wfn.org | Haunted Former Soldier Is Forgiven

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3412 notes).

Note 3412 by UMNS on Feb. 4, 1997 at 16:19 Eastern (9433 characters).

SEARCH: Vietnam, village, napalm, airstrike, war, Plummer, Ut, Kim
Phuc, 

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

Contact:  Joretta Purdue                   58(10-21-33-71BP){3412}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722            Feb. 4, 1997

Burned girl forgives soldier,
turned pastor, 25 years later

                         by Joretta Purdue
                        a UNNS news feature

     From Vietnam to Virginia, one man's faith journey has brought
him to a new understanding of "the family of God."
     The Rev. John Plummer, minister of Bethany United Methodist
Church, Purcellville, Va., was haunted for many years by an
experience during his service in Vietnam.
     In 1972 he set up the air strike on the village of Trang Bang
after twice being assured there were no civilians in the area. 
     Shortly thereafter, he saw the Pulitzer prize winning photo
of 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked and horribly burned
by napalm from Trang Bang. 
     "Her photograph was indelibly burned into my heart and soul
and was to haunt me for many, many years," said Plummer, who had a
9-year-old son and other children at the time.
     Plummer, in a first person account for the Virginia
Advocate's Jan. 30 edition, commented "My heart was wracked with
guilt in the realization that it was I who was responsible for her
injuries; it was I who had sent the bombs into her village."
     The instantly famous photograph was used again and again to
symbolize the horror of war.
     Plummer said he eventually came to grips with the fact that
he had done everything humanly possible to make sure the area was
clear of civilians, but he experienced new pain each time he saw
the picture and wanted to tell Kim Phuc how sorry he was.
     "But I also knew there was no way I'd ever be able to see her
because even if she was still alive, she was in Vietnam, a country
I would never be able to bring myself to visit again," Plummer
said. 
     Although he told almost no one of the incident, Plummer said
that almost no day passed without his thinking of her.
     The heavy feelings of responsibility took a toll in Plummer's
relationships. Raised a Methodist, he did not so much reject his
faith as ignore God after returning to the United States, he told
United Methodist News Service in a telephone interview. And he
abused alcohol.
     "I turned into myself. I was not interested in anybody," he
said of this period. He and his wife, the mother of his four
children, divorced.
     Several years later, he met Joanne, his second wife, who he
said led him to Christ. He "became a Christian" in 1990
and experienced a call to ministry that took him to Wesley
Seminary and the student pastorate of Bethel United Methodist
Church in Warrenton, Va.
     In June 1996 Plummer happened to see a network news story
that updated the story of Kim Phuc, who was not only alive but
living in Toronto.
     In July, Plummer attended the Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's
Association annual reunion, where he met Linh Duy Vo, a Vietnamese
poet who was friends with Kim Phuc and with Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut,
the photographer. The poet offered to facilitate a meeting, but
Plummer was not quite ready.
     On that fateful day in 1972, Kim Phuc and her family had been
hiding in a pagoda in Trang Bang when the building was hit by a
bomb. Kim Phuc and others ran into the street where they
encountered the napalm being dropped by another airplane. She tore
off her burning clothing as she fled.
     Ut and other journalists poured water from their canteens on
her burns. Kim collapsed moments after the famous photo was taken. 
The photographer rushed her by car about 15 miles to a hospital
where she was not expected to survive the terrible burns caused by
napalm.
     Ut, also Vietnamese, was only 21 years old at the time the
historic photograph was taken.  He had gone to work in an AP
darkroom after his brother, Huynh Thanh My, was killed while
photographing a battle in the Mekong Delta, reported David DeVoss
in Asia Times.
     During the 14 months she was in hospitals, Ut visited Kim
Phuc frequently. In Saigon, she was operated on by San Francisco
plastic surgeon, Mark Gorney, to remove scar tissue that had
hardened into a scaly crust. Her chin had been fused to her chest
by scar tissue, and what was left of her left arm was stuck to her
rib cage.
     Ut set up a bank account for Kim Phuc for money that had been
donated by Vietnamese overseas.
     In 1989 Ut and Kim Phuc met again in Havana, where she had
been sent to study pharmacology by the Vietnamese government after
being used in propaganda. Ut, still an AP photographer, returned
to Los Angeles, where he was based.
     But in 1992 Kim Phuc married Huy Toan, another Vietnamese
student, in Havana. They were given a trip to Moscow for their
honeymoon, and on the return flight a stopover in Newfoundland
offered them a chance for freedom. The couple sought asylum and
now live in Toronto with their two-year-old son. 
     In October 1996 a Canadian documentary team reunited Kim Phuc
and the man she calls Uncle Ut in California. On that visit the
poet Linh met with Kim Phuc and told her about Plummer and learned
that she would be at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington
for the Veterans Day observance in November.
     Plummer heard this news on the Wednesday preceding the Monday
observance.
     "I was flabbergasted, but I also knew I had to see her," he
recalled. That weekend he asked friends from the Vietnam
Helicopter Flight Crew Network, an internet group of helicopter
pilots and crew members who served in Vietnam, to give support.
     About 15 of the men and their families waited with Plummer
all morning, but it was almost 1 p.m. before they saw a Vietnamese
woman surrounded by news media being escorted to the platform,
although her name was not on the program.
     From the introduction that preceded Kim Phuc's speech,
Plummer learned that two of Kim's "brothers" had died in the
attack.
     "Being in a pretty precarious emotional state already, this
just pushed me over the edge. I began to shake all over as
wracking sobs were torn from my body," he said. "I felt like I was
going to scream at the revelation that not only was I responsible
for Kim's burns but that I had also killed her two brothers."
     At that point Plummer's friends surrounded and embraced him
in a silent show of support.
     Plummer confesses that not much of what Kim Phuc said that
day stuck with him except for two thoughts: that if she met the
pilot of the plane she would tell him she forgives him and that
they cannot change the past but she would hope they both could
work together to build the future.
     With the help of Plummer's friends and total strangers, Kim
Phuc eventually got the word that the man she wanted to meet was
behind her as she neared the police vehicle that was to escort her
from the area.
     "She saw my grief, my pain, my sorrow," Plummer wrote. "She
held out her arms to me and embraced me. all I could say was 'I'm
sorry; I'm so sorry; I'm sorry' over and over again. At the same
time she was saying,' "It's all right; it's all right; I forgive;
I forgive.'"
     They only had about two minutes before the news media spotted
Kim Phuc, who was quickly sped away in the police car.
     "I was floating. I was free. I was finally at peace," Plummer
recalled, but there were more blessings in store. 
     A few minutes later he received an invitation to join Kim
Phuc at her hotel. He, his wife and another couple went there and
were able to spend two hours with her. They talked and prayed, and
she even persuaded Plummer to appear with her in the documentary.
     Raised a Buddhist, Kim Phuc became a Christian in 1982 -- the
same year Plummer's career as a helicopter flight instructor came
to an end when he was grounded for medical reasons.
     "She is," Plummer declared, "the closest thing to a saint I
ever met." He told how she got down on her knees and prayed for
him in the hotel lobby that day.
     He also learned that the two boys, 1 and 3, who died in the
attack were part of her extended family, cousins in American
terms. All surviving members of her birth family remain in
Vietnam, but she now considers Plummer her brother and calls to
chat. 
     A visit to Virginia is being planned for April with
opportunities for joint ministry being scheduled.
     "For so many years, I wouldn't tell anyone about this," said
Plummer, but Kim Phuc helped him see that the incredible story of
their meeting and friendship is a ministry opportunity.
     The documentary about her life is scheduled to air on
Canadian television Feb. 11 and may be seen in the United States
later this year.
                              #  #  #   

     EDITORS NOTE: The classic photo of Kim Phuc is owned by
Associated Press/Wide World Photos.  To negotiate one-time use of
that picture in your publication contact Wide World Photos at
(212) 621-1930.  Have your publication's circulation and frequency
handy when you call.  
     UMNS is negotiating to distribute a recent photo of Kim Phuc
with the Rev. John Plummer.  Watch the UMNS sections of Ecunet or
United Methodist Communication's homepage for notice of that
picture's availability.

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