Earl Challans when he had visited his family before being shipped overseas to Vietnam.
Penny Challans of High Ridge honored her husband of more than 50 years, the late Earl Challans, by telling his story.
Earl Challans was born 1945 in Decatur, Ill. He volunteered for the draft in 1966 and asked to be sent to Vietnam. He was honorably discharged in 1968, with the rank of E-5. His Army assignment was a Forward Observer (FO).
He arrived in Vietnam shortly before the Tet offensive. At the time, the average lifespan of an FO in Vietnam was two weeks. Earl served in role for 10 1/2 months.
His fellow infantrymen, however, didn’t like him much because he was able to win all of their money at poker.
When he started playing against the cook staff, though, and beating them as well, he won back his buddies’ friendship. He left Vietnam a rich man.
His most difficult memory involved his track driver and a particular search-and-destroy mission.
Standard Army policy said that soldiers with two weeks or less time left in Vietnam were not to go out on these missions. The commanding officer ordered a young man, 19, who had a wife and a son he’d never seen, to be the driver of the track that Earl manned. This young driver had less than two weeks of duty left in Vietnam. Earl tried to get his driver relieved of the duty to no avail.
On the way back from the mission, the commanding officer ordered the young man to return by the same route they’d come, which also was against Army policy. The Viet Cong would follow the path of a departing unit and place IEDs along the route for the unit’s return in order to injure or kill Americans.
Earl tried to convince his driver to disobey the captain’s orders to return by the same route, but the driver worried that he could be court-martialed. In fact, the captain walked up to the track and demanded that his orders be followed.
When the driver began to move his track, he hit an IED. The captain did not survive. Earl was sitting on the cupola outside the track, which saved his life. He was thrown 30 feet into the air, landing on his back several yards from the track.
He raced back to the track and pulled the driver out of the vehicle. The young man died in Earl’s arms. Earl suffered a serious back injury but continued to help others in the convoy and helped several of them to safety.
He was awarded the Bronze Star with an oak leaf cluster for valor, the Vietnam Bronze star with an oak leaf cluster, the National Service Medal and a Purple Heart for his injuries.
In 2018, Earl participated in an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. It was a highlight of his service. One of the locations they visited was Arlington Cemetery.
Because space is becoming limited, service members must have a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart at minimum to be buried there. Of the 67 people in that Honor Flight group, Earl was the only one who qualified.
Earl was proud of his country and proud of his duty. On all of his search-and-destroy missions, he was always in the middle of the jungle, even when they sprayed Agent Orange.
For that, he paid dearly. He died on July 29, 2020, and was buried at Jefferson Barracks on Aug. 7. He was blessed to have many good friends and strong family ties. He was a man of great faith. He lived a good life. We miss him.
