A Year in Vietnam

With a compass to direct him in his job as a forward observer and a personal camera to document his experiences—and keep him connected to his creative side—Vietnam veteran Steven Burchik was lucky enough to make it home and years later decided to write about the most challenging year of his life.

 

Like any experience, he spent his year as a sergeant in the First Infantry Division stationed in the rice paddies near Saigon, which included good times as well as bad. He candidly recalled at our Veteran’s Day meeting on November 11, that although he believed communism to be a serious threat to the world, he soon learned that a guerilla war was a difficult one to fight, and survival rather than victory quickly became his focus. But he also vividly remembered the exhilaration of helicopter rides over serpentine rivers and the time he introduced village kids to a gumball machine.

 

In writing his unique memoir of the war, A Compass and a Camera: A Year in Vietnam, he pulled not only from his memories, but also from the daily letters he wrote to his fiancée (she kept every single one) that included numerous photographs from his collection of over 4,000. The images alone made Burchik’s presentation a riveting one, and his book is a must read for history buff as well as fellow veterans.

 

Serving at the same time as Burchik, was Larry Jernigan. He was a sergeant in Company "D," 2^nd of the 18^th Battalion U.S. Army First Infantry Division in the Vietnam War from April 1968 to April 1969 and received various combat medals.

 

Jernigan received his draft notice on the same day that his parents celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary. He was sent to Ft. Ord in California for basic training and then to Ft. Lewis in Washington for Advanced Infantry Training. Jernigan arrived in Vietnam shortly after the start of the 1968 Tet Offensive. He was assigned as a radio man and followed right behind his platoon sergeant. Jernigan reminisced about his numerous ambush patrols as well as his visits to villages as part of the war’s Pacification Program.  (In the above photo are Larry Jernigan (l) and Steven Burchik)