MIRACLE at 881: A Marines' Story: A Memoir of Family, Faith, Love of God and Survival

By Joe O'Neill

The story of Lance Corporal Joseph O'Neill Sr, wounded in action on hill 881 in Vietnam on April 30th, 1967, through childhood, the war, and returning home to find love

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350905038

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MIRACLE at 881: A Marines’ Story

A Memoir of Family, Faith, Love of God and Survival

©2023, Joe O’Neill

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 979-8-35090-502-1

ISBN eBook: 979-8-35090-503-8

Dedication:

to my wife Peggy,

with love

Table of Contents

PREFACE: Our Lady of La Vang: The Catholic Side of Vietnam

1. The Miracle

2. Early Childhood

3. A Patriotic Feeling

4. Grace

5. First Holy Communion

6. The Brass City

7. Wanna Fight? Join The Marines

8. A Gold Star Mother

9. Baseball

10. Sister Helen Edward and Sister Marita Daniel

11. Dream Lover, Where Are You?

12. Croft High School

13. A Letter Home To The College Guys And Those Sitting Home:

How Do You Feel?

14. John Gravil

15. Platoon 1024

16. The Miraculous Medal

17. These Boots are Made for Walking

18. Divine Mercy

19. Shadow Warriors

20. Operation Suwanee

21. Phu Lac 6

22. Camp Carroll

23. The Hill Fights

24. Homeward Bound

25. First Love

Acknowledgments

PREFACE

Our Lady of La Vang:

The Catholic Side

of Vietnam

Americans tend to paint all Asian countries with the same brush, thinking of them as Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim-or all three. In truth, Christianity came to parts of Asia throughout its early centuries (Saint Thomas the Apostle evangelized South India.) During the great missionary age (sixteenth through the nineteenth century), the Jesuits became the first priests to successfully plant Catholicism in that part of southeast Asia that was between India and China (Indochina). The first unsuccessful attempt was by Portuguese missionaries in the early sixteenth century. Jesuits arrived there in the following century and gained a strong Christian foothold. The French Fathers Alexander de Rhodes and Antoine Marquez converted more than six thousand between the years 1627 and 1630. It was Father de Rhodes who created an alphabet for the Eastern Indochina (Vietnamese) language using Latin script with added diacritical marks. Of course, the Vietnamese had their own written alphabet, but converting that into a phonetic Latin-based written language made communication with the Western world easier.

In my research into this history, I came upon an apparition of Our Lady which occurred in Vietnam in 1798. Interestingly and appropriately there are a number of Catholic church parishes in this country named for this apparition-Our Lady of La Vang.

Our Lady’s Apparition

On August 17th, 1798, Emperor Canh Thinh issued an anti-Catholic edict and an order to destroy all Catholic churches and seminaries. A most grievous persecution of Vietnamese Catholics and missionaries began and lasted until 1886.

It was amidst this great suffering that the Lady of La Vang came to the people of Vietnam. The name La Vang was believed to be originated in the name of the deep forests in the central region of Vietnam now known as Quang Tri where there was an abundance of a kind of trees named La Vang. It was also said that its name came from the Vietnamese meaning of the word (Crying Out) to denote the cries for help of the people being persecuted. The first apparition of Our Lady came when many Vietnamese Catholics from the nearby town of Quang Tri sought refuge in the deep forest of La Vang. A great number of these people suffered from the bitter cold weather, lurking wild beasts, jungle sickness and starvation. At night, they often gathered in small groups to say the rosary and to pray. Unexpectedly, one night they were visited by an apparition of a beautiful Lady in a long cape, holding a child in her arms, with two angels at her sides. The people recognized the Lady as Our Blessed Mother.

Our Blessed Mother comforted them and told them to boil the leaves from the surrounding trees to use as medicine. She also told them that from that day on, all those who came to this place to pray, would get their prayers heard and answered.

This took place on the grass area near the big ancient banyan tree where the refugees were praying. All those who were present witnessed this miracle. Our Blessed Mother continued to appear to the people in this same place many times throughout the period of nearly 100 years of religious persecution. Among many groups of Vietnamese Catholics that were burnt alive because of their faith was a group of 30 people who were seized after they came out of their hiding place in the forest of La Vang. At their request, they were taken back to the little chapel of La Vang and were immolated there on its ground.

From the time the Lady of La Vang first appeared, the people who took refuge there erected a small and desolate chapel in Her Honor. Her name was spread among the people in the region to other places. Despite its isolated location in the high mountains, groups of people continued to find ways to penetrate the deep and dangerous jungle to worship the Lady of La Vang. Gradually, the pilgrims that came with axes, spears, canes, and drums to scare away wild animals were replaced by those holding flying flags, flowers and rosaries. The pilgrimages went on every year despite the continuous persecution campaigns.

Known to the World

In 1886, after the persecution had officially ended, Bishop Gaspar ordered a church to be built in honor of the Lady of La Vang. There was a solemn ceremony that was participated by over 12,000 people that lasted from August 6th to 8th, 1901. The bishop proclaimed the Lady of La Vang as the protectorate of the Catholics. In 1928, a larger church was built to accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims.

The history of Our Lady of La Vang continues to gain greater significance as more claims from people whose prayers were answered and validated. On April 13th of 1961, the Counsel of Vietnamese Bishops selected the holy church of La Vang as the National Sacred Marian Center. In August of 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the church of La Vang to The Basilica of La Vang. This Basilica was destroyed in the fiery summer battles of 1972 during the Vietnam War.

The Vatican estimates the number of Vietnamese martyrs at between 130,000 and 300,000. Pope Saint John Paul II decided to canonize those whose names are known and unknown, giving them a single feast day on June 19th 1988.

The tortures these individuals underwent are considered by the Vatican to be among the worst in the history of Christian martyrdom. The torturers hacked off limbs joint by joint, tore flesh with red hot tongs, and used drugs to enslave the minds of the victims. Christians at the time were branded on the face with the words ta dao, which means sinister religion. Families and villages which subscribed to Christianity were obliterated.

Our Lady of Fatima

On May 13, 1917, Our Blessed Mother appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. Lucia dos Santos was 10 and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto were ages eight and seven. She would appear to the children six times, from May to October, on the 13th day of each month, except for August, where She appeared on the 19th. She told the children to pray for Russia’s conversion by praying the Holy Rosary. At this time Russia was a fine country. When the children were threatened by the authorities that it could not be Russia, the children insisted that Our Blessed Mother said Russia.

They were threatened to be boiled in oil by the authorities. On one of the apparitions Our Blessed Mother showed them hell.

On October 13, 1917, Our Blessed Mother performed the miracle of the sun so that people would believe her message of an evil world to come and trust the children. First it rained, then someone said, look up at the sun, as it danced in the sky and fell toward earth spewing beautiful colors as it finally went back to its place in the heavens. 70,000 people witnessed this miracle and everyone was left completely dry.

Less than two months later the Bolshevik Revolution brought communism to Russia. Then,