A lot of vets go back. I heard from a friend of a Facebook friend who is a
teacher in Da Nang that there’s a sizable population who are sticking around. I
don’t know if they’re retiring there, or just hanging out as much as they can.
If Tina’s trip was $800, sounds like a place a man could retire comfortably on
Social Security. You sure as hell can’t do it here. <g>
There are a lot of reasons for not wanting to go back, most of which aren’t
suitable fodder for this list. One that is, though, is I don’t to tropical very
well. It’s hot. It’s humid. And when it rains, it pours. I may have said this
before, but at the start of the winter monsoon in October 1969, Phu Bai got 23
inches of rain in 24 hours. We were told it was a new Southeast Asian record.
Total rainfall for that particular monsoon season, as I recall, was north of 70
inches.
I spent a week in the field during that time. Watched water pour off the lip of
my helmet like a waterfall. The only comfort was knowing Victor Charlie
couldn’t see any better than I could.
--Bob Whitmire
Certified Neanderthal
On Apr 19, 2014, at 10:53 PM, Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> My brother-in-law who spent a rather harrowing year in Vietnam as a
> forward artillery observer and came home with a silver star surprised me
> by going back to Vietnam for a 10 day trip with his old army buddies.
> He enjoyed it immensely and was very glad he went.
--
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