The Greatest Beer Run Ever by John “Chick” Donahue and J. T. Molloy.
The is a short book about a tall tale that brought a twenty-something year old from New York City to Vietnam in early 1968 to bring beer to his neighborhood buddies who were fighting the war. Chick Donahue grew up in the Inwood neighborhood of northern Manhattan. It was a blue-collar, multi-ethnic enclave of people who expected their sons to serve in the military, even in a war that some thought a bit sketchy. In 1967, Chick, at age 26, had done his time in the Marine Corps overseas and was back working as a merchant seaman out of NYC. He and his friends hung out at Doc Fiedler’s, a local bar owned and operated by an older veteran, George Lynch, who was referred to as the Colonel, although his rank never rose higher that private first class in the service. Outside of the bar was one of the tallest flagpoles in the city, with Old Glory flying high every day.
A lot of the bar’s patrons were veterans who were getting increasingly irritated at the anti-war protests that were roiling across America. This was late 1967 to 1968, when protests were picking up steam, but most Americans still supported the war. After a few beers, the Colonel announced that he was going to travel to Vietnam and bring local beers - and messages from home - to the boys who were in the war. The small neighborhood had already buried 28 young men who had been killed in Vietnam.
Inwood was patriotic. At the end of Sunday Mass every week, the congregation would end the service by singing the Star Spangled Banner.
Civilians could not travel to Vietnam, a war zone, so it would be hard for the Colonel to get there. On the other hand, Chick, as a card-carrying merchant seaman, could hook up with a ship carrying supplies to Vietnam and get transport to the war zone. A plan was hatched.
Word went out to the community and people dropped by the bar with information about loved ones serving in Southeast Asia. A list was hatched. People came by the bar to make sure that Chick would be able to find their loved ones.
Chick was president of his local union, which helped him in his travels. He went down to the union hall and found a ship headed to Vietnam. He qualified as an oiler to be on the ship and, after buying a couple of cases of local beer, he was off to Southeast Asia, on a former Liberty Ship, which were stalwarts in the effort to supply our troops in WWII. Chick called his parents to tell them that he’d be gone for a bit (without mentioning where he was going) and then headed off to find his buddies and give them a beer.
The ship, the Drake Victory, navigated the Panama Canal and headed west. Chick was elected the union steward for the trip. He was a big union guy.
It wasn’t a boring voyage. There was a fire on the ship but it was extinguished and the Drake Victory anchored at Vietnam’s Qui Nhon Harbor on June 19, 1968. Chick and his beer had survived the trip.
Because Vietnam was a war zone, merchant sailors were encouraged to stay on their ships. Chick had beer to deliver so he told the ship’s captain that he had to find his step brother who was serving in Vietnam. It was a fib, but Bob in the Basement believes that, when there is beer to be delivered, the truth can be stretched a bit. Chick got permission to leave the ship but was urged to be careful. “Don’t get killed, Donahue, I wouldn’t want to do all that paperwork,” said the ship’s captain.
Chick had been to Vietnam twice before and thought that he understood the country. He went ashore and saw the signage of the 127th MP Company, where one of his beer targets, Tommy Collins, served. Chick quickly found Collins, gave him his mother's greeting, and handed him a beer. Chick also gave beers to Tommy’s colleagues back at the barracks. All was well. Later that night, Chick, Tommy, and other soldiers participated in a songfest that was cut short by a lieutenant who ordered the men to quiet down. Chick, who may have had a few brews, questioned the officer’s order and the lieutenant backed off, mistakenly thinking that Chick was a CIA agent. Over the next few months, Chick was often thought to be with the CIA, a fabrication that got him out of a lot of trouble.
Chick had to find the next person on his list, Rick Duggan. At a bar, Chick made friends with a Texan who happened to have a plane that would take Chick to Bravo Company and Rick. When he got to where Rick was stationed, he ran into another neighborhood guy on his list, Kevin McLoone. Chick gave Kevin a Rheingold beer, a good NYC brand.
Rick had been sent north so Chick hooked a ride on a plane to Quang Tri where Rick was supposed to be. Chick got off the plane and told the sergeant in charge that he was at the base to deliver beer to his buddy. The sergeant loved the story and sent him off to Rick’s barracks. Not buying the beer tale, the other soldiers he met along the way kept asking Chick what was the real reason he was in Vietnam. They thought he was on a secret CIA mission.
Chick gave updates to the troops about what was going back to the USA. They were especially interested in news about the protests. Chick put on a military poncho and went out with Rick to man the perimeter overnight. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) attacked that night and Chick was in a firefight. He realized that he was in a real war. No one was hurt that night but Rick’s outfit would end up engaging in heavy fighting over the next few months.
Rick was typical of many young men in battle zones. He carried letters from home and copies of the local newspaper that his mother sent him. He pumped Chick for tiny tidbits of news from the neighborhood and the bar that had sent Chick out to deliver beer to the troops.
Chick went out on patrol with Rick’s outfit. It wasn’t proper for a civilian, even an ex-Marine, to go into active war zones, but the officers had other things to worry about. Chick learned that the NVA used elephants to carry artillery and heavy equipment, just as Hannibal had done two thousand years earlier. During the trek out to find the enemy, the unit stopped and took a beer break courtesy of Chick. Later that day, Rick’s unit was moving out to another base so Chick had to leave. Rick got him a ride on a copter back to Quang Tri airport. Chick convinced the guards to get him on a plane heading south, towards the buddies he hadn't found yet and the ship he was supposed to take home. He landed at Phu Cat, no relation to Rocky Cat or LaForge Cat, but close to where his ship, the Drake Victory, was still docked. After sleeping in the barracks overnight, Chick walked into the port and found that his ship had already sailed.
The ship left a day early because of the threat of enemy attacks. Chick had to find a way to meet his ship when it stopped at the Philippines. Naturally, he found a civilian pilot who had been a merchant seaman in WWII who would be happy to fly Chick to Saigon where the US embassy might be able to help him out.
Once inside the embassy, Chick ran into a bureaucratic nightmare. He didn’t have a passport so no one could help him. The fact that a merchant seaman’s license was a de facto passport did not move the career diplomat, who Chick nicknamed Heller after Joseph Heller, the author of Catch 22, a great novel about how screwed up things get in wartime.
Heller told Chick that he had to get a Vietnamese visa before he could get a passport, which made no sense but was the rule. Heller also told Chick to go to the French embassy’s shipping agent who was the merchant seaman connection in Saigon. He would give Chick spending money (from the seamen's union) while things were sorted out. Heller wrote a note verifying that Chick was legit. You can't make this stuff up.
Chick got a daily cash draw of $40, a lot back then. He also applied for a passport. Chick got an inexpensive room at a Japanese hotel. He had learned to speak Japanese while stationed in the country as a Marine. After about a week, Chick had his passport and then went to the State Department of South Vietnam for his exit visa which he was told by Heller required a $900 bribe. Chick was living on $40 a day but Heller said that the embassy would lend him the money. After waiting in a long line - a lot of people wanted to leave Vietnam - Chick bribed the guy who carefully counted the cash and told Chick that the visa would be processed. Chick had no idea when he’d actually get it.
In late January, Chick got the visa and was scheduled to get on another merchant ship in Manila to take him home. His ship, the Drake Victory, had already left the Philippines so Chick figured any ship heading to the USA would do. He was scheduled to fly out of Saigon on January 31, 1968, to meet the ship.
Chick had a few days left before his trip. He ran into an old friend, Johnny Jackson, who was serving on a merchant ship, the SS Limon, which was a food transport. Johnny invited Chick to join him and his girlfriend that evening to celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. They went to a local bar and danced the night away to American pop songs. Chick was hanging around with a Vietnamese woman who liked Americans but wondered why Americans and the French insisted on interfering with the future of Vietnam. She, like many, saw the Vietnam conflict as a civil war between Vietnamese people to determine the future of the country. She didn’t seem to be on one side or the other, but wished that the Americans would just leave. It wasn’t their fight.
After midnight, Chick and Johnny headed to the SS Limon. Johnny was due back in the morning and Chick had a plane to catch to get to Manila.
As they got closer to Saigon center, the fireworks were exploding, celebrating the new year, 4847 on the Vietnamese calendar. Johnny went to his ship and Chick went to his hotel to get his stuff and pay his bill. Chick was impressed with how loud the fireworks were until he realized that he was hearing gunshots. This was the beginning of the Tet Offensive – late January,1968.
Chick wanted to get to the airport but quickly found out that the Vietcong controlled the airport. They also had taken over the American embassy (Heller was not there) and were about to occupy the presidential palace.
Although the attacks of 84,000 North Vietnamese all over South Vietnam were ultimately repulsed, Tet showed how powerful the North Vietnamese still were, even after years of fighting the Americans. It was the turning point of the war. Tet proved the strategy of the government of South Vietnam to train local police to ward off NVA attacks had been totally debunked. The police ran away from the attackers.
Tet illustrated the silliness of the American approach to the war. Every night on the network news, we heard the body count, how many NVA soldiers had been killed in battle. The numbers were basically made up. An officer would have much better career prospects if he reported killing many more enemies than his unit actually did, so the numbers were inflated. The official report on Tet (January 29 through March 31, 1968) was that 3,895 Americans, 14,300 civilians, 4,954 South Vietnamese soldiers, and 58,373 North Vietnamese soldiers died. Given the dominance of the North Vietnamese in the attacks, these numbers make no sense. Tet did not produce the general uprising that North Vietnamese leaders thought would develop, but the offensive did mark the beginning of the end of the war.
Back to Chick, who was trying to find some place in Saigon that wasn’t under attack. He saw the US embassy under attack. A driver who worked for the Americans went in through the gates and opened them for the North Vietnamese attackers. He was paid by us but worked for the other side.
Apparently, US intelligence knew that Tet would trigger a major offensive, but only added token reinforcements to key targets like the embassy, which was quickly overrun at the cost of many Marines’ lives.
After the embassy was taken, US troops got it back within twelve hours, but the North Vietnamese had made a point about American vulnerability after four years of intensive war. Once it was secure, Chick wandered through the embassy, trying to find Heller who could help Chick fly out of Vietnam. Once Chick had Heller - you knew he would find him – Heller told Chick that the North Vietnamese held the airport so no flights would be leaving any time soon. Chick couldn’t go back to his hotel - the NVA held it - but Heller gave our hero a voucher to pay for any hotel in Saigon. After seeing the North Vietnamese take over the presidential palace, which was in a really nice neighborhood with swank hotels - Chick decided to go downscale rather than downtown. He had made friends with a Saigon cop whose father owned an unpretentious hotel away from the fighting. There was a humorous moment when Chick asked the proprietor if there were any vacancies, which of course there were since the city was a battle zone. Chick checked in.
US forces retook the embassy and the presidential palace but the NVA still held the airport and most of the transport roads in the region. No food was getting into Saigon.
Chick ran into into Martin, a merchant seaman he happened to know from previous voyages they had crewed on together. Martin’s ship was the SS Limon, the food transport that another friend, Johnny Jackson, served on. Soon Chick was getting food to feed people at his current hotel as well as his previous one. He was also providing food to police officers and others who were starving. Our boy was certainly resourceful. He ended up feeding a lot of people. He even got food for animals at the Saigon Zoo. They were being ignored because of Tet. The provisions on the ship weren't going to be off-loaded because of a strike by Vietnamese longshoremen, so at least the food wasn’t wasted.
Chick became close to the Vietnamese hotel owner from whom he learned a lot about the history of the region. The locals, whether they lived in North or South Vietnam, were getting sick of foreign countries occupying them and interfering with local issues. Chick also learned that weeks before the Tet Offensive, local officials were aware of the impending attacks but did nothing to prepare for them. One problem in Southeast Asia was that even people who worked for you might not really be on your side.
Since he was stuck in the country, Chick needed to find a job. He was hired to work on a merchant ship that was returning to the US, but that fell through because the North Vietnamese controlled the waterways that led to the open sea. No vessels could safely leave the port. Tet really did change the landscape in many ways.
Given his additional time in the area, Chick sought out more buddies from home. Some of his friends were at Khe Sanh and Hue, sites of ferocious battles. Bobby Pappas was Chick’s best friend from the old neighborhood. He was currently stationed an hour away from Saigon, in Long Binh.
Chick got a three-day advance from the French shipping clerk and hitched a ride to find his buddy and give him a beer or two. When he got to the base, he told the MPs that he was looking for his step brother, a story he always used. They were not impressed and asked him to prove it by telling an outlandish story of the hijinks of the neighborhood guys. Chick obliged and the military policemen were indeed convinced that Chick was from the same 'hood as Bobby.
Chick’s buddy Pappas was in charge of guarding a major munitions storage base. What can go wrong when the Vietcong are trying to blow things up during Tet? Bobby put Chick in a uniform of sorts - with “civilian” stenciled in for rank - and they drank beer and reminisced about the old days. Chick was swearing a lot so Bobby had to admonish him to watch his language. The commanding officer (CO) was a devout Mormon and did not abide bad language. Despite being a teetotaler, the CO became friends with Chick who gave him a first-hand report of what was going on in Saigon.
After two days at the ammo dump, Chick returned to Saigon. Tet crystallized a lot of the suspicions of the press corps covering the war. The US brass was misrepresenting what was really going on in the field. Because of the exaggerated body counts, many journalists thought that the war was almost over. After all, we had killed most of the enemy based on the body counts. Tet disabuse them of that notion. In February of 1968, the press started referring to the daily military briefings as the “Five O’clock Follies” because of their lack of candor.
Chick heard that Bobby’s ammo dump had been attacked, so he headed north, back to Long Binh. Bobby was OK. The facility had been attacked but his part of it was fine. They drank beer at a bar and then Chick headed back to Saigon where he visited the local Catholic cathedral and gave thanks that all of the buddies he had seen and given beer to were OK.
After Tet, General Westmoreland requested 206,000 additional troops to supplement the 536,000 who were in-country. US intelligence was finally getting it right and said that the enemy was not even close to being defeated and that additional troops would not ensure success. Clark Clifford, an advisor to many presidents and the current defense secretary, denied Westmoreland’s request. He saw that the war was not winnable.
Chick found a way to use short-wave radio to call his parents in NYC. They hadn’t heard from him for many weeks. He assured them that he was OK and would be home soon. At least he hoped he’d be home before too long.
February was a pivot-point for the war.
– Clark Clifford rejected additional troops.
– Tet shattered the rosy view of the war that the military presented. We were not close to winning.
– News photographers captured the indelible image of a Vietnamese general shooting a young man in the head. That did not go over well on the network newscasts.
– And on February 27, 1968, Walter Cronkite of CBS News, the most trusted man in America, went on the air after a trip to Southeast Asia. He said that there was no way the US could win the war. As LBJ said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” President Johnson was right. He soon announced that he would not run for reelection.
Meanwhile, Chick was trying to get home.
The SS Limon was getting attacked by enemy guerrillas and the ship’s captain was sick of being a sitting duck. He told the government of South Vietnam that he was leaving and that unless they got the longshoremen to stop the strike and do their jobs, he’d bring the food to Manila, Miraculously, the strike was over.
There was space on the ship for an oiler, Chick’s specialty, so he signed on. He only had a few hours to wind things up and he didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to a lot of people who had helped him, even Heller, who did come through as needed. After three weeks on the high seas, the ship docked in Seattle.
Chick drew his pay - which was substantial - and promptly went to JC Penney's to buy new clothes. He had survived many weeks in Vietnam with what he was wearing plus some of the military accoutrements that he had been given by his military buddies. He paid cash for a coach ticket to NYC on American Airlines. For whatever reason, he was bumped to first class and spent the six-hour flight talking to his businessman seatmate about what Chick had done while getting beer to his buddies. For the only time in his life, he drank Manhattan cocktails during the trip.
Chick showed up at Doc Fiedler’s bar and was feted by the patrons. They had no idea when or if Chick would return, but they were delighted when he showed up. Georgie Lynch, the Colonel (remember - he was really only a private first class) made a toast: “To Chickie, who brought our boys beer, respect, pride - and love, goddamn it!” The night wore on. Finally, things wound down. Chickie took a cab to his parents’ house. They were delighted to see him. He promised that he would not go back to Vietnam.
They were happy. He was happy.
Bob’s Take
The beer run changed Chick’s view of the war. While delivering beer, he saw first-hand that the information that folks in the US were getting about the war was wrong. He had started his journey as a conservative, America-is-always-right, anti-war-protesters-are-communists guy, a pretty typical position for a blue-collar union member in 1968.
His trip to Vietnam helped him see that the protesters may have had a point. The Vietnamese were weary and wary of having foreigners rule their destiny. In ancient times, the Chinese had come in to dominate the region. More recently, the French and Americans occupied the land. As Chick mused at the end of the book, we buy lots of goods from Vietnam today and the country seems to work pretty well even after the horrible communists won. What were we fighting for?
Chick ends up in a pretty good place after he returns from his adventure. He does fault the protesters for having no respect for, or understanding of, the soldiers who were doing their jobs, obeying the orders of military leaders and government officials. Historically most Americans respected and believed these people. This time, the bosses were wrong, but Chick doesn't believe that people should impute the sins of the leaders on the soldiers who followed their orders. Chick also came to see that the protesters' work would eventually lead to ending the war, which would save lives. He has a point.
Most of Chick’s neighborhood friends survived the war physically. One person on his list who did not make it was Richard Reynolds who was killed on the day Chick arrived in Vietnam. Many of Chick’s beer buddies suffered PTSD after they returned to civilian life. PTSD was not recognized as a big deal when the soldiers came home, but many of his neighborhood’s soldiers did eventually deal with their issues. After a lot of effort, they ended up leading productive, fun lives, with lots of grandkids. Several became police officers who helped out on 9/11.
The book ends with a description of the Inwood neighborhood of NYC. It’s in Manhattan, way up north, near the Bronx. Like many neighborhoods in the late 1950s and 1960s, kids went out to play all day without adult supervision, and without the parents worrying about how their kids were doing on their own. They were doing just fine. Nobody was kidnapped. Nobody was raped.
The neighborhood had 196 acres of woods. Chick and his friends knew that a real Indian nobility, Princess Noemie, had lived in a cottage near a big tulip tree in days gone by. How cool was that?
There were plenty of places to swim. There were lots of baseball fields and even a soccer field. A predominantly Irish and Jewish neighborhood, it was considered “a great place to grow up” by many. There were not big disparities in wealth and income, and people got along. They didn't need babysitters. Mothers took care of their neighbors' kids as needed. It was unfortunate that over two dozen young men from Inwood died in Vietnam.
Chick was very good at convincing people he met along the way to help him out. He had a knack for hitching a ride in a plane or copter or jeep to get him where he needed to be. People genuinely liked him. He had no problem getting the crew of the SS Limon to give him food to feed dozens of people as well as a lot of abandoned animals at the Saigon Zoo. He did run afoul of South Vietnamese officials along the way, but he always skated away from trouble.
This was a really good book that was on my must-read list for several years. It flows like a novel but it did happen, and the recounting is highly entertaining. Peter Farelly, director of many classic movies including Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, is currently shooting a film based on the book. The stars are Zac Efron, Bill Murray, and Russell Crowe – not a bad cast.
