Chick Donohue’s “greatest beer run” to Vietnam
The Daily Caller recounts the story of Chick Donohue’s “greatest beer run” which began as a conversation with a bartender. Chick was discussing the anti-war demonstrations when the bartender quipped that someone should go to Vietnam and give the troops a pat on the back and a beer.
Mr. Donohue took these words seriously and got a job as an oiler on the Drake Victory, a merchant ship taking ammunition from New York to Vietnam. He shipped out with beer and any information he could find regarding his friends stationed overseas.
He arrived in Qui Nhon harbor, where his friend Tom Collins was stationed. “Chickie Donohue, what the hell are you doing here?” Collins said when he saw Donohue get off the boat. Donohue replied, “I came to bring you a beer.”
“[Donohue] came through at a time when society didn’t want us and the protesters were on us … but that’s Chickie,” Collins said. “He’s one of the nicest but craziest guys you ever want to meet.”
Then Donohue hitched a ride on a mail plane to Khe Sanh to make a delivery to Rick Duggan, his friend who was with the 1st Cavalry Division there.
“When he showed up, I felt like I was in ‘The Twilight Zone,’” Duggan said. “All my guys were flabbergasted, asking, ‘You mean he’s here voluntarily?’”
Needless to say, everyone called BS on Chick when he told the story, so he wrote a book about his adventure; “The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A True Story of Friendship Stronger Than War”
Thanks to Mick for the link.
Category: Support the troops
Fuck…ing…AWWWWE…SOME!
Do you mean that story is real?
If a civvie buddy of mine had tried to pull that off when I was in Iraq in 06-07, all he would have been able to deliver to me would have been a six-pack of O’Douls. That would have been…sad…
Or soaked the labels off of bottles of Heineken and O’douls, then swapped them. Not unlike filling Listerine bottles with Cuervo Gold. Or so I’ve been told……….
Scope peppermint mouthwash can be replaced with peppermint schnapps and 4 drops of blue food coloring.
It even passes the smell test…….or so I am told.
Yeah, but I’d rather drink the mouthwash than that stuff.
May or may not have been sent a shipment of Lister-Jack…
I was given bottles of regular Jack by Afghan National Police colonels, the hell they dont drink. Luckily for me, my senior NCO ” disposed” of the contraband for me. What a great American.
A lot of stuff might have come through in the mail. God bless my parents 🙂
A guy who will sail on an oiler 10,000 miles to get you a cold one is the definition of far more than just a friend, that’s a brother in every sense of the word….
The world lacks adventurers today, we have plenty of wannabes and celebrity seekers….but not so many adventurers just looking to do something interesting because they can.
Sounds like a book I will be purchasing.
“get you a cold one”
In Viet of the Nan most CO2 Fire extinguishers were empty.
Especially the carted ones on the helipad.
Dammnest thing.
It’s not a lack of adventurers. It’s the boondoggle with TSA screeners and customs and other stuff….
The creative will always find a way.
That is epic.
So that story about a cache of beer buried somewhere at Khe Sanh was true, after all.
I thought so. It looms large in the legend….
Great story; reminds me of Airborne Beer. Thanks, Jonn!
Didn’t have a civie friend do a beer run, but I may or may not have had some SAS guys we were working with give us a bunch of Fosters when my Commander wasn’t looking.
In the book of Proverbs, there is a verse, “There is a friend who is closer than a brother.”
Seems to describe Mr. Donohue to a “T“.
If I can remember, when I wanted to bring beer or soda on board, while berthed mostly on pier 12 NOB Norfolk, I used to buy the stuff at the Geedunk stand on pier 4 then walk back and hide the package behind the dempsy dumpster on the pier, go aboard then take a garbage can off the ship and load the product into the can and then go aboard. I had a steamer locker in the port aircraft elevator machinery room which was my cleaning space. Amazing how I can remember this stuff but can’t find a pair of socks that I put down 2 minutes ago.