During the Vietnam War, Weatherly resident Phil Jeffries saw firsthand the horror of that conflict despite never having to engage directly in the guerrilla combat.

Jeffries, now 80, served in the U.S. Army in mortuaries during one of the most violent segments of the war. In one mortuary near Da Nang where he was stationed, from the time he arrived in December 1967 to December 1968, Jeffries said 8,500 remains were processed. At another mortuary where he also assisted at times, another 8,000 remains were processed.

Processing included identifying, embalming, sometimes performing autopsies and having the remains transported home.

Despite working in enclosed facilities, the environment was still dangerous. He was in Saigon during the bloody Tet Offensive launched by the Viet Cong and recalls the firefights in the streets of the city. On several occasions, “bullets were flying all around me,” he said.

Jeffries is a semiretired funeral director in Weatherly. He owned and operated Jeffries Funeral Home in Weatherly from 1985 until he sold it to E. Franklin “Sank” Griffiths III in 2008. Before that, his father owned it for nearly three decades.

Jeffries, son of the late Philip and Maxine Jeffries, is a 1961 graduate of Weatherly High School. He came to Weatherly in 1959 as a high school sophomore when his father purchased the former Warner Funeral Home.

Before that, Jeffries had lived in Coaldale, where his father had owned and operated a funeral home, selling it to purchase the site in Weatherly.

The younger Phil assisted his father at the funeral home, and after high school, went to Penn State University in High Acres (Hazleton) and then attended mortuary school in New York City. He did an internship at the Trexler Funeral Home in Allentown in 1966 and 1967, then passed the state boards in the profession.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army in July 1967 specifically to do mortuary work and was transported to Vietnam in December of that year with the 325th Brigade Support Battalion.

Initially, he was stationed at An Khe, in the central highlands of Vietnam. Then after the Tet Offensive that began on Jan. 31, 1968, he was moved to Da Nang, where he remained until the end of his stay. One of his key jobs was fingerprinting and identifying the remains of the war casualties.

One story he relates while in Da Nang is that he was reading the Weatherly Herald newspaper, to which he subscribed, when another military member from a computer company spotted it and asked if he could read it, too. That person was Warrant Officer Valentine Laganoski, who was also a Weatherly resident.

Though his main job was mortuary, Jeffries was still required to do training in a foxhole and learn about weapons use.

Jeffries admits that the Tet Offensive was among the most anxious incidents in Vietnam. He was in Saigon on temporary duty when Tet occurred.

“You heard a lot of gunshots and there was a lot of celebrating,” said Jeffries, noting that Tet is the Lunar New Year for Vietnamese and is the most celebrated holiday in the country.

He quickly learned that some of that gunfire was the beginning of the Viet Cong offensive that was occurring throughout the country.

“Bullets were flying all around,” Jeffries said.

The Tet Offensive was one of the bloodiest phases of the Vietnam War.

After Tet, Jeffries went to the cooler of a mortuary in Da Nang, and saw that it was filled with scores of body bags.

“We would be embalming at night, then the (the Viet Cong) hit the air base and we had to stop and run to a bunker,” he said. “The shooting and stuff was going on around us and I was counting my blessings,” he said.

Most of the casualties he handled were Americans, he said, although occasionally there were Korean soldiers. The Korean bodies would be sent to Qui Nhon, where they would be cremated.

Jeffries said many of the deceased had burns. In some cases, identification was difficult.

Identification required matching three components from a list of about a half-dozen possibilities, he said. In most cases the deceased would have identification on him as well as dog tags. In many cases, someone attached to his unit would help identify him. There were other factors such as height, weight, scars, tattoos and other identifying factors. Dental records, fingerprints and laundry marks also were utilized.

There were times when only skeletal remains would come to the morgue and a forensic pathologist would help with the identification.

Embalming fluid arrived at the mortuary in 25 gallon drums. In comparison, funeral homes in the United States generally get embalming fluid in 16 ounce bottles.

After identification, the bodies would be shipped either to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware or Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Jeffries said in the morgue, they usually worked 12-hour shifts, with about 50 people on each shift.

The local mortician was involved in a few autopsies while in Vietnam.

One person was close to finishing his tour and celebrated by getting drunk, which resulted in his death.

The autopsy disclosed that he drank a full bottle of alcohol and, on a dare, swallowed two tree toads.

The cause of death was determined to be “ingestion of alcohol and two large toads,” Jeffries said.

When Jeffries returned home, he married the former Margaret Wiessner of Coaldale on Dec. 12, 1970. They have two daughters, Lisa, wife of Jeff Winheld of Johns Island, South Carolina, and Amy, wife of Dr. Scott Intz of Palmyra; and three grandchildren.

There is one thing Jeffries misses about Vietnam. He said there was a location, still in business today, “which has the best shrimp fried rice I ever tasted.”