Brown County veteran turns his daily Vietnam War notes into a book

CHU LAI, Vietnam – Fifty-three years ago, Gary Saunders’ life changed forever when he boarded a plane that took him into the hell of war.

“These men never had visitors. They just lay side by side in beds and literally watched other men die,” Saunders said, describing the infirmary at the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital where he served during the Vietnam War.

As an X-ray technician, Saunders was on the front lines treating combatants.

“That’s what bothered me most: working with the seriously injured,” Saunders said.

Before his deployment, he had seen the film MASH three times in the cinema. The film shows a MASH unit in action during the Korean War.

Saunders said he loved how the film showed the cooperation in the operating room and the characters’ reactions and handling of each medical situation. He was not disillusioned by the film and knew that despite Hollywood’s best attempts to appear realistic, the reality of war would be a very different experience.

He worked non-stop, and at times the distinct roar of arriving helicopters could be heard, bringing the next round of injured soldiers to the MASH unit.

“I’ve worked a lot in surgery because most people don’t know that X-ray technicians film during surgery to find metal. Did you find the metal or not? When you put in pins and plates, is the pin in the right place? That happens every day,” he said.

A soldier named Steve still stands by his side even after all these years.

“He was missing large parts of his body… it was a bad, bad, bad trauma,” Saunders recalled. “He would never have survived, I don’t think he would have even come home… it would have been a horrible life.”

There were quieter times when he visited the local Vietnamese orphanage. There were also some rest days. But the memory of the war was always present.

Saunders enjoyed working late or night shifts as a security guard. The work was often less chaotic and gave him a break from the hectic world of a war zone emergency room.

The night of March 27, 1971, was like any other night. Saunders had just finished a long day of X-ray work at the 27th Surgical Hospital and was assigned to man one of the entrance gates, checking incoming vehicles, and performing other security duties.

Soon it was the next morning and at 3am he received a call from one of his superiors telling him he had to go for an X-ray immediately. Saunders replied that he could not leave his post, to which the officer told him he would come down to relieve him.

Unaware that while he was standing guard at Chu Lai on a relatively quiet night, the Viet Cong had attacked Fire Base Mary Ann, Saunders’s rather mundane guard duty suddenly turned into chaos.

“We suddenly had 35 seriously injured people and it was terrible,” said Saunders.

He said it was a scene straight out of MASH, showing the emergency room overflowing with bodies on every available stretcher.

“When I came in, the emergency room was full,” he said. “The hallways were full, there were people in the X-ray department.”

This is just a glimpse into his daily routine while deployed in Vietnam, which he scribbled in a small notebook that fits in the palm of his hand. In his free time, he took these daily notes and transcribed them into a journal with deeper thoughts and reflections on the events.

“And 50 years later, during COVID, I found everything,” Saunders said. “And that’s when I started writing. I thought I was doing it for my children and grandchildren.”

His revised diary became a 109-page book entitled “Hold Your Breath: An X-ray Technician’s Vietnam MASH Experience.”

“I’m getting a phenomenal response,” Saunders said. “I’ve had dinner with some people who bought the book and just wanted to talk. One of them was a doctor who had been in Vietnam. And he said the book opened his eyes.”

After returning from the war, Saunders continued to work in the field of X-rays for 48 years. He says his compassion for the young men never faded during the war and stayed with him for nearly five more decades.

“I can tell you that caring for patients was my number one goal, and even as a manager, doing what was best for the patient was my number one goal. And I’ve had a wonderful career,” he said.

If you would like to get a copy of Saunders’ book, you can follow this link to the Amazon website.

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