Vietnam moment...SUPPLEMENTAL STORY ADDED

[j0hnbarker]

Chickenhawk is an excellent book and well worth a read. My wife bought it for me last Christmas and I read it cover to cover in a day as it was so enjoyable.

[williemays]

Read A Rumor Of War a few months later but for some reason I remember little about that one.

This is Philip Caputo’s nonfiction memoir, A Rumor of War. The author was Marine infantry, so I imagine if you want a hint of what PC may have experienced, this might be a good place to start.

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes is by another Marine. This one is fiction, but is based on his infantry combat experiences in Vietnam.

For a film that considers the war from various perspectives, The Vietnam War by Ken Burns is an 18-hour documentary with firsthand accounts from nearly 80 witnesses, including US and Vietnamese combatants and civilians.

[pacifichrono]

Is it an urban legend that there were more American casualties from ‘blue on blue’ than from enemy fire in Vietnam?

Doesn't ring true at all to me.

[pacifichrono]

There’s a 1970 World in Action ‘The Quiet Mutiny’ presented by John Pilger covering the morale of conscripts in Vietnam at the time, use of drugs, fragging.

One of my memories of BBC news clips of the time is of soldiers using the breeches and barrels of their rifles as bongs.

Some books:




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When I was there (1966-67) and where I was (just south of the DMZ), I never saw any use of marijuana or drugs - - but we were so remote that it's not surprising.

[pacifichrono]

Another anecdote: when I arrived at my permanent unit (Mike Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment) in October 1966, there were stories of a recent 'crazy' sergeant who fought the war his own way. At night he would breech our security perimeter and go "hunting" for Viet Cong by himself. He would return in the middle of the night, sometimes with tales to tell! I can't vouch for it but those were the stories circulating at the time.

[MADDOG]

What a fantastic topic. It's really good reading about a guy's first hand account of the Vietnam War. I was born in 1966 and this conflict was never spoken about, not even at school.

Incidently I watched ' The Danger Zone ' last night on Netflix which tells the story of a battalion of Australian Infantry soldiers during the Vietnam War. Well worth a watch.

[pacifichrono]

What a fantastic topic. It's really good reading about a guy's first hand account of the Vietnam War. I was born in 1966 and this conflict was never spoken about, not even at school.

Incidently I watched ' The Danger Zone ' last night on Netflix which tells the story of a battalion of Australian Infantry soldiers during the Vietnam War. Well worth a watch.

Welcome...my watch was "born" in 1966, too!

[davie0146]

What a fantastic topic. It's really good reading about a guy's first hand account of the Vietnam War. I was born in 1966 and this conflict was never spoken about, not even at school.

Incidently I watched ' The Danger Zone ' last night on Netflix which tells the story of a battalion of Australian Infantry soldiers during the Vietnam War. Well worth a watch.

Was it not danger close? It's about the battle of long tan? If it was it's an cracking film.

PC, keep em coming!! And glad to have you home



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[pacifichrono]

Another anecdote: Our squad (about a dozen) would usually go out on daily patrols from our base camp through the jungle searching for enemy within a few miles radius of our platoon or company or battalion encampment. During the long monsoon season it rained almost constantly for months. There wasn't a square millimetre of dryness in a hundred miles! During our patrols, we would often need to ford small rivers to continue our progress.



Along the way we would notice big leeches attached to our arms, necks, or wherever. We would use lit cigarettes to burn them off. I remember trying to scrape one off my arm with a K-Bar knife and it bled like crazy! When we got back to our night encampment, we would strip down and find 10-15 leeches sucking our blood under our clothes and underwear! One I had to burn off a testicle!

[Jon Kenney]

Great topic. Thanks for sharing.

It’s National (independence) Day today here in Vietnam so most have a day off.
We took the opportunity to walk to the local war memorial park in Binh Duong.

Not quite as somber as I imagined, just a lovely peaceful place to pay homage. Zero propaganda unlike the war Museum in District 1.

[Mj2k]

Amazing photos, thanks for sharing.

Was nobody else there at all? I love getting photos like this but usually requires being up very early or very late to achieve.


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[MrLion]

Beautiful place of rememberance.

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[pacifichrono]

Very impressive! I don't understand the display of the Soviet flags, though.

[Saint-Just]

Not Soviet flags. Still associating proletarian (workers and peasants) in a communist society.

[BillyCasper]

Very impressive! I don't understand the display of the Soviet flags, though.

Looks like a display of alternating Vietnamese national and Vietnamese Communist Party flags to me.


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[pacifichrono]

Looks like a display of alternating Vietnamese national and Vietnamese Communist Party flags to me.


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Yes.

[Jon Kenney]

Amazing photos, thanks for sharing.

Was nobody else there at all? I love getting photos like this but usually requires being up very early or very late to achieve.


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Hi Matt, As I said, it was a National holiday. I think the park was actually closed, but the gates were open, so we went in. There were about four or five other families scattered around the place, but you had to look for people to actually see them.

Regarding the flags, that has been explained below. You very often see them flying together, but very rarely the socialist flag on its own.

Although the park is beautiful, as all too common with Vietnam, and many other Asian countries, there is another side to the place just out of view.

I can only assume that these are/were the original plots of the fallen, but as you can see they have been left to ruin.

[williemays]

[mention]Jon Kenney [/mention] thanks for the photos. Are you visiting Vietnam, or living there? Just curious.

Has anyone seen Da 5 Bloods, the new war drama? Supposedly it is one of Spikes Lee's most impactful films.

Here's the trailer: https://youtu.be/D5RDTPfsLAI

[pacifichrono]

[mention]Jon Kenney [/mention] thanks for the photos. Are you visiting Vietnam, or living there? Just curious.

Has anyone seen Da 5 Bloods, the new war drama? Supposedly it is one of Spikes Lee's most impactful films.

Here's the trailer: https://youtu.be/D5RDTPfsLAI

williemays - have you ever considered a different avatar?

One of the greatest American baseball stars in its 150-year history!

[Jon Kenney]

[mention]Jon Kenney [/mention] thanks for the photos. Are you visiting Vietnam, or living there? Just curious.

No visitors allowed. I live here.

[burnside]

I was looking at some music videos last night on YouTube and stumbled upon the one below by The Animals: "We've Gotta Get Out of This Place." The song was wildly popular among American infantry troops in Vietnam, especially in the latter '60s. I watched this video and was transported back 50+ years, particularly the final 30 seconds or so showing the unloading of troops from helicopters, and the aerial napalm strikes. Those scenes were almost exactly like my experiences the day I was wounded by a North Vietnamese hand grenade on May 27, 1967 near the DMZ. My heart skipped a couple beats watching this video and listening to that old meaningful song.

My 1966 Caravelle diver came within 3-4 inches of being obliterated by shrapnel, but it still runs perfectly in 2020! Again, apologies for wasting your time going on about myself (more than once on this topic!). Just the babbling of an old man...

Thank you for your service and for sharing your story!

[BillyCasper]

Just as a matter of interest, were the proportions of US forces in Vietnam made up of conscripts and regulars the same as the proportions that made up US forces in the USA, Europe, Korea, etc?


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[pacifichrono]

Just as a matter of interest, were the proportions of US forces in Vietnam made up of conscripts and regulars the same as the proportions that made up US forces in the USA, Europe, Korea, etc?

I don't really know. I was an enlistee. During my time of service (1966-1968), the draft was quite active, but became even more so over the next few years as U.S. troops in Vietnam increased from about 400,000 when I was there to over 500,000.

The Army had the highest percentage of draftees, the Marines the lowest.