WRITER’S NOTE: As Veterans Day approached, I contacted friends of mine, Mac Chandler, and his wife, Joyce, about doing an interview for the purpose of writing an article for the Tri County Record. Before I arrived to talk with them, Mac, being the ever ready person he is, had already typed his life story leading up to his 20 years in the Army through their life into retirement. Mac did a much more thorough job than I could have done, thus the credit for writing the story that follows goes to him! I may not have expressed some sections as humbly as Mac did and I condensed his story in order to make it the proper length for the Tri County Record.
Yes, this story is about Mac and Joyce, a tribute to their lives and their patriotism. However, it is also meant to honor ALL VETERANS and men and women CURRENTLY SERVING in the Armed Services of the United States. During our discussion, all of us agreed that it is not just the persons serving in the Armed Services that are affected, but certainly their spouses and families, too.
Malcolm (Mac) Chandler, Lieutenant Colonel USA (Retired), graduated from Calvin Coolidge High School in Washington, DC in 1945, while the WWII draft was still in effect. Mac’s grandmother had saved $1,000 for him for college. After a year at Bullis School (an Army/Navy Academy Prep school), Mac received an appointment to West Point.
In February, 1950, the class “chose” their branch of service and location assignment according to class standing. Mac “chose” the less desirable (read between the lines) alternatives of Infantry, and East Asia. Just prior to graduation in 1950, the Korean Conflict broke out and Mac was headed for Korea as a Second Lieutenant, Infantry, with a life expectancy of 90 days!
After his two months graduation leave, Mac, as part of the Seventh Division, arrived in Korea with 20 or so men drafted from the streets of Seoul to round out his Platoon. The Division followed the Marines ashore at Inchon, South Korea and cleared the peninsula of North Koreans. After “training” in which the Korean recruits taught American soldiers some useful tricks about infiltration, the men boarded landing ship tanks for North Korea. After landing at Hamhung, his Regiment moved up (during sub-zero weather) to Haesanjin, a town just south of the Yalu River across from Manchuria.
At this stage, the Chinese got involved costing many United States casualties and causing a retreat from North Korea. The Regiment then joined other American and South Korean units in establishing the “Demilitarized Zone” separating South and North Korea, generally along the 38th parallel of latitude.
In the spring of 1951, Mac completed his 9 month tour in Korea and was reassigned as a Company Commander of the Basic Training Unit in Fort Knox, Kentucky, after receiving unit citation ribbons, a Purple Heart and a Silver Star.
Mac’s other combat experience occurred in 1965. He was sent to Vietnam as an advisor to a South Vietnamese Regimental Commander, Colonel Quhy, in Hue, 50 miles south of the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam. Mac was to stay with the troops to verify Viet Cong body counts submitted by Colonel Quhy. Mac found that the body counts he submitted were substantially less than that submitted by Colonel Quhy. Friction developed between the two officers when Mac objected to seeing the same “captured” weapons repeated times (Mac had nicked the stocks with his knife to verify this).
Mac thought that Colonel Quhy’s attitude might be softening toward him when he invited Mac to attend a daylight reconnaissance of a planned ambush site. A truck (to explode any mines encountered) headed the column followed by five jeeps. Mac’s jeep was the middle one. The mission was accomplished and all vehicles returned on the same path but halfway down the hill his jeep flipped over from a mine that exploded, the gasoline tank ruptured and they were engulfed in flames. Mac’s first thought was: “Well Lord, I’m ready” (not I’ve got to get out of here, which would have been normal). Mac had placed his faith in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior during his education at West Point. Mac and his sergeant survived but his Korean interpreter died from the incident. (Note: I learned that a service member could only receive one Purple Heart. If wounded again, he/she receives an Oak Leaf Cluster. This is a bit ironic because Mac’s Purple Heart was awarded to him during the Korean Conflict because of a bullet wound to his arm, which was not nearly as serious as his injury in Vietnam). Mac was able to be treated for the burns from Vietnam at Walter Reed Hospital. Ultimately, he had no permanent disability from that incident.
Mac’s Service life also greatly impacted his personal life. After returning from Korea, Mac was stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky. On one of his first visits home he met Joyce, an attractive 19 year old. Within a year Joyce and Mac were married and have now celebrated 62 years of marriage. I commend Joyce for rapidly learning a new way of life being married to a career Serviceman.
From Fort Knox, they went to West Point, where Mac was a Junior Aide to the Superintendent. The General’s wife also expected Joyce to be her Aide. She learned that life in the Army meant 14 moves during their 20 years in the Army. Their next trip took them to Fort Benning, in Columbus Georgia. Their first son, Mike, was born there, and, because Mac was taking a “required” Physical Aptitude test for Airborne, the wife of one of their friends took her to the hospital. Mac joined them as Joyce and son, Mike, were being wheeled from the Delivery Room.
Mac was then sent to Mannheim, Germany. Joyce could not accompany him because US Family “quarters” were not available. She had to make a two week voyage across the Atlantic via an Army transportation ship to Bremerhaven with their 2-month-old Mike (in a “stateroom” with another mother and very young son). On arrival she had to trust the Army Transportation Corps to send them via German train to meet Mac in Frankfurt. For some unknown reason, that meeting did not occur, and she continued on to the train’s last stop, Heidelburg. They were met and housed until Mac could take them to a little town called Lampertheim. Joyce had to adapt to the “comforts” of post-war Germany living in a cool apartment (coal was very expensive and the landlord limited it) and using the outside windowsill as her refrigerator.
Mac was able to wangle a transfer to Nurnberg where they had much more comfortable US Quarters available. After a year, the Battalion moved west of the Rhine River to Mainz, and their second son, David, was born in a German hospital in Bad Kreuznach. This time, the Chaplain had to get Joyce to the hospital until Mac could return from maneuvers. David had to be naturalized on return to stateside.
Mac was then stationed at Fort Riley, living in Junction City, Kansas. After two years Mac and his family were stationed in Columbus, Ohio, where he taught in the ROTC Unit at Ohio State University and earned his Master’s Degree in College Student Personnel.
After a tour of duty in the Presidio of San Francisco, their final move in the Army was to Honolulu, Hawaii. The boys attended Kings School, just outside the gates of Schofield Barracks close to Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. Mike and David adapted well at Kings School where there were teachers and students of many different nationalities. The boys were in Junior High School when the family moved to Fort Shafter in Honolulu where they attended Hawaii Baptist Academy. While in Hawaii, Mac and Joyce had their third son, Tim. Their sons feel that the frequent moves were beneficial rather than detrimental to their spiritual and social relationships.
Upon retiring from the Army in 1970, Mac used this education to obtain a job at Eastern University. After living for over twenty years in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, Mac and Joyce have lived in the Tel Hai Retirement Community in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania since 2001.
How do a wife and kids make up the “Family Team” of a career Serviceman? In a great number of ways, many of which Joyce experienced: loneliness; knowing that your spouse is constantly in harm’s way; your spouse is not always there when your children are born; inconveniences of different living standards in places where the Serviceman is stationed; moving many times and in general disciplining and running the household while her husband is away.
WRITER’S NOTE:There are two main “take-a-ways” in this story: IT’S NOT WHERE YOU START IN LIFE, BUT WHERE YOU FINISH!
Mac’s story is one of a young man with a “C” average in school rising to a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, at times commanding as many as two hundred soldiers and impacting their lives, as well as the Commissioned and Non-commissioned Officers under his command . Secondly, his story exemplifies how the family of a Service person needs to work as a Team to successfully confront many challenges that others may not face.
THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE MAC, JOYCE AND ALL OTHER VETERANS AND THOSE MEN AND WOMEN CURRENTLY IN THE SERVICE AND THEIR “TEAMMATES”!
Jeff Hall, Honey Brook, writes columns for Tri County Record.
