Here are a few more notes from my pastor friend (mentioned below) in response to my questions about Vietnam:Dear Guy, as I have said in my other e-mail notes to you, I was assigned to the South Vietnamese Army. As such I lived on the economy. This means that I lived with, ate with, and fought with the people of South Vietnam. They are wonderful people who longed for freedom and loved us for our unselfish service to them. You can still see and hear this when you talk with the Vietnamese who fled Vietnam and came to America.
When my time came to leave Vietnam and come home the helicopter brought my replacement in the middle of a firefight. I handed him my radio, gave him the coordinates, gave him a rifle because he had none. Within 24 hours I was in the U.S. getting fitted for my clean class A uniform and being "de-briefed". I was told to get home as fast as possible and change my clothes.
A dramatic change had taken place while I was overseas - I became the bad guy! We were told that we would be accosted, verbally or physically. Therefore we were to be careful. While in Vietnam I had the opportunity to travel to many different places and meet many men from different units. None had ever been involved with or witnessed any atrocities by the U. S. In all my travels I only met one individual who was taking drugs and he was never allowed to carry out any duties or responsibilities. It is a shame that stereotype is still being shown today.
# posted by GuyTak @ 10:02 PM
