Jim Rentz Questioned God’s Plan as His Tour of Duty in Vietnam Drew to a Close, but the Army Chaplain Found Renewed Purpose When He Met a Little Girl in a Vietnamese Orphanage
Note: This is part three of a special series for The Woodruff Times, featuring recollections and stories as told by Chaplain Jim Rentz, Captain, US Army retired, and presents his story, unedited, and in his own words. These stories feature difficult subject matter and contain depictions of death and violence. Reader discretion is advised.
By: Garrett Mitchell, Staff Writer
garrett@thewoodrufftimes.com
Peace on Earth and goodwill to Vietnam…
Jim Rentz experienced precious few respites from pervasive carnage as the Vietnam War drew endlessly onward in the waning months of 1968.
Physically weary, mentally battered, and shouldering his burning spiritual crisis, the young Army chaplain found solace in one thing while traveling through Binh Dinh Province with the 84th Engineering Battalion, which he was assigned to.
Through a hellscape pockmarked by the horrible scars of war, the people of South Vietnam became a bright spot for Jim. He enjoyed interacting with them, talking to them, and thanks to his attachment to the 84th, he and his men were able to help them, too.
The children, especially, brought him joy amid unimaginable sorrow.
“My battalion, we helped some orphanages, especially in the village of Kim Chau in the Bin Dinh Province, and we would go out to that orphanage and give them supplies and materials, stuff like that,” Chaplain Rentz explained. “Just to see those little orphans, you think about their parents and how they have to live like that; it’s just horrible to see.”
The orphanage in Kim Chau, a small South Vietnamese hamlet, was one of many. A constant reminder of the cost that war incurs. Though not much cheer could be found amid the ruins of a shattered country, Christmas of 1968 would see a small bit of humanity come to the children who lived there.
“One thing I do feel good about, being chaplain of an engineering battalion, it allowed us to help the orphans,” said Jim with a warm smile. “I remember Christmas of 1968, there were about five or six orphanages in the area, and each company in our battalion had an orphanage. Our soldiers had written home and told their families we were going to give presents to the kids, and there were thousands of gifts that came. It was like good was coming across the oceans.”
Bringing Christmas to the children of Bin Dinh Province, sadly, came with its own senseless perils even during what should have been a time of peace and goodwill.
Rentz explained, “As Christmas Day approached, we were concerned that the Viet Cong would try to undermine the event. But even they stood down. I have pictures of those kids lined up getting presents and soldiers with tears running down their faces. We brought food and medical care. That I feel good about. As an engineering battalion, we were able to build roads and bridges, so I think we left the country better in that way.”
Con gai cua Tuyen Uy (The chaplain’s daughter) …
It was there at the Kim Chau orphanage that Chaplain Rentz met a four-year-old little girl named Kim. They bonded immediately, and Jim grew increasingly attached to her with each visit to the village.
One month away from returning home at the end of his tour, Rentz came to a realization: Kim would come home with him. Whatever it took, there was no way she would not be with him when he boarded a plane back to the United States.
She was his light at the end of that seemingly endless dark tunnel he had navigated for the previous 11 months and a new purpose for a man broken by the journey
“That is where I adopted my daughter,” he said. “She is 62 now and was four years old when I adopted her. She was just one of many. To see the children and all they were going through, that they would have to live like that, it was unbearably hard.”
Going home…
Jim Rentz stayed in Vietnam 12 days longer than he had to. Just long enough for visa paperwork to clear.
Exactly one year to the day that he landed at Bien Hoa Air Base, Jim once again boarded a plane. This time it was leaving Vietnam behind. Beside him was Kim. The flashbulb memories of slain soldiers were still burned into his consciousness, but the bright-eyed little girl in the seat next to him was a reminder of the preciousness of a life that he was able to save.
“When I think of Kim, who I love with all of my heart, mind, and soul, I think what are the odds that a small water tower town like Woodruff boy who went to Furman (University) not knowing he would have to join the ROTC, not evening knowing about a war going on, would end up on active duty in Vietnam and find this one particular little girl and form a bond with her,” beamed Rentz.
He added, “It had to be a God thing. I know it’s a God thing. She grew up into a wonderful woman, and we love each other dearly.”
The fall of Saigon…
Chaplain Rentz watched on television six years later as Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. Kim, now 11 years old, was by his side. The images on his screen of the North Vietnamese Army overrunning and taking control of South Vietnam’s beating heart had reignited the festering despair and anger that had never fully left Jim in the years following his return home.
To him, and many others, those newsreels drove home what a waste the war had been. Incomprehensible losses on both sides in a vain attempt at winning an unwinnable conflict. The toll was staggering. In total, 58,220 U.S. service members were killed or missing. In Vietnam, the number of military and civilian losses totaled in the millions.
Many other Vietnam veterans, like Jim, live with complex late onset Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and chronic physical ailments such as lung damage from Agent Orange exposure. Countless lives shattered, families obliterated, so many people lost, and with absolutely nothing to show for it but death and destruction that still manifests to this day.
For Chaplain Rentz, that is a hard truth to accept.
“We shouldn’t have been there,” Jim said with obvious bitterness. “We shouldn’t have been there. I think about all the heartache that just did not have to happen. When our leaders began to say that they had made a mistake and were questioning whether we should have been there to start with, I got so mad I couldn’t stand it. I thought about everything I had seen, all the death notifications, the military funerals, all the guys in the hospital who were wounded, people like my daughter, people like the Vietnamese, and all they had been through. All because some leaders made some damn mistakes. There are no words to describe it. None.”
The ultimate purpose…
At 85 years old, Jim Rentz still remembers it all as if it happened yesterday. The pain, he says, never fully goes away. A part of himself stayed in Vietnam. Even after returning home with his daughter, the Vietnamese people were never far from his heart and mind.
Rentz had wanted to be a foreign missionary. With no chance of returning to the people who he felt needed him most, he first sought to help those who had managed to escape the war-torn country in search of a better life.
“I wanted to do something, and since it was impossible to go back as a foreign missionary then, I wanted to help the Vietnamese, and helping Kim was one way,” he stated. “Later, after I came home and Saigon fell, this lady who went to my chapel contacted me. She had been flown out of Vietnam and was at Camp Pendleton in California. She wanted to know if my wife and I would sponsor them, and we did. We sponsored them, and they lived with us for two years.”
That lady’s name was Van Do. She had worked as Chaplain Rentz’s typist during his tour of duty. She, along with her daughter and another friend, found refuge in the United States with their chaplain. It is another friendship that Jim cherishes deeply.
“The battalion hired her to be my typist for letters I sent to the loved ones of the soldiers when they first arrived,” he explained. “I wanted to let those loved ones know that just as I would be ministering to their soldier, I was their chaplain too, and encouraged them to write me with any concern they might have about their soldier. That role made Van very special. We made a good team. It was yet another God thing that we were able to sponsor her, her daughter, and a friend who escaped with her.”
Time has healed some of the wounds, but not all. Looking back, Rentz realizes that his presence did make a difference in the lives of those he met.
“I was able to get deep quickly into the souls of my soldiers,” added Jim. “I like to think I made a difference. I know I did.”
And now, Chaplain Rentz has authored a book that gives a full, candid look into the life of an Army chaplain who went through hell and back and survived physically and spiritually.
It is titled ‘Tuyen Uy: The Vietnam War Experience Through the Eyes of an American Army Chaplain’. Tuyen Uy translates to ‘Chaplain’ in Vietnamese.
Jim hopes for his book to be released this fall.
Rentz embodies the quote from George Santayana that those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it. Opening up his story to others, he hopes, will make people understand the price of war and bring them closer to God’s love and grace.
“I hope (it helps people),” said Jim. “It’s why I wrote my book. I wanted to let the world know. It seems to me like there is an element here in our country that doesn’t get it or doesn’t care. We used to say in Vietnam that if the powers that be had to be the first ones to go into battle, or their sons were the first ones, maybe we wouldn’t be here.”
Finding peace…
While admittedly difficult, talking about what he saw and experienced has helped Chaplain Rentz come to terms with the haunting ghosts of Vietnam.
“Writing my book was like a double-edged sword,” he admitted. “It helped stir stuff back up, but it also helped me start healing. I have dedicated my life trying to help people face the fierceness of evil and to embrace Jesus Christ. I think that’s our answer. It’s love. Not bullets, not guns, but God’s love. So, I can only hope that not just the United States, but the whole world, will realize that. I’ve been in the trenches so long that sometimes I wonder how much progress we’ve made, but I’m going to fight until the day I die for peace.”
As for Chaplain Jim Rentz on his faith, he added…
“God and I are at peace with one another now.”
