In Country - Stories of Vietnam from the Veterans who lived it. Below, you will find an. Vietnam War told by the sons and daughters. South Dakota as they lived it through personal experience. Thank you Governor Daugaard and to. It is very much appreciated. Shortly after high school. I was drafted. I was living on my. Seneca, South Dakota. Culture of Vietnam - history, people, clothing, traditions, women, beliefs, food, customs, family To-Z. Vietnam War History and U.S. The Final Declarations of the Geneva Conference - July 21, 1954; John F. Kennedy INAUGURAL ADDRESS - January 20, 1961. Faulk County. Time goes by so quickly. There was. a time when 2. Squadron, 1. 0th Cavalry Regiment. Infantry Division. II Corps. Pleiku, Ban Me Thout, Kontum Republic of South Vietnam. March, 1. 96. 8 through March 1. In 1998, World T.E.A.M. Sports (The Exceptional Athlete Matters) organized a 16-day, 1,200 mile bicycle ride through once war-torn Vietnam. Able-bodied and disabled. Biographies (Bios are in Alphabetical Order; Click Picture to Enlarge) Barry Abrams Barry Abrams in Saigon, at left, with his good friend, John Mikesch; then Barry in. POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) A VIETNAM VETERAN'S EXPERIENCE INTRODUCTION. During ones life not many people will make a significant and lasting impression on you. For a farm girl with three sisters it was. I have never regretted. I have wonderful memories of. Everyone worked together, the chief nurse. Since it was a draft. My hope was an assignment in Vietnam. Rail transport was introduced to Vietnam in the 1880s, supported by the French administration of Indochina. The earliest rail project to be completed was the Saigon. Writer Gilbert Moore and photographer Jim Vestal visited Fort Ord in Monterey as training for the Vietnam War was ramping up. Both had been through basic training. Good evening, my fellow Americans: Tonight I want to talk to you on a subject of deep concern to all Americans and to many people in all parts of the world-the war in. On the Frontiers of Science. Brian’s Ride Gets Rough. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) is 1,650 kilometres long and from 50 kilometres at its narrowest point to 600 kilometres wide. I was sent to Germany where. I hope this is the last. I met my husband in Spain during. I got after being promoted to Captain. After 2. 8. years of marriage it was one of the best things that I “got out. This story is not about me, but a. I only knew by his last name—Adams. In Vietnam, there were more KIA. Back in the United States, the. Martin Luther King and Bobby. Kennedy, and the riots of the Democratic National Convention in. Chicago. A year earlier, Muhammad Ali refused induction. It was. a difficult time on both sides of the Pacific. Against that backdrop, American. However, when not on a. My experience was that soldiers of all races generally. Nonetheless, I. recall instances of racial tension between white and black. This is where Adams comes in. He was. barely five feet tall. He was black and hung around with other. Any time trouble seemed to be. When I heard Adams got killed I thought what. I think Adams had a lot to offer had he lived. I joined the US Marine Corps in. I just graduated from Freeman high school. There were two. from our 1. Marines. Like all. Why did I do this? My parents. were against me joining the Armed Forces and especially the. Marines. For a while I thought they were correct. I learned to. accept my situation and to make the best of it. The training was. Because of this training, I was looking. South Vietnam. The Vietnam War for me was. My experience there has stayed with me. I believe I have come to terms with the. I am proud to have. Vietnam. There are very few Americans and very few. Adrian, Sioux Falls, SDI attended Army basic training. AIT, then Officer Candidate School after graduation from SDSU. I. was accepted into flight school after OCS and trained in the. OV- 1 Mohawk surveillance airplane, a twin- engine turbo prop. Grumman. The Mohawk conducted day and night low- level. I flew missions in the I CORP region including the. DMZ, Ashau Valley, Ho Chi Minh trail, and also in Cambodia. One. well- remembered mission included photo recon of the Angkor Wat. Cambodia which had fallen into Viet Cong hands. Due. to distance from our airfield, we had to fly to the Air Force. Ubon Thailand to refuel before returning to Vietnam. The Mohawk was retired from. Army duty in 1. 99. American historic aircraft museums. Watch for a Mohawk in the memorial dedication. That will be the second time a Mohawk has been. Pierre. Thank you South Dakota for remembering the Vietnam. Anderson, Pierre, SDIn Tay Ninh Province, III Corps. RVN, we were doing an ARVN Infantry search operation on Nui Ba. Dinh (black mountain), and I (MACV advisor) was riding in a. UH- 1. D helicopter to bring in some supplies to our MACV infantry. M- 6. 0 door gunner and went. I enlisted in the Air Force at. I established many life- long. Vietnamese children. Four of my friends. I spent most every weekend at the beach, weather and other. When one or two of the. When I left Vietnam, I gave. Brandriet, Watertown, SDIt somehow. I am writing this for my husband. David. David (Diane) Hansen. Kristi Hansen Turman. Cathy Hansen Stahl. Hansen, Pierre, SDLet us never forget our mistakes. Braun, Pierre, SDI Served with Commander Coastal. Surveillance Forces (CTF 1. River Flotilla One. Served in. Operation SEA FLOAT III. I was in- country October 1. September 1. 97. 0. While in Vietnam, my youngest daughter was born. I saw her for the first time. Castle, Sioux. Falls, SDI went into the service with Ron. Jirsa from Mitchell, SD. We went to basic training together. He. went to Fort Sill, OK and I went to Fort Lewis, WA and we met up. Fort Lewis. He went to FDC and I ended up being a Medic. Battery. We left for Vietnam together on the. USNS General John Pope. We landed in Vietnam together and served. He went home to. Mitchell and I went home to Chamberlain. Its unusual for two men. Vietnam experience together from the same. Clark, Sioux Falls, SDIn the 1. Many of our parents had been. WWII and their patriotism was reflected in the. The idea that if our country. I remember being a college student 1. Roger Jensen, had been killed in Vietnam. Yet, we were soldiers. We saw a lot and learned a lot. I for one feel good that I served my country, and sad that. I am proud to have served, and. American. We don’t always agree with. Let no person ever take for granted what we have. America, and don’t forget that many have paid the. Celebrate and appreciate your veterans, who gave what. United States of. America. Lastly, don’t ever let anyone. Jane Fonda, influence your thinking with her distorted and. People like her are as. As. Americans, when called to serve, we do so, and are proud of it. They really do need the. YOU'RE THE BACKBONE OF THIS FAMILY!! Now. years later I see it wasn’t the right thing and I’m glad I had. South Dakota to come back to. David, Hot. Springs, SDI was a Fuel Specialist while. Taiwan. Tainan AB was a repair station for planes. Vietnam. I refueled countless planes that. My platoon acted as engineers. We. were told to construct a base for artillery support. We did not. have axes or saws. We wrapped C4 around the trees and detonated. C. Rations and the Army artillery people were eating steaks. Once, we had one company. NVA firing on us and two more coming up the hill from each. It was. the Lord Jesus who spared my life that day. I never intentionally sat or laid down. If I did I might not hear “incoming”. But of course I. would nod off, one of my worst non- combat feelings during my. I woke up from a dream that I was back home in my. It was so. incredibly real. Then I woke up staring at the beams in the roof. God, that was such a low. Gage, Sioux. Falls, SDI spent approximately two years. Strategic Air Command at Fairchild AFB, Spokane, WA in. I was then transferred to Clark AFB PI. South East Asia Military Altitude. Reservation Facility in 1. We coordinated the airspace for. Arc Light Missions and the Blackbird missions in SE. Asia. Sixteen years after leaving the USAF, I joined the South. Dakota Air National Guard where I worked as a controller in the. NCO prior to my retirement in. Hall, Pierre, SDIf you can imagine the whole 7th. South China Sea at one time it was quite. There were over 5. On the. Dubuque, the ship I was on, the people coming out to the. I had pictures but they were. Henle, Sioux Falls, SDI was drafted from Gregory, SD. My training was taken at Fort Lewis, Washington. Fort Benning, GA. I was sent to Vietnam in May 1. Big Red One (mechanized) (A- 2- 2). Almost two. months to day after arriving in Vietnam I was injured in the. Nui Ba Den (Black Virgin Mountain) on July 1. After spending nine. Fitzsimmons, I was. Army on April 1. 7, 1. I am a very proud. DAV and am a life member of the DAV, VFW, and a member the. American Legion. I retired from the teaching profession in 2. Broken Bow, NE, since 1. When I got home in a medevac bus in. California, we were egged at the base front gate. America and Jane Fonda—thank. I see you folks are doing well. Jane was put up for. Woman of the Year'. I guess there must be payback in the next. I know I sound angry but I did find happiness before my. God and my children. I have a copy of the Pacific Stars and. Stripes Volume 2. Number 3. 1 with the headlines “VC HIT. SAIGON”. Cartoons in that edition included Blondie, whose. My memories include Bob Hope and. Raquel Welsh (both during Christmas 1. Cam Ranh Bay; Spooky (cool gunship); lots of youngsters. Huey Cobra. Gunships (totally awesome); Agent Orange; the horrible smells. Bien Hoa (it. tasted like a dried beef sandwich); our buds from down under. Australians were our best friends); our company barber (who. Vietnamese helpers); and, most. South Vietnam their. In retrospect, I do forgive all. I do not feel I was blind to the issues, accepting my. Those who. repudiated their duties to their county will have to live with. As will I have to live with those. I was asked to do for the United States. Thank you for. the gifts of AMERICA. Thank you for the gift of being born here. Logan. Rapid City, SDI was on duty in Korea when I. TDY into Thailand to serve at Camp Friendship to help. Ghost Division. When regular troop replacements. I was told that I could leave. Without a passport, I. I could not go out through normal challenges. One. night about 9pm I was called to company headquarters. Madsen, Gettysburg, SDI remember arriving in- country. When we stopped in front of the terminal, all. We were in. total blackout so we weren’t an easy target for mortars and. We stepped from the plane and I will never forget the. It was unbelievably hot and humid. I was never so. scared in my entire life. Twenty- two months later, I was on the. I lost way too many friends. Mardian, Sioux Falls, SDMany young men grew up fast in. Vietnam. I was only one of them, and I made it back home. Friends were made very fast in Vietnam, and some of. To find friends from Vietnam is. I had the opportunity to meet the. I was honored and. Thank. you, Captain Hurley.” This was the first time I had seen this. The event was even more saddened by the. His father, too, was a. When I arrived in Vietnam, I was. Canton, SD. I knew that very few. South Dakota, let alone Canton. I. didn’t know that Jim Hurley (from Canton) had been their. Commanding Officer for the past six months, and he had often. Canton and South Dakota. He took care of his men. He had been transferred. When I was sent to our forward. The events that. occurred after we met are not important. First Impressions of Vietnam . Vietnam is but an hour and a bit on the big bird from Bangkok and with opportunities for street photography said to be first class it was time to right a wrong. On a whim I decided to get out of Bangkok and visit the country many long- term Westerners in Bangkok still refer to as 'Nam. The trip to Ho Chi Minh, AKA Saigon, was made with little research. Despite recommendations from friends of places to check out, and even knowing some Stickman readers live in Ho Chi Minh, I chose to do it my own way. There's little more rewarding that discovering things on the ground yourself. And going solo means I can do my own thing, go where I want, when I want without having to consider anyone else. Travelling alone you reach out more and make a greater effort to engage people – and I've also found that the locals seem more likely to get chatty with someone on their own than someone with a companion or two in tow. Ifinally made it to Vietnam this week and what follows are a few snaps along with a brief description. This is very much a brief look, and my initial impressions of the city. A more detailed look at Ho Chi Minh will follow next week. When I think of Vietnam, I think of conical hats and ao dais, the national dress worn by Vietnamese women. Conical hats could be seen everywhere, but the ao dais were harder to come by. The children are all smiles but something seems to happen when they get older when smiles are only seen when you would expect to see them. Smiles aren't overused or abused, as they are somewhere else. There's no skytrain or underground, no pedestrian bridges and traffic is equally bad with its own unique rhythms that take a little getting used to. Whenever you look the people of Ho Chi Minh are pursuing opportunities and seem to be capitalistic by nature. I didn't see one beggar. You go out and earn it! What a nice change from Bangkok. That awful phrase . Thailand has tuktuks, Cambodia has motodops and Vietnam has cyclos. Food on the street appeared clean and whenever I saw someone eating street food I found myself looking more closely at the food and then over at the vendor where I would be impressed by their workspace and how the food was prepared. Whereas in Thailand street food may taste ok even if the vendor's hygiene looks questionable, on the streets of Ho Chi Minh the food looks great and you actually want to try it! A vendor in the main downtown area has current edition magazines and yesterday's newspapers from all around the world. The downtown area has a very cosmopolitan feel with a lot of high- end shopping but an absence of US fast food restaurants. If Mc. Donalds, Burger King or Starbucks have branches in Ho Chi Minh, I didn't see them. Slim, fair- skinned, tramp stamp- free, superior English, a ready smile and miniskirts in abundance. I need a bit of time to get my head clear on this, but what should be a slam dunk victory for Bangkok in almost every respect is not that at all. I was chatting with the owner of Tilac a week after Songkran. He and a few mates had had a couple of weeks in Vietnam and when asked about it, his eyes went wide, a big grinned appeared, a bunch of superlatives followed with his closing words something to the effect that if Thailand didn't have gogo bars, the equation would be very different. So where was. this week's mystery photo taken?! All you have to do is tell me where the photo was taken. There are 2 prizes this week – a 5. Oh My Cod fish and chips restaurant, and a 5. Bangkok's best burger, Duke's Express. The Duke's Express voucher MUST be redeemed by June 2. The Oh My Cod prize MUST be claimed within 1. Prizes. are only available to readers in Thailand at the time of entering and are not transferable. Prize winners cannot claim more than one prize per calendar month. You only have one guess per week! You start talking to a girl and she immediately cuts to the . I simply won't pay this amount. If you offer 2,0. Pattaya is much better now for this kind of thing. Also the big hooker discos like Spicy are absolutely invaded by farang blokes who are invariably pissed and aggressive. I went to Chock Disco, another after hours haunt off Petchaburi Road, and I have to say I felt positively scared in there with loads of dodgy Africans, weirdo Arabs and pissed and aggressive farangs. On top of that the Thai security look like killers. I'm glad I had the opportunity to enjoy this side of Bangkok in the past because I don't think it's going to get better. In general, I just find that staff, mamasans and girls are absolutely obsessed with money and won't give you the time of day unless you are directly paying them through drinks or whatever. Why would you go to Thailand to buy smiles? I might as well go to normal clubs and talk to whoever I want for free! The fun is now in the mainstream. I was recently in Thailand for a month. Soi 4 is an old hangout of mine since we used to live there for 3 years in the 9. I was at ISB. I can't be arsed to put more fuel on the fire, but would instead recommend (as you are now working in a more general and positive vein) doing a weekly piece on soi 1. The design and proliferation of new eateries and clubs there just shows how Thailand is developing in a different direction while the old nightlife (hooker) areas seem to be descending into some violent and unpleasant turmoil. It's bizarre, the attitudes of many in soi 4 just get worse and worse and the obsession with money just makes the experience anything but fun. Soi 1. 1 on the other hand I think offers many more interesting and exciting opportunities. The fun now is more in the mainstream, and this is a good thing. Chiang Mai not always charming. I love Chiang Mai but the worst case of violence I've ever seen in Thailand was around the northern stretch of the moat at 9 PM one Songkran. I arrived to find 4 or 5 guys beating corpses with wooden poles. The bodies had been stripped naked and were not even twitching. There was lots of blood and broken bones. And the attackers continued beating them despite the fact none of them was moving any longer. The worst part was that there must have been 2 or 3 hundred spectators doing nothing to assist, and I'm ashamed to say I continued on my way. I desperately wanted to do something, but I couldn't imagine any course of action which wouldn't have resulted in me being beaten too. Should jumping be mentioned? You touched a nerve with your piece about suicides in Central World Plaza. As an Irish journalist I know that the official language re suicides is couched in euphemisms, dissembling and downright lies. And for various reasons. Re the Central World incident: I have no doubt that the propaganda about the victim breaking every bone in his body but still living is to put other potential jumpers right off the idea. Who wants to wake up a month later a paraplegic? Secondly, if a shopper thought that there was even a slight chance that they would be flattened by a falling body as they ambled about between the clothes racks, they might be encouraged to pick a shop without a dozen floors above them. In the case of my home country, Ireland, the official police approach is to believe that coverage of suicides leads to more suicides. On the DART railway line which crosses Dublin, anytime someone kills themselves by throwing themselves under a train, the incident is never fully reported. Instead it is euphemistically referred to as . It is disturbing, but not surprising perhaps, that countries as different as Ireland and Thailand have such a common approach to these awful tragedies. Being the centre of attention. I know how you must have felt in Chainat province, having your fellow customers and the restaurant staff discuss your dining habits in your presence. A similar thing happened to me this morning at a restaurant I've frequented for many years. I was eating the usual 3 dishes that I order every day – gai gratiem, goong gratiem, and sen yai pad see eew gai, when a customer walked by my table and said in Thai to the cook, . He must like your cooking. And sometimes he eats 4 dishes! I felt like a star in a bad movie that could be titled Farangs in the Mist! Needless to say, I dislike being the center of attention. Let me add that I am slim and fit, and that apart from fruit, these 3 dishes are my only food each day. So why all the fuss? Meter reluctance. For the past 6 months or so there has been a notable change in the attitudes of Bangkok taxi drivers, particularly with regard to using the meter. In the past there were guys who would not use it, but this practice seems to be becoming ubiquitous. I have had nights when 3 or 4 taxis in a row refused to use the meter. It is most prominent for me at night on Sukhumvit, but I have also had it occur with taxis coming to the condo, and even at Bumrungrad. Is there anything that can be done about this obnoxious practice? I'm told that it is the law that taxis must use the meter, and that I should just call the police. These drivers can be quite surly as well. Any advice would be appreciated. Safe to use minibuses? Since the government has put some kind of speed recording device on the public minibuses I have not had one pass me on two trips from Hua Hin to Bangkok in the past month. Instead of weaving all over the road at 1. If the device records one speed violation they get fined. Second violation and their license is taken away. Truly amazing that the government finally did something to stop all the minibus carnage. The section of the square closest to Emporium is being gutted and the buildings up to the side of The Sportsman are expected to be stripped, gutted and possibly knocked down in the coming weeks. Signs have been put up in Thai stating that parts of the square are dangerous and off limits. That part of the square once home to the old Silver Dollar and Lone Staar bars may look a right mess, yet business continues. The Sportsman was contacted by their landlord this week enquiring whether they would like yet another lease extension.
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