Rev. James DeLoatche is a familiar face at Grace Baptist Church in Peoria, where's he's preached for the last 35 years.
He's also a decorated veteran who served in one of the most notorious conflicts of the Vietnam War. A Virginia native, DeLoatche attended Virginia State College after high school. He was initially in the pre-med program, but a different course emerged after he enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, or ROTC, in his second year.
"I became so interested in ROTC that I decided to go into the senior program. And so instead of pursuing pre-med, I started pursuing a military career. And it had a significant advantage that when the Vietnam era was going on, so I knew that I would be drafted once I finished college. So I said, well, since I have to go in anyway, I might as well go in as a commissioned officer," he said.
DeLoatche found the allure of the uniform appealing - and a healthy monthly stipend didn't hurt, either.
After graduating, DeLoatche went into military service immediately. He went through 16 weeks of training in Oklahoma to become a field artilleryman, then served two years in Panama. Then it was his turn to go to Vietnam.
"You knew you had to serve your time in Vietnam, so I knew that would come up. I guess you can say that I was somewhat, a little bit...not afraid, but leery of being in combat. I knew there were people dying and getting injured. And there's always the possibility that you wouldn't make it back. But you know, it was what I signed up for," he said.
DeLoatche was there during the May 1969 assault that would later become known as the battle of Hamburger Hill, so-called by the soldiers who said they were "ground up like hamburger meat" attempting to take the fortified hill. DeLoatche was wounded on the fifth day of the ten-day assault. His war service earned him the rank of captain, two Purple Hearts, three Bronze Stars, two commendation medals, the United States Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, seven campaign bars, and four overseas bars.
But he was also shot in both knees, and still carries bullet fragments in his neck. He also still suffers from flashbacks and PTSD. His injuries qualified him as a 100% service-connected disabled veteran.
"And some people say, well, you are a hero, for having received all those medals. And I said, no, I'm not a hero. I'm just one who was called upon to serve and did my duty when I was called upon," he said. "But there are some very vicious tales that I can tell you that happened in Vietnam that, I even shudder and makes my heart wrench even now."
DeLoatche still recalls a "very horrendous experience" he had when he and other soldiers were guarding a site where a helicopter was lowering a basket to medivac injured soldiers out of the conflict zone. The helicopter was shot down by the Vietnamese before it could leave.
"The helicopter exploded and fell right in the middle of the wounded and the soldiers that were standing around. And there was a huge number of casualties. I guess 15 to 20, maybe 30 soldiers who were burned alive," he said.
When he returned from the service after eight years, DeLoatche was coming back to an America where the war was extremely unpopular. Some of that anger was taken out on the troops coming home.
"We were warned not to wear our uniform, because we would be heckled, we would had bottles and cans thrown at us and called all kinds of names and whatnot. And that was one of the, I think, unfortunately, memories that we have of that era, yet over time, feelings have mellowed," he said.
DeLoatche said he felt a calling to enter the ministry after he returned. He was accepted into Vanderbilt University, where he attended divinity school. He was a pastor in Kentucky for 15 years before moving to Peoria.
"I love Peoria. I guess (it's) the right size of town. And I wasn't exactly born in a small town, but I have a small town attitude. I like it when you can meet people, when people are friendly and it has everything that you need, yet is not too large that you feel cramped or you feel overcrowded," he said.
DeLoatche's story was recently filmed as part of independent filmmaker Dennis Medley's "Seven Veterans Speak" documentary. That project caught the attention of the Library of Congress, who commissioned Medley to capture DeLoachte's story as part of a history series on veterans.
"It's going to be really something in six generations, that people can look at that and listen to that, and learn a lot of history about what our men went through to keep us here today," said Medley.
