Greg Bachnik

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Joined the Association:  7/27/2000

Note:

Greg lives in Winter Springs, Florida, working in the wholesale jewelry business.  Greg serves on the LZ Russell Association's Board of Directors as our Chaplain and our Reunion Director.  Miracle worker, healer and genuine good friend, Greg is the most cheerful guy in the entire association and constantly helps our members in time of spiritual need, regardless of their religious affiliation, or spiritual point of view...and it isn't just talk.  He bends over backward to help resolve negative situations and bring everyone back in to the Light.  "Saint Gregory" would be a appropriate title for this man, but he would scoff at it.  Still, his unofficial LZ nickname is "The Saint".

My Story

Where was God that night?

 Each of us has a different story to tell of that night in 1969, Feb 25.  Back in the world that same night my wife was celebrating her 21st birthday having a great time.  In my memories that night happened only to me.  It is staggering to think hundreds of people own a piece of it as well.  To some that night defined their lives.  In a way it defined mine and I recount it frequently because it is part of my testimony, the road or the experiences, the Lord Jesus Christ used to bring me to the knowledge of His existence and His unfathomable love for me.  

 The recollections of friends and comrades on LZ Russell have faded over the years, but seeing the photographs they are returning, It's been 31 years.  When we were in Viet Nam, World War 2 was only 24 years old and Korea only 16.  It's been a long time!  If you remember me at all you may remember I was an atheist.  I was outspoken.  I had been raised Catholic, attended parochial schools, been an altar boy, in the choir, even felt a call on my life when I was in the 6th or 7th grade.  But then I saw hypocrisy.  I saw priests who were ungodly, I saw nuns who were mean.  No one taught me that that was no big deal, we all have sinned and fall short of God's glory.  I didn't know that just because people acted as if He didn't exist didn't change the fact that He does.  I was a cocky kid who knew everything, who had decided.  I had settled the issue inside myself, there was no god, only the weak even needed one and that's why they invented him.  They needed a crutch.  I am amazed now at what I believed, Yuk! 

 The truth is I really believed that.  On that night I was on duty with the executive officer as the person who gave the dope to the guns for the fire missions, the firing coordinates, the ordinance, the number of rounds.  I forgot what I was called but that's where I was. On the pinnacle of the Hill across the actual LZ from Fire Direction Control.  I remember we were shooting a complicated, many round fire mission towards Fox battery which was being attacked by ground troops.  I think that mission started around midnight and we had been into it several hours, it may have been 3 am when we received incoming mortar rounds.  I believe that was the first thing we experienced.   

Then I remember hearing North Vietnamese in my headset, yuk, what a horrible feeling.  I remember being terrified!  Then I believe it was Miranda who came stumbling into our hooch with a stomach wound, I don't remember if it was a bullet or shrapnel but he was wounded and ran in for cover.  A satchel charge then came over the wall and landed in front of our door.  We slammed into the far wall to get as far away as we could and it exploded.  It didn't blow down the hooch because it was outside.  I had a helmet and my M-16 and no ammo, somehow I got a magazine from one of the Indians who was assigned to the searchlight that was on top of the hill and who had taken refuge with us in our bunker.  At some point the terror sort of resigned itself in me, at first I was frozen but then I thought I better do something. 

I crawled up the little sand bag lined trench by our bunker and next to the LZ.  It was built so the XO could duck down and get cover from helicopter prop wash during fire missions.  I peeked over the edge and saw NVA, at least 3, down the hill, around guns 4,5,&6.  There was a very loud NVA in gun 5's parapet giving orders, screaming and hollering.  I remember thinking how bold he was, I would have thought they would have been more stealthy. 

So I began to take aim at this guy and as I did an NVA came into view right below my position right in front of me, He was out of my view until then.  He had a big sack, like a news paper boy would carry, he had an AK-47 but it was slung on his back, and he was taking Chi-coms (grenades) out of that sack and throwing them.  He was moving slowly, deliberately.  I remember thinking automatic or single, I chose single shot.  Aiming point? Head?  heart? I chose belly thinking I wouldn't miss and I would just keep shooting.  I waited until he turned his head the other way. He was looking back down the hill and I pulled the trigger...CLICK.   

What a disappointing sound!  I backed up into the trench and levered out the round and reloaded another.  I went through the whole process again, this time quite a bit quicker as he was getting closer.  I pulled the trigger...CLICK.  Yuk!  I repeated the ejection process and acquired this guy the 3rd time and this time too it went CLICK.  I think I just left the M-16 there and backed up under the cover of the trench back down to the XO's hooch.   

At this time they were shooting towards the water buffalo.  I'm not sure how I got the XO's 45, I think I somehow communicated that if you don't give me that thing this NVA will very shortly come over that hill and kill us all.  He gave it to me.  I didn't know how many rounds I had.   

This time I went below the trench around the hill to ambush this NVA, sure enough he was still coming and he didn't see me.  Again I waited until he turned away and I fired, but I was aiming at his head.  I missed.  He turned towards me but still wasn't looking where I was.  I waited until he looked away and fired again and missed again, he turned towards me and I fired the 3rd time and missed again but this time he saw me, he ducked and moved quickly out of sight.  I went back to the XO, gave him his 45 back.   

At this point a Chicom came over the wall, it went off just above my head, pretty close, maybe a yard away.  I remember sort of laughing to myself that I may be going to die but there would be no fox hole conversion from me.  Today as I write this I am amazed how merciful God was.  I know he saved my life that night, I didn't deserve it, I didn't even acknowledge it for years.   

I don't really remember much of what happened after that, Lt. Bazel had an M-60 machine gun and he was unloading it towards the water buffalo, I think he told me to get ammo which was in front of our bunker.  I don't remember if I actually got it or what, but when another grenade came over the top I tried to dive back in the bunker door.  It exploded and sprayed my backside with shrapnel.   

I landed on the floor in the hooch and I remember listening to the battle.  We knew the sounds of M-16's and M-60's and they sounded like hope.  The AK-47's were terrifying and the battle was then, to me, one of warring noises.  I don't remember how long, or at what point in time I was wounded.  I remember Doc Mullins coming by and cut the back of my pants to see my wounds.   I remember it being foggy and hearing helicopters that couldn't land.  But finally a 53 came in.  I remember seeing the bodies of Marines on the top of the hill as I was carried to the helicopter.  

 As it turned out I wasn't seriously wounded, although I still have some metal in my backside. There were so many wounded that I was kept back to make room for more critical evacs to Japan and I just got better before they could send me home, Yuk! I just stayed in Quang Tri.  The doctor told me they were trying some new antibiotics on me and they worked.  I think I was in the rear 4 to 6 weeks.  When I got back to Russell I had Gun 2.  I rotated home July 20 something, When the first astronauts were walking on the moon, I was packing my gear in the rear.  I spent the remainder of my 2 year hitch at Camp LeJeune, NC, getting discharged right before Christmas 1969.  

 I graduated from Jacksonville University with a History major and pretty good grades.  I thought of going to law school, so I became a claims adjuster with an insurance company.  I didn't like it much, in fact I was pretty miserable.  I had a chip on my shoulder.  I really didn't relate well to people, was introverted and drank a lot.  While I was in Viet Nam my mother in law had experienced God and when I got back home they were going to church and bragging about how great God was.  I liked my in laws so I couldn't lambaste them like I did believers in general. 

 Well, as it happened, I interviewed for a selling job for which I was totally unqualified… it was with Speidel, the watch band company.  My mother in law said she was praying for me and if I got the job I had to promise I would go to church with her.  I did and I did, it was an experience.  It was a Pentecostal church and the people sang and clapped their hands shouted and just generally enjoyed themselves.  I thought to myself these people are crazy but at least they act as though they believe.  

 I was not a good salesman.  I was self conscious.  I was mostly worried how the other salesmen were doing so I didn't look bad.  I just barely got by.  We were just getting by financially and I was getting deeper in debt with cars and boats and stuff.  One day I called on a customer in Leesburg, Fl.  I didn't like him much.  He chased women and was arrogant and cocky, but when I went in the store this time he was totally different.  He had had a life changing experience with Jesus Christ and had to tell me all about it.   

If he wasn't a customer I remember thinking I'd like to smack him, but I had to listen.  He went on and on how Jesus was real, that He was alive that he had been introduced to him by some guy and that his life had been revolutionized, well just then that guy walked in.  So now he started as well.  They told stories how Jesus had actually become real to them, that Jesus had healed them of alcoholism and drug use.  That their marriages had both been horrible but now Jesus had filled them with peace and joy and a renewed passion for their own wives.  How their businesses had begun to prosper as they gave Jesus Lordship over their money.  They went on and on constantly badgering me to accept Him right then.  Finally Billy, the first one, said "Greg, I can see you're not ready yet, but just do this for me, as you drive away ask Jesus if He's real to prove it to you."  I left and as I drove away I did just that, I prayed in a sort of I dare you attitude "Jesus if you're real prove it to me." 

 He Did.  It was a couple of weeks later in 1977.  My best friend's dad had lung cancer and my Mom called and told me he was dying and the family had been summoned.  If I wanted to see him alive again I had to go now.  What does an atheist have to say to a dying person?  Not much!  I was afraid, what would or could I say?  I had to drive south down I-95 to Ft. Lauderdale where they lived.   

As I passed Vero Beach Jesus Christ sat in the front seat of my car.  Not that I could see him with my eyes, but He was there just as profoundly.  He said "Greg, if you will believe in Me.  That I am the Messiah, the Son of God, accept me as your savior I will take care of what you're facing, and I will take care of your marriage, your work, and your self image."  That about covered it for me.  Those were the issues of my life.  Those were the 4 things that I was most concerned with.   

Then just as real and just as profound the devil sat in that front seat and he said "You're not going to buy that crap are you?" I had a friend who was a professor, he was older than I and he was an educated atheist.  He was my hero. The person I emulated.  The devil said "What will Hugh think?"  It was a powerful argument I thought to myself, Hugh would laugh at me.   

Then Jesus came back and ever so gently, sweetly even, made His proposal a second time. "I will take care of this meeting with your dying friend that you dread.  I will heal your marriage.  I will help your work and I will heal your self image."   

“What a deal,” I remember thinking.  If I went with the devil I got just what I had… nothing!  I was empty and afraid, alcohol and drugs was all I had to look forward to, yuk.  So I did it.  Right then I made a conscious decision to believe.  I chose to believe Jesus was the Christ.  I accepted Him as my savior.  I asked Him to save me. Wow!  It was a profound experience.  I know exactly what being Born Again means.  That's what it felt like.  I felt new.  I felt peace. I had a river of tears coming down my face, I didn't care.  God was inside me.  I knew that.  The creator of the heavens and the earth, of me, I had reconciled with. 

 I knocked at the door of my dieing friend's dad's house.  I expected the family would have gathered and we would go to the hospital then to critical care and Jim would have tubes coming out everywhere.  That he would be semi-comatose.  I would pat him on the hand.  He would smile and that would be it.   

NOT!   

Jim himself answered the door in his bathrobe.  He was beyond treatment, on pain killers and home.  He was feeling pretty good.  He had already established a relationship with Jesus, he was ready to go.  He was at peace.  The only other family there yet was Mike, my best friend and Jim's wife Rosemary.  Those who I'd grown up with.  We reminisced about our lives together, we laughed until our stomachs hurt.  We told stuff on ourselves that we'd never told.  We had a ball.  The only regret I had was I felt an urge to pray for Jim.  I know now that was the Holy Spirit urging me to do what every believer can do, heal the sick.  But I didn't.  After I had left Jesus whispered inside me, "how'd I do?"  I admitted that it was exceedingly abundantly more than I could have asked for or expected.  That began our relationship. 

 That was around Easter of 1977.  I joined a church and began to learn about God and I became a good husband and a good salesman.  The last year I was with Speidel I was one of their top salesmen and they offered me several promotions and a management position.  I thought I'd tell the rest of my life story by the miracles I've experienced.  Please click the Bible to go to my Chapel Section to read about them.

Greg