Uncle, this won't be my last reunion. We found names and got addresses by getting daily reports and there are more guys to find. I won't miss it. I told the guys that we had ringworm, leaches, jungle rot, prickly heat rash, not enough water or food, and someone was trying to kill us every minute of every day, but we had each other. And we still do and we still need each other too. I don't think any of us fully realized how true that was until we got together again.
I viewed the site for the SF medal of honor guys. It takes a special guy but what a friggen nightmare to have been in shit deep enough to merit that kind of honor.
You spent so much time in VN that the places and names flow from you like the names of streets in your home town but my view of VN was a postage stamp view. I can still see the leaves moving in the air, the sun shaded trails, the insects and the foliage, I can still smell the air and the scents of the jungle, I can still hear the sounds and I still feel the electricity when I remember those things but the people places are dim for me.
I remember Bien Hoa, the Black Virgin mountain, Tay Ninh, Ton Son Nut, a hospital in Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay and a VN town in the Central highlands (?Song Be?) but the "cities" for me were the LZs that we came out of the jungle to for 5 days every two months or so. I was able to make my way around easily by "bee tracking" the choppers to their pads. I had that "been there" look and the door gunners lifted me wherever I wanted to go but I was too stupid to skate and I always made a bee line back to my unit after RxR or combat leaders course or the other things that took us out sometimes.
If we'd have met in a bar over there we'd have recognized each other. You know what I mean.
And if I ever get that chance, I'll take that beer and buy you one back. Ed |
