BOOKS
“DAIWI” IS CHUCK PFEIFFER OUR LONGTIME CONTRIBUTOR and man about town, Chuck Pfeifer, has penned a memoir that is out this month from Amazon and deserves to be on every Quest reader’s shelf. “Daiwi” means “Captain” in Vietnamese and aptly captures the heart of Pfeifer’s story. The book starts by recounting a privileged childhood in New Canaan and New York City, and Pfeifer’s adventures and many misadventures at Culver Military Academy, Dartmouth and West Point. That chapter, “Privilege and Heartbreak,” is excerpted nearby. Thereafter, the book recounts Chuck’s distinguished service in Vietnam, the scars from which were forever burned into his psyche. After ’Nam, Pfeifer had a long and highly successful career in advertising and as a model—not to mention with the ladies, as a New York City boulevardier
extraordinaire at Elaine’s and, ultimately, his own bar. As he mellowed and was able to put to rest some of the worst of the demons of war, his love of the land on his Montana and Dakota ranches deepened. As did his love for Lisa, his beautiful and supportive wife. The book closes poignantly: In 1969 or 1970, if anyone had posed the question to me, “Do you think you will ever be normal again?” I might have answered, “I do not know. I do not know how normal feels or looks anymore. If how I feel now is normal, then no, I will never be normal again.” If that same question were posed today, I would probably answer, “sometimes.” I am learning to be content. My journey that began uncertain early on has become certain. Fraught with love, anger, hate, sorrow, fear, despair and, sometimes, downright stupidity, it has returned to love. u
This page: Chuck Pfeifer loves spending time on his Montana ranch; the cover of Daiwi (inset). Opposite page: Second Battalion, 34th Infantry, letter of commendation.
L I S A C RO S BY
BY JAMIE MACGUIRE