Subject: Re: memorial day
Patrick,
Did you watch the veterans memorial concert on PBS? I always watch that each year. Sometimes it brings tears to my eyes. Those stories of Vietnam bring sad memories that I had, during the 8 years that my father was in Vietnam. My dad was in WW II, but he was older when he was in Vietnam. He was 45 yrs old during the Tet Offensive. And I was a young college student. I lived my student life without my Dad, who stayed in Vietnam for 8 years until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. He would only come home for two weeks each year. But he never failed to write us pages, and pages of long handwritten letters on a yellow ruled pads. Me and my family lived our life always wondering whether he was still alive or not. I would read the newspapers daily, to see GI s and their allies missing, ambushed (by N V snipers), or killed in action. I don't know how I ever got to concentrate on my college coursework during those days.
He would write us daily about the good times in Saigon. I remember some bits and pieces of his stories when he would come on vacation, saying, he and his colleagues would reconnoiter the area where there was an ambush. We at home would be worried about him, especially if he would go to Nha Trang because he said, it was dangerous there. He worked as something like a para-military service Advisor, only later I knew, but back then his and other co-workers' job were deemed classified of some sort. I don't quite know the work structure of people like my dad who were sent to Vietnam, but seems like it was under the auspices of the USAID. As a young college girl, with a lack of full understanding about the war, I only hear my dad say those acronyms, like MAC-V, ECCOI-V (the latter I know, since it was through this company that he was sent.....it's called Eastern Construction Company, Inc.). Their office was in Su Van Hanh, Saigon. They have another office in Cholon. Sometimes they would go and do some inspection in the Mekong Delta.
Because I don't know the technical word for it, I would say he was the 'side kick' of then Major General Edward Lansdale, who also stayed in Saigon. Have you heard of him? He was very much written about by our popular war and political historians. Gen. Lansdale also wrote a book, In the Midst of War. He mentioned my dad very briefly there, without detailing the true nature of my dad's job. I was able to talk to Gen. Lansdale when I got married and moved to Michigan. He lived in McClean, Virginia, and he sent me a nice note card telling me about the beautiful cherry blossoms that bloom in the spring in that D.C. area. He was a tall and good-looking man. I am in awe of the camaraderie that soldiers and civilians alike had and still have post wartime. It is a kind of friendship that is rooted and grounded in natural and supernatural faith in God, determined to win, and determined to protect colleagues who were wounded in action. Those types of bonding can never be erased and will forever be etched in the memory of those who fought and survived the rigors of war, and also in the memory of the families of the fallen. I salute them for doing a job well done.
We at home during the Vietnam war were not able to communicate with my father, except via letters and by short wave radio. Vivid in my memory was one time while me and my family were watching the evening news, that all of a sudden on the TV screen, a local correspondent in the Phils., Max Soliven, in fatigue uniform, but a foreign correspondent in Vietnam was interviewing my Dad. We were all excited to see Daddy on national TV to be alive. Dad was wearing a baseball hat, and holding a bazooka in his arm.
This was not the first time Dad was in Vietnam. In 1955, he was there along with other US & Phil servicemen, to help the Vietnamese establish and construct the Vietnamese constitution. They studied French before they were sent to Vietnam at the time.
Anyway, this is too long already. My scoop ....for Memorial Day!
Irene
Irene Haug
East Lansing, Michigan
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