Hey Danon,
Love your suit! Maybe I can spend some time on this thread tomorrow. Time is not my firend these days!
Anon
danon5 wrote: that happens after the wire's been assaulted. We didn't have many of those, mostly mortar attacks - usually between 1 AM and 3 AM. Just harassment fire.
They'd send us a few mortar rounds, and we'd send them several dozen 155 rounds most nights. It was almost a routine. I figure we lost some sleep and blew up a lot of jungle without seeing anything in the way of secondary explosions. Charlie pretty much got the points for that play. Our own guns made much more noise within the perimiter than did Charlie's mortars.
timber
Good grief, it's the "dirty old man" interaction!
Still trying to keep up with reading the links. I think i'm back on about page 5. Life keeps getting in the way.
Interesting links and commentary. I'm not feeling any better about Vietnam or what's happening now. In fact, probably even worse, but at least somewhat better informed.
ehBeth:
I'm not sure were going to feel better, we're just perhaps going to be more enlightened. I've been working too many hours working this week to give this subject the coverage I wanted. I also have to plead guilty to watching the playoffs this morning, but so far, all I've seen is the 49'ers handing the ball to the Buc's. Bummer ...
Anon
Anon, The 49ers not only handed the ball to the Bucs, but the Bucs rubbed the 49er's faces in the mud - time, and time again. What a show! It was so disgusting, my wife couldn't watch it any more, so she went out shopping.
c.i.
Anon,
I really appreciate your opening this thread. It has so far been very interesting and informative.
My feelings at the time of that conflict were that I was more than a bit apprehensive about going into the '69 war zone in the first place, but, by the end of my tour, with all that was happening then in the USA, I was a LOT more apprehensive about returning home. I'll give it my best shot (sotospeak) to not talk about war stories, although mine are from some of the humorous things I came in contact with and not the more gruesome things people normally associate with war. It was only after twenty plus years that I spoke of it at all. I still don't mention that ladies name that married the Turner guy. (See, only humor!!) And, I'm sure I'm one of the very few soldiers returning from Vietnam that could say Thank You in Vietnamese.
Apparently, France's presence in Vietnam goes back to 1802 when Gia Long conquered N. Vietnam and requested mercenary support from a French missionary Pigneau de Behaine. Over the next few decades Vietnamese resentment grew and Tu Duc, the successor to Gia Long, started policies of anti-Catholicism. Paris authorities were drawn in to protect the French people who had moved to Vietnam. In 1847 a French fleet bombarded the port of Danang. The campaign lasted until 1863 when Tu Duc ceded the southern provinces around Saigon to France. This opened the Indochina door to the French who extended their rule establishing the Union IndoChinoise by 1883 encompassing the entire SE Asia area. So there you have the French presence in IndoChina in a beetlenut shell.
Nice synopsis, danon. It was a French Mess of some antiquity and great baggage long before Ho became a factor. As I mentioned earlier, Ho and company were not The Problem; they were symptoms which revealed The Problem had been on the burner a long time and was set to boil over. Nobody saw fit to turn down the flame.
timber
You are absolutely right timber. I really admired those little guys in black and even the ones in khaki with pith helmets I saw on occasion. Didn't affect the job - but rather gave me some knowledge with an opportunity to become more effective. The Vietnamese people that I met were typically nice and very polite, even our local barber - who reputedly was Viet Cong - we kept him because he was a good barber. The gardener we got rid of as he gave distances and locations of things to aim morters at. LOL Yes, we hired a gardener to take care of the area in front of the O'Club and replace the 'banana tree' just outside the front door when it became drowned.
Late arrival...
Thanks for the invite Anon. Being the late arrival for a confab like this one is daunting. I am still trying to get the rest of this thread read, not to mention the links. When I have reached anything like speed I wil see if there is anything I know worth posting.
Please forgive my novitiate awkwardness on this forum. Life has simply not permitted the time to become familiar here
.
Maraso
What a nice pleasure to find you finally here!
Maraso, howdy. Jump in whenever you want. I'd really like to see your perspective on some of the issues flopping around on this thread.
And feel comfortable to flip switches and try things. The bells-and-whistles are fun.
There's even a place to play with features without widely publishing your early attempts
Link to Testing Forum
timber
Thanks Blatham and Timber. I'll be here as much as I can and thanks for the link.
Maraso, Maraso, Maraso.......hmmmm......do I know you? Name sounds familiar, but.... hmmmm.......... WELCOME to A2K. c.i.
Maraso you look just like Harrison Ford. Welcome to A2k.
cicerone imposter and JoanneDorel:
Thank you. As for the picture, well, in the right light if you squint just so.......it's a long story.
Still reading. My Vietnam history is pretty fair but I'm already digging for tie ins between some things I already knew and some put forth here.
I was so naive back then. A real hick. (Like I'm Mr. Cosmopolitan now.) Just an old hippie trying to do the best I can. (With thanks to the Bellamy Brothers.)
Maraso, A hearty welcome to A2K. You must go to the Welcoming New Members thread
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=530
for the Grand Entry (oops - that title starts rodeos, well - you could be entering a rodeo of sorts!) lol :-D
This is Flash animation (best viewed on a high-speed connection) and represents one Vet's view on Rumsfeld's comments:
Take Back the Media
PDiddie
Are you suggesting that we ought to question these leaders' thinking and motives and even their patriotism?? But they say the word 'evil' all the time...surely they must know what it is and where it is if they use the word so much? Surely we can trust leaders? Surely we ought to do just what they tell us? Surely that is the American Way?
