Chaplain Wesley Geary used this field alter kit in Vietnam. Geary recalled, “We could sit on the hood of a jeep and create a worship center. We made alters by stacking ration boxes on top of each other or we used any table that was available.”

During the Vietnam War, chaplains were a vital resource to soldiers in combat units. They provided the spiritual counsel they needed, and sometimes just an available ear for letting go of tensions that plagued them. While chaplains often stayed in base camps, making sure that soldiers knew that they were available, they went into the field as well.

African American Army chaplain Wesley Geary, who was stationed around Lai Khe with the 1st Infantry Division, made it practice to go out with a different company every chance he could. He commented that he learned to survive from his time in the field with the men, but he also established great rapport with them as well. Once he had established that rapport, all of the men, black and white, respected his counsel. Often accompanying the medic, Geary performed last rites in the field and held the hands of wounded soldiers being rushed to the hospital. It was relationships like these that governed how American personnel interacted with each other in Vietnam. Each interaction provided a means of further self-identification in a land that was not their own.