Dear Pixie - Dispatches From Dak To

Dispatches from Dak To A collection of writing and letters from John Daigle sent home from Vietnam between 1966 and 1971.

Compiled in June 2022

Fire Support Base 5 along Rocket Ridge near Dak To, Vietnam in 1970

Introduction

June 12, 2022

On a dark Vietnamese night almost 55 years ago this month, John Daigle stood atop a teamhouse bunker at Fire Support Base 5 along a dusty hillside that had been dubbed “Rocket Ridge.”

The small base near the Cambodian border outside of Dak To, where he and 11 other American military advisers lived with some 700 South Vietnamese Montangards had been cut off and surrounded for days by North Vietnamese soldiers prepared to overrun the location.

“I came to the conclusion that night that, unless God intervened, I would never return to my family,” Daigle wrote in a 1989 letter to his daughter Renee. “The next day, the North Viets faded back into the jungle of Cambodia. Why they didn’t attack and overwhelm us could not be explained. Except, in my mind I had the ego to believe God had answered my prayers and had other plans for me.”

Daigle came to believe the other plan -- the purpose -- God had for him centered on helping his wife Jane raise a family. Years later, on his 59th birthday, he’d write the following message to his children: “Thank you all for remembering me on my birthday, and for turning out so well, thereby giving purpose to my 59 years. I promise to remember on future birthdays how lucky I am...”continue his pledge to remember how luck we all are.

Daigle had always aspired to write a book about his experiences, thoughts and beliefs. He never accomplished that goal, but he left behind an incredible legacy as well as a treasure trove of his writings, lovingly preserved in a box of letters from Vietnam kept for decades by his wife.

In tribute, on what would have been his 92 birthday, presented here are some of those letters, painstakingly digitized by his granddaughter Bailey and compiled by his son Johnny. This unfinished project is presented early to mark the occasion, and to help keep his promise to remember how lucky we all are.

John Daigle, U.S. Army

Fortifying defenses at Firebase 5 near Rocket Ridge south of Ben Het

View from Rocket Ridge near Dak To, Vietnam

The perimeter defenses at Firebase 5 in Vietnam