I appolgize for thi is rant, where were they when we came home?

[DeepseekerADS]

Wow man.Your in Saigon ? ...Wow...How is the old town ? Better/worse ? Peace

Hey, one of these days we gotta meet! At least we are still walking this Earth

 

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[RTR]

I've been roaming around Vietnam for over 12 years. Fifty thousand American ex-pats live here now and many of them vets from the war.
When I first got to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City, I met an old vet who told me Vietnam is like quick sand and if you stay too long you can't get out.
I will tell you this.... many old Vietnamese people remember you guys and very much appreciate what you tried to do for them. I have spoken with so many of them over the years.

I'm writing this on a very rainy night in Saigon near the river. 1:38 AM.
Goodnight

Glad your here, this is incredible !!! Have you been to my old USAF base Phan Rang (N. of Saigon) on the S. China Sea ?
Here's a pix of it Oct 69.

 

[RTR]

Hey, one of these days we gotta meet! At least we are still walking this Earth

You keep saying that....lets do it !
Been up to your Mt. many times....come on down to the lake...were only an Hr. away !

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Glad your here, this is incredible !!! Have you been to my old USAF base Phan Rang (N. of Saigon) on the S. China Sea ?
Here's a pix of it Oct 69.

I'm certain I went there - excuse the death of my brain! I did so many copters in and out. For me, as ASA, I popped into so many LZ's along the way.... For many months as ASA, it was always one spot to the next.

And I do like my beer, and kinda like Brandy, and then also some other natural escape plants.....

What else do I have in front of me anymore my friend? What comes after 70 when you just hide up the holler because You have seen too much already of this stinking world? You? By now I think you understand that.

 

[RTR]

Its simple, "after 70" comes 71 and it continues until GOD says its over ,period ...one foot at a time,,, my friend.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Its simple, "after 70" comes 71 and it continues until GOD says its over ,period ...one foot at a time,,, my friend.

Hey, I sit up this holler hiding from everything = it's safe up here.

I'd been without a vehicle for over 2 years = though it was still under warranty and Ford had no fix. I think I've about 6 months of payment remaining.

However, a week or so ago I bought a used "clunker". I've been so afraid to take it out beyond my comfort zone (within a couple miles of walking). The danged thing runs good = just over 250k miles on it......

Should I actually trust it?

That's what I ask myself.....

 

[RTR]

down town Nha Trang (front of the NCO club) Sept 69

 

[DeepseekerADS]

down town Nha Trang (front of the NCO club) Sept 69

Ah, you were there a few months before me! We're still here!

I didn't get there until a couple months later, took a nice tour with the 4th jumping from LZ to FSB, and back around again, but ended my tour with a couple months in Nha Trang..... Then $5.00 took me pretty far, as I'm certain you understand that!

 

[RTR]

Ah, you were there a few months before me! We're still here!

I didn't get there until a couple months later, took a nice tour with the 4th jumping from LZ to FSB, and back around again, but ended my tour with a couple months in Nha Trang..... Then $5.00 took me pretty far, as I'm certain you understand that!

Cool,small world.....My 1st month in Nam was @ Nha trang AFB, 14 SOW under CIA control .Then, shipped out for the last 11 months to Phan Rang AFB . Again,Assigned to the 14 SOW, under control of CIA we had to move . I could get into That Nha Trang lifestyle ...considering all the BS that was going around us.

 

[Mackaydon]

Mekong Mike,
I had a birthday lunch yesterday for my younger (76) brother. As an Ensign, he serves two tours on Mekong River boats. He stayed aboard the boat at night while others did their 'walk in the park'. When I mentioned that, he froze up. It took a couple more beers for him to 'unfreeze' the conversation. I knew instantly, I had made a mistake by bringing up the subject. Maybe I should now offer him a VN tour to repress, not recall, his memories--to show him how peaceful the area is today.
Don......

 

[Marchas45]

Well I was with the 4th Div. B Troop 1/10 Cav in 1966. I was hit 4 months into my tour and shipped to the Philippines then Japan and the 106th General hospital to mend. It took me until 1982 to clean myself up but have been sober and clean for just over 30 years.
Truth be known I don't talk much about Nam, it's just a bad time in my life and being Scottish serving in the Army of the USA and being treated the way I was by the population when I came back made me run back to Scotland for a couple of years after getting divorced but now all is well and I'm very comfortable within myself and a happy go lucky person right now. Wish I hadn't read this thread though.

 

[piegrande]

It must have been in the 80's because my son was born in 1976, and he was not yet a teen. A vet at work in Iowa told me there would be a Welcome Back VN vets parade in Des Moines. I told him I was a REMF. spent much of my two years lounging around the Crash Rescue building at Ft. Lewis while the real vets went through Hell in VN. I did not feel as if it were my war. He told me they wanted any vet to show support for the parade.

So, I talked to the school that I wanted my son to go with me.

He was a military fanatic, loved the Tour of Duty show when it was on, and he had a knock-off of Army uniform.

All the way to Des Moines he fussed and cussed, "Why are we doing this? This is &%@# stupid."

When we got there, he went walking around, and came back, all excited. "There are MOH winners over there!!!"

We had a heavy rain before the parade started, which delayed it. The real vets never moved, stood there in the rain. They told me, "That is the way it was!"

It seemed like it only took us five minutes to walk across DM. We passed a woman crying her eyes out. I asked her to come along, but she wouldn't.

When we walked back to the starting point, it was a long walk. All those people applauding and cheering made it seem so short!

All the way home, three hours, my son was again, fussing and cussing, "When are we going to do it again??"

Going helped me, though I was, as I said, a REMF. I had felt bad because so many did so much, and I did nothing at all. But, going helped me understand the war belonged to all of us, even the REMF's, as long as we did what was asked of us. I did become somewhat militant when idiots bad-mouthed the soldiers.

 

[Mekong Mike]

Yes it's quite peaceful and so many changes. Many new bridges in Saigon and they even have a tunnel going under the Saigon River going into a new area called district 2.
There's is no lack of anything in the stores and all American products are here including Ford motors.
It's amazing to see McDonald's, Burger King, Domino's pizza, Subway, KFC, Häagen-Dazs ice-cream, Budweiser beer.
Anyway..... as I said in a previous post. You guys who served over here are fondly remembered by many of the older folks.

 

[SeabeeRon]

Graduated HS in '66, had a two year Jr College deferment, married & got Draft Notice in '68.

Wanted some choice so joined the Navy Seabees knowing they were going to Nam. Always thought I would, but kept getting Public Works billets in places like Fallon and on Adak. Picked up MCB 10 after they returned from Nam.

Have some guilt when many I knew gave their all over there. I always say I am a Viet Nam ERA Vet when asked to distinguish the difference.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Graduated HS in '66, had a two year Jr College deferment, married & got Draft Notice in '68.

Wanted some choice so joined the Navy Seabees knowing they were going to Nam. Always thought I would, but kept getting Public Works billets in places like Fallon and on Adak. Picked up MCB 10 after they returned from Nam.

Have some guilt when many I knew gave their all over there. I always say I am a Viet Nam ERA Vet when asked to distinguish the difference.

Me too, Ron. I spent 4 years in the AF, but never left the states. I am NOT a Viet Nam vet. Just an era vet.
Jim

 

[piegrande]

I hope I made it clear in my posting that I also was not a VN vet. If not, I tried. I at times felt pretty sleazy to be lounging around Crash rescue while others experienced absolute Hell.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

My Dad went in to enlist for WW2, and found he had tuberculosis, so he was rejected. Most of his friends never came home, and that seriously bothered him all his life. He lived to 87, I watched him pass - those prolonged gaspings for breath, bothered me = broke my heart.

After many years of estrangement, until right before he passed, he told me he was proud of me. Kinda got to my guts.

 

[Bates]

Don Golden 1969 1970

Deep, I couldn't get your link to come up but the general gist of what you said it unfortunately too damn true. I got out in August of 67 after 4 years active duty in the Air Force and my buddy got out a month later after 4 years active duty in the Army. After we got out, for about the first 6 months or so, my buddy and I had several " meetings of the mind" with a number of loud mouthed, anti war hippies in various places and we couldn't believe the hate those idiots had for us and our uniforms. It slowed down for us after that because both of us got married and had other responsibilities to worry more about. Those friggin' hippies had nothing to do but smoke weed and do other drugs and goof off. By that I mean we basically no longer put ourselves in situations around those aholes. My brother got out in 70 after 4 years active duty and was in a college class with his very shy girlfriend when the professor, a draft dodging hippie with a pony tail got really mouthy and out of line with his girlfriend over her refusing to repeat in class some vulgar words in a book the class had read. As this professor pushed harder, my brother told him to back off, The professor made some comment about my brothers military service and walked up to my brother and dared him to do anything. My brother promptly accommodated him and cold conked the SOB right there in class. No charges were ever filed and the college apologized to my brother and his girlfriend.

As a result of the hate and outright distain felt towards all of us vets by many in the public I just kind of forgot about all that hippie BS and went on about my business and life. It wasn't until 9/11 and afterwards and how the public began treating our vets with the honor they deserve that I again started talking about being a veteran again. Hell, it wasn't until that time that I started to wear a veterans hat out in public for the first time again. I never used the VA Medical system until 2010 either.

I am just so thankful that the majority of the American public got their heads out of their butts and started giving vets the honor and thanks they deserve after the Iraq War started , even though it was kind of a delayed thank you for us vets from Nam. Hey deep, at least the public FINALLY realized their mistake with us and tried to make up for it the best they could now. Ive even had some apologize to me for the way we were treated back then. However, many of those die hard hippies have turned into something under a different name today and I still cannot stand them and they cannot stand me either. The way most of them think, I consider it an honor not to be like them or around those fools!!

Later Deep and Welcome Home Brother!

My brother was a medic ran around the jungle sometimes saving someone sometimes giving a family something to bury...awarded a purple heart 10 years after he came home diagnosed with lukemia from exposure to agent Orange ...suffered greatly until he died (had a good 10 years in remission with bone marrow transplant) have his life for his country and couldn't even get basic medical care for something he never would of had if not for his service

 

[moreb]

Thanks to all of you and for your service here and abroad!

It pains me to see all of our American History, our Founding Fathers sacrifices and Monuments being taken down and reinterpreted to fit some other factions beliefs. Lets hope this changes quickly for the better or your history and sacrifices will be next.

Keith

 

[G. I. Digger]

Welcome home to all the Vietnam Vets as you all were in "the real one"!