"The responsibility of the chaplain was to get out and serve the people wherever they were. When they were scattered around... Sunday was whenever the chaplain managed to get there." (Video Interview, 17:15)

Alston Shepherd Kirk

Alston Kirk [2006] War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch: Navy Unit: 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment and 3rd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Marine Division; Destroyer Squadron 6; Chaplain Resource Board Service Location: Naval Station, Washington, DC; Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland; Quantico, and Norfolk, Virginia; Newport Rhode Island; Atlantic; Newfoundland, Canada; Iceland; Vietnam Rank: Captain Place of Birth: AR

Five of Alston Kirk's cousins served in the Navy, and he took inspiration from them one step higher: He wanted to be a Navy chaplain. He served for 33 years, and much of his interview deals with his tour of duty in Vietnam, attached to the 3rd Marine Division. The first day he reported to his unit, there was incoming mortar fire, a preview of what was to come for him. Kirk spent much of his time in the field with the men, surviving several deadly ambushes. He preferred getting around on helicopters, a safer mode of transportation in Vietnam than ground vehicles. Kirk saw up close what a "tremendous price" war extracts, at one point giving last rites to 25 young men whose bodies were recovered from a costly firefight in the jungle.