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Mike, found this photo of Bo Blasingame, our
Bn Chaplain during 65-66.
What a guy he was. He would come down to
the line units and spend the night with rifle platoons (never at the CO
CP)and did he ever relate to the troops. Uncommonly so we all thought.
It wasn't until he flew down to Ft. Benning GA from Ft. Knox in Nov 1966
to marry the wife and I in the Post Chapel there, that the reason came
to light. His agreeing to come to Ft. Benning to marry us was unusual
too and he hated to fly. He came into a hot LZ in Bong Son in 1966 and
got the tip of his little finger shot off as the bird set down. He later
confided to me he was scared to death flying in a Hughie after that.
Little did we know that he had been a Rifle
Company Commander in Korea and was well decorated as we found out when
he appeared in his blues with his collection of fruit salad.....he had
2 or more Silvers Stars as I recall.
I lost track of him about 10 years ago. He
was retired and living in N Georgia somewhere then. He was not a
youngster in 65-66 like we all were then so he may have passed on by
now. What a soldiers soldier he was and a Chaplain at that.
Dean Knox From Tony Japuntich: Great photo of Chaplain Blasingame. I don't
know how I knew back then, but someone must have told me, but I was aware
of his exploits in the Korean War while we were in Viet Nam. In 1973 I
was stationed at Ft. Meade, MD, and had gone from the 6th Cav to the PMO
and was working as a Military Police Investigator. I was given a call one
day to the post chapel about a burglary and when I got there I saw his
name. We had several great conversations together before I left Ft.
Meade. I do know that he was in the infantry company that made a bayonet
charge up a hill in Korea. He called it the Army's last bayonet charge.
He said that they chased them up beyond the point they had set out to take
and it was a job then just getting the guys to stop. One of them had
taken a bullet in his leg, but had kept on charging. When he was finally
stopped he collapsed and then couldn't walk. |