In 2009 i went up to DaNang to visit with a friend and stay on her family farm during TET Holiday. While there, she took me out into the rice fields and forests for a hike. She pointed out some places where bombs had hit and now are holes filled with water and catfish. Another place was a mound of earth about 1 meter high and ten meters across covered with bushes and scrub. She asked me if i knew what that was. I had no idea, and she told me there had been a battle between american soldiers and north vietnamese army. The bodies of dead viets and americans were just laying around and after 2 days the villagers gathered them all together and buried them on this spot. I talked with her grandmother who verified the story. She said they didn't want dead bodies laying around and were afraid of any soldiers coming back so they buried them. She said helicopters with search lights sometimes looked around at night but nobody actually came in to ask about them. The only way into that area is by motorcycle...even now. The village where this occured is about 25 kilometers from DaNang City.
I didn't sleep well that night, just thinking about those soldiers, enemy combatants in life, all buried together in death.
