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Page 4, Support Report, June 2007
Page 4, Support Report, June 2007
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Chet Chase’s passing
A couple of days after reading of Tony Trent’s passing; I received a call from Chet Chase’s
daughter informing me that Chet had died 15 minutes earlier. I had just been up to visit him on
the 11th. He was transferred from a rehab facility to his home where he received hospice care.
His daughter, a nurse, works at the local hospital. She applied for a leave of absence and was by
his bedside 12 hours a day. Other members of the family covered the rest of the hours.
She and I sat by his bedside for over two hours. He was awake off and on and even ate a
Popsicle. But he didn’t respond to anything we said. On my previous visit at the rehab facility I
was with him most of the morning. His daughter and I tried to connect with him by uttering different
phrases that we thought might trigger a response but nothing worked. He kept drifting off to
sleep. He was lying on his side facing me when all of a sudden he awoke, looked at me and said,
“HI Rich.” That was it and he went back to sleep; he never said another word. I guess for
whatever time I have left I’m going to wonder what it was that triggered that. At least I know that he
did know me.
No one was blessed with a better friend than my buddy Chet. We just seemed to hit it off from the
moment we met. We had so many things in common; we loved baseball and the Red Sox, Mario
Lanza and, if any of you recall, Morrison’s restaurant. Chet had Patty, his one and only. They
both grew up and went through the same school system. He received a letter almost every day
and he responded in turn. I guess we were unusual in that neither of us drank or went out
carousing. Our weekend passes consisted of going to Morrison’s for breakfast and or lunch and
then a movie. We had real treat one time when the theatre was showing a double feature, both
Mario Lanza movies!
I tended to get homesick once in a while or just felt down in the dumps. What a blessing to have
Chet around. He could make a guy, waiting to head to gallows, break up and laugh. He was a
prankster, a joker and a comedian. I don’t believe I ever saw him in a negative mood…he was my
savior. I made it through Ft. Benning because of him. He got me into the motor pool and helped
me out in so many instances as I had never driven, never had a license until I took my test at
Benning. He had a lot of patience showing me how to back a jeep with a trailer into a stall; to bad
we didn’t have videos then!
We both volunteered to go to Korea and eventually got our orders. We headed home for a short
leave, he to York, ME. and me to Belmont, MA. We were both supposed to report to Ft. Lewis on
the same day but Chet was late and I had shipped out ahead of him. As a result, I ended up with
the 187ARCT and Chet with the 40th Division. The 187 was headed back to Japan and I begged
my company commander to let me transfer to Chet’s outfit but nothing doing. I ended up in the
regimental MP Co. My company CO got tired of me constantly asking for a transfer to Korea. After
months of trying he finally decided to get rid of me. I had a letter from Chet’s CO vouching for me
but to no avail; I ended up with the 3rd infantry division.
What made Chet Chet? Well if you knew him you knew it wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to have
missed his flight to Ft. Lewis. You knew, when we went out one night on a long night march with
full packs that it wasn’t out of the ordinary for Chet to come riding up the road in a jeep. How did
he manage that detail? Just as he did everything else.
My outfit, Fox Co. 7th infantry regiment was in a blocking position about 2000 yards form the
MLR. We pulled all of the patrols. One day, Chet pulls into the company area in a jeep with a
general’s flag draped over. He had somehow managed to get a job as a driver for a two star
general. At the time, we were in central Korea above the 38th parallel. He somehow got me a
pass and we drove to Seoul and he took me on a tour. What a beat up place that was back then,
every building had pock marks from shelling that took place. We went to a few places, when we
left the jeep we had to chain the steering wheel. They’d steal anything not nailed down. He got me
back to my outfit and that’s the last time I saw Chet until my discharge. Remember how I stated
that it was not out of the ordinary when Chet did all of these things? Well, one final thing, I came
home on the cattle boat and as you might expect, Chet flew home!
Shortly after our discharge in December 1953, Chet and Patty were going to be married and he
asked me to be his best man. I was a Catholic and Chet was Protestant. I don’t know of any
person who follows the tenets of his religion to the letter and not being able to go into a religious
building that wasn’t Catholic let alone participate in a ceremony didn’t make sense to me. There
was no debate in my mind, I was his best man! We always maintained a strong relationship, he
attended both of my children’s weddings and my wife and I attended his three children’s weddings.
Over the years, we vacationed every summer in York and visited Chet and Patti. Chet began to
have health problems, to many to go into detail. About five or six years ago Patty passed on and
Chet was left alone. I would go up for an overnight and we’d go out for dinner and depending on
the season watch a Patriots, Bruins, Red Sox or Celtics game. Next morning we’d go for breakfast
and then I’d head for home. Each year Chet slipped a bit more with new problems popping up.
But I can attest to the fact that no one ever heard him say,” Why me.” He was just such an
incredibly upbeat person.
I lost my best friend and I can tell you quite honestly that there’s an empty spot in my heart that
feels like it’s the size of the Grand Canyon. I don’t know how many of you recall the song MY
BUDDY, it must have been written by someone who lost a buddy in some war. You can call it up
on Itunes, there are many versions. I can only give you the first couple of lines, that’s all I can
make it through.
Days are long since you went away and I think about you all of the day, my buddy, my buddy, you’
re buddy misses you.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get through the whole song, I don’t have Chet to cheer me up
anymore.
Richard Busa
A couple of days after reading of Tony Trent’s passing; I received a call from Chet Chase’s
daughter informing me that Chet had died 15 minutes earlier. I had just been up to visit him on
the 11th. He was transferred from a rehab facility to his home where he received hospice care.
His daughter, a nurse, works at the local hospital. She applied for a leave of absence and was by
his bedside 12 hours a day. Other members of the family covered the rest of the hours.
She and I sat by his bedside for over two hours. He was awake off and on and even ate a
Popsicle. But he didn’t respond to anything we said. On my previous visit at the rehab facility I
was with him most of the morning. His daughter and I tried to connect with him by uttering different
phrases that we thought might trigger a response but nothing worked. He kept drifting off to
sleep. He was lying on his side facing me when all of a sudden he awoke, looked at me and said,
“HI Rich.” That was it and he went back to sleep; he never said another word. I guess for
whatever time I have left I’m going to wonder what it was that triggered that. At least I know that he
did know me.
No one was blessed with a better friend than my buddy Chet. We just seemed to hit it off from the
moment we met. We had so many things in common; we loved baseball and the Red Sox, Mario
Lanza and, if any of you recall, Morrison’s restaurant. Chet had Patty, his one and only. They
both grew up and went through the same school system. He received a letter almost every day
and he responded in turn. I guess we were unusual in that neither of us drank or went out
carousing. Our weekend passes consisted of going to Morrison’s for breakfast and or lunch and
then a movie. We had real treat one time when the theatre was showing a double feature, both
Mario Lanza movies!
I tended to get homesick once in a while or just felt down in the dumps. What a blessing to have
Chet around. He could make a guy, waiting to head to gallows, break up and laugh. He was a
prankster, a joker and a comedian. I don’t believe I ever saw him in a negative mood…he was my
savior. I made it through Ft. Benning because of him. He got me into the motor pool and helped
me out in so many instances as I had never driven, never had a license until I took my test at
Benning. He had a lot of patience showing me how to back a jeep with a trailer into a stall; to bad
we didn’t have videos then!
We both volunteered to go to Korea and eventually got our orders. We headed home for a short
leave, he to York, ME. and me to Belmont, MA. We were both supposed to report to Ft. Lewis on
the same day but Chet was late and I had shipped out ahead of him. As a result, I ended up with
the 187ARCT and Chet with the 40th Division. The 187 was headed back to Japan and I begged
my company commander to let me transfer to Chet’s outfit but nothing doing. I ended up in the
regimental MP Co. My company CO got tired of me constantly asking for a transfer to Korea. After
months of trying he finally decided to get rid of me. I had a letter from Chet’s CO vouching for me
but to no avail; I ended up with the 3rd infantry division.
What made Chet Chet? Well if you knew him you knew it wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to have
missed his flight to Ft. Lewis. You knew, when we went out one night on a long night march with
full packs that it wasn’t out of the ordinary for Chet to come riding up the road in a jeep. How did
he manage that detail? Just as he did everything else.
My outfit, Fox Co. 7th infantry regiment was in a blocking position about 2000 yards form the
MLR. We pulled all of the patrols. One day, Chet pulls into the company area in a jeep with a
general’s flag draped over. He had somehow managed to get a job as a driver for a two star
general. At the time, we were in central Korea above the 38th parallel. He somehow got me a
pass and we drove to Seoul and he took me on a tour. What a beat up place that was back then,
every building had pock marks from shelling that took place. We went to a few places, when we
left the jeep we had to chain the steering wheel. They’d steal anything not nailed down. He got me
back to my outfit and that’s the last time I saw Chet until my discharge. Remember how I stated
that it was not out of the ordinary when Chet did all of these things? Well, one final thing, I came
home on the cattle boat and as you might expect, Chet flew home!
Shortly after our discharge in December 1953, Chet and Patty were going to be married and he
asked me to be his best man. I was a Catholic and Chet was Protestant. I don’t know of any
person who follows the tenets of his religion to the letter and not being able to go into a religious
building that wasn’t Catholic let alone participate in a ceremony didn’t make sense to me. There
was no debate in my mind, I was his best man! We always maintained a strong relationship, he
attended both of my children’s weddings and my wife and I attended his three children’s weddings.
Over the years, we vacationed every summer in York and visited Chet and Patti. Chet began to
have health problems, to many to go into detail. About five or six years ago Patty passed on and
Chet was left alone. I would go up for an overnight and we’d go out for dinner and depending on
the season watch a Patriots, Bruins, Red Sox or Celtics game. Next morning we’d go for breakfast
and then I’d head for home. Each year Chet slipped a bit more with new problems popping up.
But I can attest to the fact that no one ever heard him say,” Why me.” He was just such an
incredibly upbeat person.
I lost my best friend and I can tell you quite honestly that there’s an empty spot in my heart that
feels like it’s the size of the Grand Canyon. I don’t know how many of you recall the song MY
BUDDY, it must have been written by someone who lost a buddy in some war. You can call it up
on Itunes, there are many versions. I can only give you the first couple of lines, that’s all I can
make it through.
Days are long since you went away and I think about you all of the day, my buddy, my buddy, you’
re buddy misses you.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get through the whole song, I don’t have Chet to cheer me up
anymore.
Richard Busa
