Return to Viet Nam 40 Years Later
For everyone who served in Viet Nam in the 1960’s and 70’s, the experience is a big part of who they are – to this day. Because, on the ground, it was a no-holds-barred war, many of the thoughts, memories, and feelings are negative. Now don’t get me wrong. At the time, we did not think of ourselves as foreign invaders; we thought that we were helping an ally defend themselves against foreign (& communist) aggression from the north. Of course, later that interpretation turned out to be too simplistic. Some veterans are still crippled by their experiences. I served in the Infantry, US Army, 101st Airborne Division, as a first lieutenant rifle platoon leader from mid-1968 until mid-1969. I was lucky in that I never was wounded, although many of the men I served with were hurt. We operated in the Cu Chi / Iron Triangle area (between Saigon and Tay Ninh) during 1968. Then for 1969, we moved north and operated in the mountains southwest of Hue, including the A Shau Valley.
After returning to the U.S., I was very fortunate because my wife was extremely supportive through my obnoxious behavior as I struggled to make sense of what I had experienced and to deal with the civilian apathy I encountered. It also helped enormously that I worked with Vietnam Veterans Against the War to end U.S. involvement in SE Asia. So I was able to dissipate my rage about that senseless waste of lives, reputations, and treasure and to move on with my life.
Years later, nearing retirement age, I spotted an ad in The Veteran, the monthly journal of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc., which said: “Returning to Viet Nam? Return with us. Be a member of a team made up of your fellow veterans. Spend a month helping to build a school and traveling to places where you served. … The Veterans Viet Nam Restoration Project [www.vvrp.org] has helped over 125 veterans return to Viet Nam. … Veterans Helping Veterans.” The more I looked at this opportunity, the better it looked. I joined VVRP Team XXIII. We went to Thua Thien – Hue Province in April 2008 to work on a remote, rural six-room school, in the A Luoi District, by the border with Laos.
I had two goals for this experience: I wanted to do something CONstructive for the people of Viet Nam; and I wanted to replace the negative images of Viet Nam in my mind with something positive. It turned out that these two objectives were shared, almost verbatim, by each of the other members of Team XXIII. The result has been better than I had hoped for. Now when you say “Viet Nam,” instead of thinking about warfare, pain, death, destruction, and waste, I think about a beautiful country populated by attractive, friendly people busy making a better life for themselves. Goals accomplished!
author & ARVN lieutenant, 1969 Viet Nam
author, 1968
A Chronology of the Trip
28-31 March 2008 – team training in Sebastopol, California
1 April – 16-hour flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong to Ha Noi
2-4 April – explore Ha Noi
5-6 April – explore Hue
7 April – bus trip southwest through the mountains to A Luoi (A Shau Valley)
8-10 April – shovel and wheel barrow work at the school construction site, A Dot Commune
11 April – bus trip through the mountains to Hue
12-13 April – explore Hue; trip to Khe Sanh
14 April – bus trip to A Luoi; meet with local NVA veterans
15-17 April – work at school site; place wreath at local military cemetery; visit Ta Oi hill people hamlet
18 April – bus trip to Hue; final Team XXIII dinner at Ushi’s Restaurant; team disbands for individual travel
19-20 April – explore Hoi An; visit Cham Hindu temples at My Son
21-23 April – explore Qui Nhon
24-26 April – explore Nha Trang
27-28 April – explore Mui Ne
29 April-3 May – explore Saigon; visit Tay Ninh, Nui Ba Den, and Cu Chi
4 May – fly from Saigon to Hong Kong to San Francisco
Impressions of Ha Noi
Ha Noi is a busy, attractive city with numerous parks and lakes. For three days, we explored wherever we wanted to go, without restrictions. The five best places I went were:
1) the parks;
2) the Old City, with its many short streets devoted to the same occupations;
bamboo scaffolding bamboo shop
overhead power lines!
our Tu Do Hotel
3) the military museum:
Flag Tower from tower
from tower museum guide & dancers
Lenin
4) the water puppets (Sorry, no photos);
5) The National Museum of Ethnology:
making conical hats musicians?
at the loom using a back loom
tribal house tribal house
tomb with figures celebrating life tomb with dragons
Ha Noi is a noisy city because of all the traffic (trucks, buses, scooters, bikes, and cyclos). Vehicles with horns use them exuberently. Crossing a street is an adventure. Traffic comes from all directions. The sidewalks are crowded with parked scooters, with goods on display for sale, with people working, and with people cooking and eating. Some people looked at us as strangers, but most were too busy. Whenever I asked a question or bought something, the Vietnamese were quite helpful and friendly. There are roving sidewalk vendors who are quite assertive and who get irksome.
Impressions of Hue
Hue was our base of operations for the working part of our visit. From Ha Noi, we flew to Phu Bai and rode a bus to Hue. Most of us searched the roadside scenery we passed looking for relics of American military operations from forty years ago. Except for a few concrete blockhouses near bridges, we saw no signs of the once enormous U.S. military presence along Highway 1. After a very gracious welcome at the Asia Hotel, several of us chartered a boat for a cruise to ancient imperial tombs up the Perfume River.
Asia Hotel tomb complex
temple temple
pagoda bronze bell
Sunday, several of us toured the huge Imperial Citadel, which was the focus of terrible combat for two weeks during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
main gate Gail & Charles Sepulveda
model of the citadel
battle damage? Alaska mermaid!
Hue has a very nice riverside park, full of statuary, on the south bank of the Perfume River. In the evenings, this park is full of local folks talking, playing, cooking, eating, selling items and trying to sell boat rides.
advice from Uncle Ho
dragon boats girls in ao dais
The streets of Hue are full of scooters, bicycles, and trucks, but not so intense or noisy as in Ha Noi.
Ushi’s Restaurant
Wolf in cyclo
The Team XXIII command post, the front table at Ushi’s, was staffed almost 24 hours a day.
[ continued on "Return to Viet Nam 40 Years Later, part 2
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