After 46 Years...a Trip Back in Time, Part 10

by Glenn N. Holliman

In this post, I record the sites and my feelings of returning to my 1969 base camp in Lai Khe, Vietnam.  As a young man, I served for a year as a chaplain's assistant with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, U.S. Army.  My duties involved pulling guard, time in the field at the Division's fire support artillery bases (FSBs) and night defensive positions (NDPs) and clerk of the office. I feared returning in 2015 would be emotional.  It was.

Below left in 1969, simple dirt roads en route to Lai Khe from Saigon.  Below right in 2015, a four lane highway with attractive middle division of flowers flanked by modern construction. 


                

 Left, 1969, the body of a North Vietnamese soldier killed in night action, left along the highway a few miles south of Ben Cat, which by 2015 was a four lane highway with flanking shops and residences.   As if a war had never passed that way.

Below right, the former Michelin rubber plantation of Lai Khe from the air in 1969.  Top of the photo shows the defoliated open country side.  Highway 13, then a dirt two lane road runs through the camp.  The open space top right is the air field.

Below left, the HQ of the 3rd Brigade, 
former French rubber plantation offices, in
1969 our office and barracks. In 2015 all had
been razed and replaced by a business park.

Above left, the perimeter of Lai Khe in 1969.  From time to time enemy rocket fire would descend on the base, several times while I was on guard in the night.  Above right in red, an old man of 68 years stand in the rubber of Lai Khe and remembers being 22.      

More in the next post on the return to youth and conflict.