Home of the Brave

To see Jacqui and Chuck Probst smiling on the pickleball court as they battle their opponents, one may never guess they experienced an actual war at a young age. Both volunteered for service in the Army during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. They enlisted separately, as they had not met — yet.

Jacqui enlists

Jacqui was born and raised in Waimea on the Big Island. After earning a BS in nursing at UH, she enlisted in June 1968. She graduated from the basic Army nurse course at Ft. Sam Houston, then volunteered to go to Okinawa and served in the neurological-orthopedic ward of a US military hospital caring for evacuees from Vietnam for a year. Then she volunteered to go to Vietnam.

“When she got to Vietnam, she was assigned to what was basically a nonexistent unit,” says her husband Chuck. “In 1969, they set up a Quonset hut surgical hospital in An Khê in the Central Highlands from scratch.”

Recall a scene from the TV series “MASH” and you will get a good idea what the 17th Field Hospital was like.

Jacqui and her colleagues took care of soldiers and civilians evacuated from the battlefield around them. She worked 12-hour days, every day. “They were frequently under rocket attack from the Viet Cong,” says Chuck.

Close call

Jacqui went to take a shower one night and realized she had forgotten her soap. Just as she headed back to her quarters, all hell broke loose. The shower she had occupied seconds before was reduced to matchsticks. Her room was completely destroyed. She received fragment wounds and was deaf for several weeks due to the blast. The ear damage she incurred affects her hearing to this day. She was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in combat.

So Jacqui, now an Army captain, transferred to the 95th Evacuation Hospital where she served as the head ER nurse. The coastal hospital was safer from enemy attack. But it was another scene from “MASH” when helicopters would come in laden with casualties. However, the helicopters headed to the 95th were much larger, carrying anywhere from 20 to 35 wounded. Jacqui and her staff were sometimes suddenly overwhelmed with the influx of casualties. Jacqui’s job was to triage them — determine the urgency of their need for and nature of treatment — and prep the injured for the operating room. She kept them alive until they could be treated surgically. In addition, she also taught and worked with medics and new incoming nurses at the 95th Evacuation Hospital.

Chuck signs up

Chuck signed up for the military in the summer of 1968. Once he completed his internship at a Philadelphia hospital, he volunteered for Army Special Forces (SF) to become a member of the elite Green Berets. He first went to jump school (parachuting training), then it was up to Ft. Bragg in North Carolina, where he was assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group in 1969. Then an Army Ranger School slot opened up. “Ranger School is the toughest training school the Army has,” says Chuck. Not very many physicians went to Ranger
School, but his Special Forces commanding officer was confident in his choice.

In April 1970, Chuck completed his three-month Ranger training and was shipped off to Vietnam, where he was assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group in I Corps, adjacent to North Vietnam. He ran a 100-bed hospital for indigenous troops. Wounded Montagnard troops would be scooped up by helicopters and taken to Jacqui’s hospital, treated and then sent to the Vietnamese hospital in Da Nang. Chuck says, “I would go there once a week and try and find these fellows.” Then they would be transported to the SF-run hospital in Da Nang for treatment. “I would also sometimes go over and help out at the 95th Evacuation Hospital.”

Serendipity

“In the 95th Evac ER one day, I met this cute little nurse. I asked her out. She turned me down.” Jacqui giggles in the background. “I asked her again and this time she accepted. The rest is history,” Chuck says, laughing.

Chuck came home in December 1970, they married in Hilo, then he returned to Vietnam for the last three months of his tour. He returned and they moved to Philadelphia, where Chuck spent his early years. Jacqui taught nursing at the 3,000-bed Philadelphia General Hospital for four years, utilizing her training and experience in Vietnam. Chuck went into a four-year residency program in orthopedic surgery in Philadelphia. Chuck worked nights at emergency rooms in the city to “make a couple extra bucks.” When they finished in July 1975, they moved to Maui and Chuck set up his private practice. Chuck also served in the Army Reserve, retiring as a colonel. Since retirement, they have travelled to almost 200 countries. These world travelers will be married 54 years this December.

Chuck and Jacqui don’t think of themselves as heroes. They view their service pragmatically and consider themselves to be fortunate. “So many people served,” says Chuck. “Many did not come back. They paid the ultimate price over there.”

Although our county’s involvement in the Vietnam War ended over 50 years ago, time does not heal all wounds or erase all memories. It takes courage to endure echoes of the past. But you can’t always determine courage at a glance. Take the couple smiling at you from the other side of the pickleball court. They just may be heroes who helped change the world through their bravery, humanity and dedication.