JOHNNY'S PEN PAL: A Vietnam Story

The Story of a Long Distance Relationship Between a Young Girl
and an American Soldier in Vietnam

The California pen pal of a Hahira, Georgia soldier who died during the Vietnam War has been found.

Tim Coombs, president of the Hahira Historical Society, said he located the woman who shared letters as a teenager with Cpl. John E. McDonald of Hahira. McDonald is believed to be the only Hahira native killed in the Vietnam War.

Karen Conboy Matz lives in Reno, Nevada. Coombs succeeded in locating and speaking to her Tuesday.

In early April, The Valdosta Daily Times wrote an article on how Coombs and the Hahira Historical Society wanted to find McDonald’s pen pal with hopes she might share the letters she received from him during his time in Vietnam.

Matz told The Valdosta Daily Times that she received 16-17 letters from McDonald and wrote a similar number to him from late 1968 until his death on April 15, 1969.

She said she doesn’t believe she has any of McDonald’s letters from nearly 50 years ago, but she has begun looking through storage items.

Matz said she hopes to visit Hahira this summer.

The son of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard McDonald, John E. McDonald attended Hahira High School. He was one of six children. He loved cars and going to the races according to family. He reportedly worked in an air conditioning plant before being drafted into the Army.

McDonald was a member of the 101st Airborne Division. He served as a machine gunner in South Vietnam. He had been in the Army 11 months and in Vietnam about five months when the 22 year old was killed in action on April 15, 1969.

Interest in Karen Conboy and the missing letters began during research to name a road in honor of McDonald last fall. The City of Hahira and the Lowndes County Commission renamed one mile of Shiloh Road as the Cpl. John E. McDonald Memorial Highway.

“When a guy gives his life for his country, we ought to name the whole dang interstate after him,” Coombs said.

While researching information for the road naming, Coombs discovered the story of McDonald’s wartime pen pal, a 16 year old girl named Karen Conboy. Her story was published in the Manteca, California newspaper, then republished May 22, 1969 in the Hahira Gold Leaf Newspaper.

The Valdosta Daily Times published a story about Coombs searching for Conboy in April. Coombs said he received several responses from attorneys and a private investigator offering help finding her.

Coombs continued investigating too. He found old newspapers from Manteka with a photo of the teen Karen Conboy. Using the photo as a reference, he searched the internet and found a woman of about the right age who resembled the teenager. The older woman was Karen Matz who works in a Reno, Nevada clinic.

Coombs called the clinic, but was informed that Matz was on leave. Coombs shared his story and why he was calling. Clinic personnel took his name and number and promised to try reaching Matz.

In relaying Coombs message, as soon as the friend at the clinic said the name of John E. McDonald, Matz said, “You can give him my number.”

Matz told The Times she was shocked to hear McDonald’s name after so many years and even more surprised that someone was looking for her in connection with him.

Though she never met McDonald face to face, Matz told The Times that he was her first crush.

“You’re young and naïve,” she said. “You come from a small town. My parents were devout Catholics. I wasn’t even allowed to date. He was my first real crush.”

A sophomore at Manteca High School, 16 year old Karen Conboy and her class were assigned in October 1968 to write Operation Christmas letters to military personnel serving in Vietnam. It was the 60’s, she said, and her fellow classmates weren’t thrilled by the prospect of becoming pen pals with soldiers.

“But I had a brother two years older than me who we knew would be drafted and sent to Vietnam, so I put a lot of though into my letter,” she said. “I never expected to hear anything from it, but he wrote back to me.”

So did she, and so did he.

Both children of large families, she wrote how her older brother picked on her. He wrote back saying that’s what older brothers do. Matz said she recalled feeling like McDonald shared wisdom with her.

They grew close through the letters. She sent him pictures and he sent her a photo of himself kneeling in front of a water buffalo in Vietnam. She said Tuesday that she may still have the picture. She found half of a series of pictures of herself. She had kept half of the photos, and sent the other half to McDonald.

He promised to come meet her when he returned home to the States.

She was 16. He was 22. She initially led her parents to believe McDonald was only about 18, but soon admitted the truth. The age difference concerned her parents, but they felt there was no harm in sharing letters with a man serving his country overseas.

Still…

“Mom said he could come meet me, but that was it,” Matz said. He could come meet me, but she would be with me the entire time.”

However, the teen and the soldier would never meet.

Karen was away on a high school 4-H field trip. The destination was about 50 miles from home. She and her classmates rode on a school bus, and were to return on the same bus.

To her surprise, she saw her father pulling into the 4-H event grounds in his Dodge Dart. She thought she might be in trouble, or that something may have happened to her mom or one of her siblings.

“He said, ‘you have to come home with me now.’” (and) “You have received a telegram. Mom and I opened it, and think you should come home and read it.”

That’s all he said.

At home, the telegram informed her that John McDonald had been killed. McDonald’s mother had sent the telegram from Hahira.

“I’ll never forget that day,” Matz said. “I could not stop crying. I didn’t go to school for a couple of days. I was so devastated.”

Her brother went to Vietnam and returned home safely.

Karen married, and she and her husband had a son. When her husband passed away, she moved to Reno to be closer to her son while he was attending school. He’s now a doctor in San Francisco. Matz remained in Reno where has many friends.

For years, her parents and the McDonald’s regularly exchanged Christmas cards. Matz called the McDonald’s for several years, even after she married and had a son. She estimated having called them until the late 70’s, or early 80’s, until time passed, and the calls stopped.

“I felt like I knew Johnny’s family after he passed,” she said. “It was comforting for me and I think it was comforting for Johnny’s mom.”

She said she has never forgotten the young man she calls ‘Johnny McDonald.’

She said she hopes to fly to south Georgia, and visit McDonald’s family this summer. She would like to see the road named for the soldier.

“Had I known they were naming a road in honor of Johnny, Karen Matz said, “I would have jumped at the chance to be there.”

“The Valdosta Daily Times”