for young military leaders who think the only enemies in war are those combatants on the other side of the FLOT (Forward Line of Troops).

Major General Edward Wright, United States Army (Retired)

Captain Doug Chamberlains book reaffirms the stark reality, daily agonies and the constant vigilance of commanding a company of Marines and Corpsmen in combat during the height of the Vietnam War in 1968. It is both story and history describing threatening events with split-second decisions changing lives, forever! This book is a compelling read, honest, up-close and personal told by a Company Commander who took his responsibilities seriously! Skipper Chamberlain, not only tells the rest of the story but tells the real story of his time in the field with his Marines and Sailors and of the traumatic, life-changing ordeal of being ordered by higher-ups to bury a U.S. Marine KIA....

Grady T. Birdsong, Corporal USMC - 1/27, 2/9 & 3rd MarDiv Communications Company, RVN 1968-1969.

Author of To the Sound of the Guns

In war, the only way to preserve ones morality is to apply a strict moral code to the conduct of war itself. Captain Doug Chamberlain was one of the longest serving Marine Company Commanders in the Vietnam War. His honor, and that of the Marine Corps, was tested severely when he was ordered to bury the body of a Marine instead of bringing home the remains. Bury Him is the story of a commanders commitment to his Marines and his determination to redeem his honor and that of the Corps.

Don R. Catherall, PhD.

Author of The Handbook of Stress, Trauma and the Family and Shaped by the Shadow of War

I have known Doug Chamberlain to be a man of constant character and integrity since I first met him as a student athlete at John Brown University in the 1960s. His book recounts his agonized response to a direct order to bury the remains of a fallen Marine in Vietnam, followed by a prompt retraction at Dougs urging and a heroic recovery and return of that body to the family. However, the confusing and critical response from a few officers in the Marine Corp Command set Doug upon a difficult 50-year journey of unanswered questions and great personal stress. His final victorious discovery of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is a gripping and tough personal narrative that will inspire every reader in difficult circumstances to speak truth, regardless of the consequences.

John E. Brown, III

Past president of JBU, and former AR State Senator

Captain Chamberlains searing memoir of combat in the southern I Corps zone, during the height of the Vietnam War, not only tells gripping stories of heroism and tragedy... it also unveils, for the first time, the truth of a sorry episode in Marine Corps history that has remained buried for fifty years. Chamberlains earnest prose reveals a burdened conscience, but it also demonstrates his unflinching courage in fulfilling his duty as a Marine and a patriot, ultimately proving himself a warrior with his honor intact. I was privileged to help him uncover documentary evidence of the events at the heart of his story, bringing closure after half a century for a company of Marines who were asked to do the unthinkable, and for a family who never understood why they had to bury a loved onenot once, but twice. Bury Him can stand proudly alongside such enduring classics of Marine Corps literature as Robert Leckies Helmet for My Pillow and Philip Caputos A Rumor of War.

Paul T. Semones, P.E.

Semones Forensic Engineering

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all United States Marines and their families; Doug Berger; the memory of PFC Michael J. Kelly; the Marines who were serving in Echo Company, Second Battalion, Seventh Marines on 25 March 1968; and everyone else who has ever served in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. Semper Fi.