Reader's Comments
about
On My Honor, a Navy Wife's Vietnam War
Karen,
Just finished your book.
Very poignant chronicling of the life of a Navy wife in a strange land.
I was in the Q from May 69 to May 71.
Being single, and young and adventurous it was just about the best time of my
life.
Crewed as ECM operator on A-3s, don't remember Cheif Waggoner...but I must
have met him.
There were some great people who flew A-3s and worked in the ECM shop.
Your story rings true...a great read!
God bless you and your family.
Mack McGinnis
Karen,
I served with VQ-1 from January 1968 to January 1970. I was
23 years old,single, lived in the barracks (East Camp) and my life in "The
Q" was a whole lot different than yours. Most of my friends were also single
and so I was never privy to what life was like for you and your husband.
Reading your book opened my eyes to a completely different world that I
never even knew existed. I couldn't put it down. It also brought back
memories both good and bad. I clearly remember PR-21 and the crew. I nearly
went on that flight as a replacement ECM operator. I lost a very close
friend, Dennis Horrigan. I helped to inventory his personal property and
cried like a baby. I remember the frustrations you described. In fact I was
so furious that I wrote a letter to my congressman and actually recieved a
reply. I remember flying the first mission in the SOJ after the shoot down
and being somewhat nervous wondering if we really had fighter cover.I was
with the crew who spent several months back at Lockheed and brought back the
first EP-3B. Overall, my memories of VQ-1 and the far east are positive
ones. Thank you for helping me to remember those good times.
Roger Sharrer
Elk Grove, California
Dear Karen:
I bought your book for my wife, Linda, to read. After she finished it
she told me she had never read anything that she could relate to more
completely than Pat Morgan’s experiences with VQ-1. She gave the book
to me, I read it, and I heartily agree with her. Your book awakened many
fond memories and a few nightmares for both of us.
I was in VW-1 from April, 1970 to May, 1971 and in VQ-1 from June, 1971
to October, 1972. While I recall the name Waggoner, I don’t remember
flying with him. At the time all three squadrons combined, there were
over 150 officers and 1100 enlisted and massive confusion everywhere on
the island. At any rate, as the Marines say, we ate a lot of the same
mud.
I was one of the snotty-nosed JOs who transitioned from flying Willies
through typhoons to boring holes in the skies over the Tonkin Gulf and
the SOJ. As a 2P I flew with Bob Claytor and Putt-Putt Prevette on Crew
25. While still a Ltjg and 24 years old, I passed an EWAC board in
November, 1971. I took over Jeff Sims’ Crew 24 and proceeded to fly 1100
hours in ten months. In my last deployment I made more landings on
three engines than four. It was one of the most exhilarating times in my
life.
Meanwhile, back on Duva Duva, young Mrs. Manhart lived a life of quiet
desperation. We had one son before coming to Guam. Our second son
arrived in July, 1971, at the Naval Hospital in Agana Heights. Linda had her
hands full with two infants – three when I came home. One of the few
times I was home in 1972 she informed me that she and the boys were on
a schedule and I was interfering with it! She developed a telephone
relationship with the ASDO, one ADR1 Miller. He would call her when I was
two hours out. She also learned that, if I packed my fatigues I would
probably be in the vicinity of the Philippines. If I packed my flight
jacket I was probably going to Japan. In any case, before kissing her
goodbye, she would hand to me the appropriate shopping list. Like you, she
made most of the kids’ clothes and many of her own outfits from
yardage I bought in exotic places. We still have that sewing machine. We
both looked forward to the next Sears or Penney's catalogue. McDonalds’
opening was a big event.
In the Fall of 1972 I got orders to the Training Command; VT-28 in
Corpus Christi, as a flight instructor. Linda was ecstatic. One of the
first things we did on arrival in the “Real” world was go to a super
market and gaze at all of the not-frozen meat.
Although I didn’t make a career of the Navy, I wanted to. In three of
my last four fitness reports I was recommended for accelerated
promotion. It wasn’t enough. For my second sea tour, the detailer informed me
I was going back to VQ-1. Linda wanted no part of Guam or the “Q.”
I credit myself with having the perspicacity to understand that I
married her before I married the Navy. I resigned my commission in 1976. We
are still married (37 years in September) so I think I made the wise
choice.
A final note… We were spared the stress you both encountered on
returning to Amerikajima. For us the Training Command and Corpus was like
returning to the womb. No demonstrations, no riots, people appreciated
the military there. I remain forever grateful for that.
A final question… Was Albertson a pseudonym for Terry Cassidy
(Cassiday)? I never met the man, but I understand he was one helluva pilot.
Best Regards,
Dan Manhart
Dear Karen,
Waggoner, I'm sorry I haven't read this book yet and i
tried to contact you but something was wrong and the computer couldn't help.
My name is Darlene Martel and Richard Chiblow was my grandfather. I want to
thank you so much for the beautifully written story about him. I do miss him
and thanks to him I found my roots once more. My father was French and my mom
is native and for most of my life I ignored my native heritage mostly in truth
to shame because of being treated badly in school as a child. My grandmother
passed away 9 years ago and with her passing there were 3 days of native
ceremonies that mystified me and made me realize just how privileged I am to
be native and to honor traditions taught to me by my grandfather and
grandmother so once again I thank you for these beautiful words that honor my
Grandpa and thank you for sharing some of his traditions with him. Grandpa
always wanted to impart his wisdom to anyone who cared to listen....as you
did. THANKS!
SINCERELY,
DARLENE MARTEL
David G.
McCullough
This is in praise of Karen Waggoner's fine novel. I am a navy veteran with 30 years of enlisted and commissioned service and her book is the best novel about navy family life that I've ever read. It's the best because it is absolutely real, giving a marvelous account of the "other side" of navy life - the flipside of wartime deployments. In vivid detail, it relates the true adventures of navy spouses who endure, and fight the good fight at home (even when that home must be established and maintained on foreign soil); proving once again that wars are fought, and won, on many fronts. Is the home front the most important one? Karen Waggoner makes a compelling case that it should at least be given equal billing. "Old salts" and young ones alike could and should learn from this book. I did. For spouses who raise the kids and stoke the home fires while their husband or wife serves on, under or above the sea, it will serve as an invaluable source of encouragement and
inspiration. And, on top of everything else, it's a fast and entertaining read. Anyone who has ever made a navy deployment, inside or outside the lifelines, will relate. I truly loved this book and I give it my strongest possible endorsement.
David G. McCullough, Commander, USN (ret.)
Dear Karen,
I was raised in a small town south of Rushville, so our back grounds are much alike.
Thank you for writing On My Honor; it helped me understand my friends who were career
wives
during the sixties and seventies.
When you were talking about what you would do if you could come home for one day it gave me goose bumps, because I have been in those places many times.
Thank you and Dave for your service,
God Bless
Mary
A new chapter on the Vietnam War is revealed, January 23, 2004
Reviewer: Shea Zukowski from Emmaus, PA United States
Karen Waggoner deserves a medal for brave and insightful storytelling -- this novel intimately explores the range of emotions set in motion by the Vietnam war through a less-familiar perspective, that of a Navy Chief's wife. With tender detail, Waggoner sketches the details of daily life for the young American woman, Pat Morgan, who struggles to raise her two young sons in a Japanese village while her husband is stationed at the nearby American air base.
At different stages of this honest and sometimes heart-breaking novel, it seems Morgan's character is revealed to be as steady as a house on shifting sand - she professes pride for her husband's sense of duty to country, anxiety for their uncertain future, and outrage for the lack of support evidenced by the protest efforts back at home. Ultimately, we are assured of Morgan's safe passage into acceptance of her family's ordeal as she learns to confront her past and displays enormous courage in her own convictions. While these themes may be familiar to many families that served during the Vietnam war, Waggoner supplies so many rich details that a very personal story unfolds.
And as someone who was born during the time when Waggoner and her family were actually living their own version of this story, this novel helped me relate to the Vietnam experience on a whole new level because it is draws upon many other timeless themes -- especially the incredible mix of love and frustration women face in their role of wife and mother as they struggle to better the world around them.
Sherrill Jamo
A traditional view of women's activities during war is that of tending the home hearth and knitting warm socks. In Karen Waggoner's book, "On My Honor", we are shown a different role for the wife and family of a Vietnam War participant. Pat, the wife of a naval technician, arrives in Japan with two young children to try to live a daily life. Periodically, her husband leaves suddenly for undisclosed destinations to perform top secret missions. While Ben is away fighting a war, Pat battles a foreign society, loneliness, fear, caring for children without a support system, even a spy in her house.
Filled with details of daily life, some frightening, some quite funny, this book offers a fresh perspective on the immediate and long term impact that war has on military families, even after they return to civilian life in the United States. "On My Honor" raises some questions that are important for us to answer as the veterans now return from Iraq and Afghanistan, and as the families at home wait for news and understanding of how war has changed their loved ones in battle. This is a book to show everyone, military and civilian, the wider meaning of a government's decision to go to war, especially when the war is controversial.
Naval Affairs Magazine
January 2004
LA FRA Member
Provides
Enlisted Perspective of Vietnam War
by Lauren Armstrong
"I’d like to see every
veteran and every veteran’s family start telling their stories, too.
Storytelling is the most healing thing we can do for ourselves, and our
listener does us a great service by allowing us to talk." ....Karen
Waggoner
Karen Waggoner regularly
shared her day-to-day experiences as a Navy wife in the letters she wrote
to her parents, penning hundreds of missives over the course of her 17
years as a military spouse. Those letters, lovingly saved by her mother,
provide the backdrop for a newly published novel that provides a unique
perspective of the Vietnam War. On My Honor, A Navy Wife’s Vietnam War
chronicles the experiences of an enlisted spouse during her husband’s tour
of duty in the Pacific from 1968 to 1972.
Karen’s mother returned the letters to her
in 1985. Rereading the letters allowed Karen, a member of LA FRA Unit 251
and retired English teacher, to rediscover evocative memories of her
family’s experiences during that turbulent time. "The memories of our time
in Japan were extremely powerful," said Waggoner, who hadn’t talked much
about her wartime experiences. "When we returned to the States in 1972,
there was little or no interest in what Vietnam veterans and their
families had experienced. In fact, there was sometimes hostility,"
explained Waggoner. "In my world as a teacher, no one had any idea about
who I was or where I’d been, so I made myself fit in by suppressing my
immediate past. We simply moved on, just the way countless armchair
psychologists advised us."
When Karen was selected for a fellowship in
the Connecticut Writing Program, she knew she had a story to tell. The
program, an offshoot of the National Writing Project, encourages writing
teachers to write, and Karen did just that. "The ideas and understanding I
found in the letters was nourished by the project’s philosophy. Writing
released me from years of silence since the war," she explained. "Writing
for myself released my inhibitions. I was so excited about writing that I
produced thousands of pages on my old Apple word processor. I began to
write and couldn’t stop."
Karen believes she is the first enlisted
wife to write extensively about herself or her husband’s participation in
the Vietnam War. On My Honor (ISBN 1-59286-804-5) tells the story
of Navy Chief Ben Morgan, his wife Pat and their two young sons living in
a Japanese village, and later in Guam, during the Vietnam conflict. The
fictionalized account of her own story reveals her battle with fear in a
situation she accepts without question. Karen and her character come to
realize that her family’s achievements must be validated in order to move
on with their lives in the 21st century.
Karen hopes her story will help all
citizens understand the sacrifices military families make and the price
they pay for supporting their country and their loved ones.
Rita Axsom
An interesting story and a great read.
You need no military background to
appreciate this family's extraordinary
experiences while serving their country.
Connecticut Chapter 120
Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc.
John Cutler
Editor's Book Review:
I thoroughly enjoyed "On My Honor". I could vividly picture the author's experiences as a military wife during the Vietnam War. As I read the book, my mind reflected on my own tour in Vietnam in the signal intelligence mission, my first son's birth while dad was away, and my first wife's trials and experiences while her husband was halfway around the world in a war zone.
Although the entire book certainly kept my interest throughout, one passage on page 161 truly touched me. As a former Army crewchief, I share similar experiences with naval aviators ...
Dear Karen,
I had a hard time starting your book. "What if I don't like it? How will I tell her?" Well I started it yesterday and just keep going. I can't put it down. I laugh with you, cry with you, and get kinda sick with you. I know all about being trained to be a Navy wife. "Imagine the worst and then keep your composure." I never put it in those words before, but it sure happened.
Your book is so profound for me that I really can't find the words to compliment you. It took me on such a long walk back down memory lane that I even dreamed about it last night. I remember a sign that read, "My country, may she always be in the right, but, right or wrong, my country." I never could understand people who didn't know and understand that. "Be brave" were the code words to us kids. I didn't know what that meant, so I didn't dare feel anything. I remember comforting my mother when there was no birthday present from my dad. I told her that Dad hadn't forgotten, that he was "at war" and couldn't always do what he wanted to do. I know now that I was scared and didn't dare let Mom fall apart. Thank you for that Karen. I never knew that before. About a week or so later, a package arrived. I was vindicated but Mom was never quite the same after. She got harder. I didn't understand.
Perfect wife meant perfect Navy wife. That's really all I knew about being a wife. Don't complain when they're gone. Have their favorite meal when they come home. Love them and smile when they leave again. I can remember other women would ask, "How can you take him being gone all the time?" To me it was no big deal. It was just the way it was. I didn't know kids would get as screwed up as the adults, only different. Keeping secrets was a way of life...family and Navy.
Yeah, and it causes anxiety attacks, bravado, drinking, perfectionism, rigidity, judgmentalism, hyper ventilation, secret depression, breakdowns...And unbelievable guts, inventiveness, creativity, integrity, loyalty, PollyAnnaitis, Perseverance, unbelievable tolerance for pain, and the ability to listen, well.
I thank you so much for sharing this book with me. I can't begin to tell you how much it has helped to put my Mom and me in perspective. You certainly did me a favor.
Love you to pieces,
Jan LeBlanc (deceased)
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