After 46 Years...a Trip Back in Time, Part 15

by Glenn N. Holliman

Grass by Carl Sandburg

“Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.

Shovel them under and let me work.

I am grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg, and pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.

Shovel them under and let me work.

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:

What place is this?  Where are we now?

I am the grass.  Let me work.”

My war time is long since over.  The grass has grown back in Vietnam.  But still the damage lingers in Southeast Asia and in the memories and wounds of aged service persons living. Unexploded weapons still pocket the fields of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.  Agent Orange, sprayed liberally over bush and forest, haunts the bodies of older Vietnamese and Americans.

Below, the tarmac of the Lai Khe,  Vietnam  US Army1st Infantry Division air field is still visible in the foreground.  On the edge of the field stand two  new schools, replacements for the Cobra, Huey and Chinook helicopters that once hovered and landed on these grounds.

Right, one of the few remaining concrete bunkers left intact.  My first night in Lai Khe, I was sent to guard the perimeter and spent the night (and numerous more) in a bunker like this.  During that February 12, 1969 night, the earth shook to the north as a massive B-52 raid saturated a suspected North Vietnamese placement.

Our group visited the Chu Chi Tunnels north of Ho Chi Minh City.  I discovered studying the map above that this complex was located 12 or so air miles from Lai Khe.  Now I realized where all those income missiles originated almost 50 years ago.

Below, my daughter, Grace, demonstrates how a thin person such as herself could hide in the  tunnels.

Meanwhile Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) continues to grow and prosper.  I have left ghosts behind, as well as my youth.  My thanks to cousins Jim and Karen Holliman for making the travel possible, and my daughter for sharing the nostalgic adventure with me.

The young soldier below center, skinny, all my black hair, working with some orphans in Ben Cat April 1969.

Below, the old man, now 50 years on, at 3 score and ten.  Filled with memories and more than filled with the grace of life.  Here a new generation of children, untarnished by warfare, smile with the exuberance of youth.  May they forever be spared the pain of their grandparents.  This picture was made outside of the Presidential Palace in Ho Chi Minh City.

And in our bit of whimsy, my grand children's chicken, that traveled with us from Virginia to Asia and back, bids her own farewell to a Vietnamese replica of that fowl and beautiful species!

For additional reading on this tragic American and Southeast Asian war, read the former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's mea culpa and his conflicted emotions about championing the conflict in the middle 1960s.

May we as a nation learn from our mistakes!

After 46 Years...a Trip Back in Time, Part 13

by Glenn N. Holliman

Memories continued of a war in 1969....

By 1969, the U.S. Army felt the strains of a war that was dividing America, a protracted struggle in Vietnam.  The year for my service, January 31, 1969 to January 30, 1970, was shared with over 540,000 other Americans.  My Army division, the famed 1st Infantry of World War I and II combat, was composed mainly of draftees and career officers serving a second tour of duty in country.

Right, 22 years old, skinny, a college graduate in Lai Khe, Vietnam.  I had most of my life yet to be lived....

I remember composing a letter while on day time guard duty in a tower over looking a portion of the perimeter of Lai Kai, headquarters for the Division and 3rd Brigade.  In that epistle I noted that for four years the Division had occupied territory 40 miles of so northwest of Saigon, pushing against the Cambodia border.  And for four years the same ground had been contested between the U.S. forces and Viet Cong and North Vietnam troops.

True, the U.S. never lost a full-blown battle, but the night belonged to the V.C. The mighty pay loads of our B-52 bombers could blow apart tunnel complexes of the enemy, when such could be found. Our technology was overwhelming when an adversary would stand and fight, but this was a different, confounding war.

A 1st Infantry bunker with action in the background outside the perimeter. 1969

The V.C. fought the war against American conventional might, not in stand up battles, but rather by controlling the villages in the dark, ambushing high value targets such as convoys and forever harassing the Army and then disappearing into the bush or jungle. 

The North Vietnamese took horrific casualties, but just as had George Washington with the British, they had only to remain a force in being, and to wait until the Americans tired of the loss in blood and treasure and went home.

And that is exactly what happened.

In 1969, moral among U.S. troops was slipping.  I remember one night in barracks hearing a loud explosion, not incoming mortars or rockets, but that of a grenade.  A young officer, overbearing with his enlisted men, had been 'fragged' by one of his troops, i.e. a live grenade rolled into his quarters.  Wounded, he lived.  

Drugs were becoming a problem.  I remember waking up in the middle of the night at a Fire Support Base by a young lieutenant rummaging through the medic's bag looking for pain killers.  Another night walking through the barracks, waking soldier's for guard duty, I stumbled across troops smoking dope.  

Another time I discussed with the enlisted men in the field what it was like to patrol in the bush. 

 "Our 2nd lieutenant said he had only one mission here and that was to keep us alive until we could all go home."  

The desire to engage and defeat an enemy was rare among the troops in 1969.   Being a senior enlisted man or conscientiousness officer was not easy with an army of draftees.  Not easy when the USA was torn apart by anti-war marches and race riots.  The 1960s were destructive for America.  Our nation had a lot of self-inflicted wounds.   

Above and below, a patrol on Thunder Road, aka Highway 13.  In 1969 a muddy track and conflicted.  By 2015, a paved highway was lined with apartment and business office complexes!

            



 The government in Saigon, propped up by U.S. monies and supplies, was wobbly and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) loath to expend itself.  The will to win lay with North Vietnam, fighting a classic war of independence and a perceived puppet government still control by westerners.  The South Vietnamese soldier above had his military intelligence office next to our chaplain's office in the 3rd Brigade Headquarters, Lai Khe.

 That Christmas of 1969 the famed quintessential comedian of the 20th century, Bob Hope, came to Lai Khe came to entertain us.  He brought some pretty girls and Neil Armstrong who had been the first man to step on the Moon five months before.  In was incongruous - one of human kind's greatest feats justipositioned with one of human kind's great tragedies - warfare.

Bob Hope, a conservative patriot, announced to us that President Richard Nixon had a plan to end the war.  Amazingly the troops - thousands of us - booed.  Hope was taken aback, confused and stuttered, 'Yes, he really has a plan.'  The writing was on the wall; the army of draftees had had it.  We just wanted to go home.  

Below, the Bob Hope field after the 1969 show before being 'policed'.  A mail transport lands on the Lai Khe airfield.  The company mess hall in the picture on the left.

In 2015, I walked the same ground, exactly where the above picture was taken in 1969.  Below are rubber trees that now cover the same field.  The mess hall long since gone.  Left to right Dr. Jim Holliman and his wife Karen and my daughter, Grace who accompanied me on this emotional journey.

Next posting, more as an aged veteran returns and reflects....

After 46 Years...a Trip Back in Time, Part 12

by Glenn N. Holliman

I continue with photographs of 1969 and 2015, a nostalgic, emotional return to my 1st Infantry base camp in Lai Khe, Vietnam.  My daughter, Grace, and two cousins - Dr. Jim and Karen Holliman, kindly accompanied me.


From Fire Support Base Oran, elements of the First Infantry await their helicopter lift into the boonies, February 1969.

Left, Lai Khe -  damage to our barracks from a V.C. rocket attack.  Below, a Viet Cong wounded POW being carried by medics to surgery.

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Below, approximately 8 miles from the Chu Chi Tunnels, elements of the 1st Infantry move toward Fire Support Base Lorraine near Ben Cat.   This desolate landscape had been doused with Agent Orange and worked over by massive plows to clear the tree lines.  Nineteen million gallons of herbicides had been sprayed on the Vietnam countryside, defoliating 12 million acres of forests and damaging the soil of millions of acres of farms. (The Tragedy of Vietnam by Patrick J. Hearden)  

 Ironically, I took this picture the same day in July 1969 that Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
The juxtaposition of humankind's progress and degradation disturbs me to this day.

Below, June 1969, I was on guard duty around the perimeter at Lai Khe.  A Vietnamese village bordered the camp on the north.  In the middle of the night, the Viet Cong attacked with rockets.  As they traveled at less than the speed of sound, one could here them coming.  The noise was that of a locomotive drawing nearer and louder.  I slammed myself down next to the concrete culvert pictured below.  The houses, a hundred or so feet away, behind the wire were hit; five Vietnamese nationals died.  

I heard their screams.  I still hear them a half century later.     

Right, March 2015, my daughter stands with me where I point out where I was guarding that night so long ago.   Grace was born five years after that event.  
I am a most fortunate man.

Next post, more memories of an old man returning to the Vietnam-American War....

After 46 Years...a Trip Back in Time, Part 11

By Glenn N. Holliman

In 2015, I returned to Viet Nam with my daughter, Grace Holliman, and two cousins, Dr. Jim and Karen Holliman.  My reflections continue....

Two generations have been born since my year in the Vietnam-American War, January 1969 to January 1970.  My service was with the 1st Infantry Division, a storied outfit that fought during World War II in North Africa, Sicily and stormed the beaches at Normandy.  In 1943 at the beach head in Gela, Sicily, my father's destroyer lay off shore and plummeted the German armor that came close to pushing the Big Red One into the sea.

Above in Lai Khe, Vietnam, 2015, left to right - Jim and Glenn Holliman and Grace and Karen Holliman. Below, a Fire Support Base, Aachan II in May 1969 near Lai Khe. The 'fire' from the 105 artillery pieces supported companies on patrol.

Now his son, born three years after his Sicily battle, would spend time at Fire Support Base Gela, named after the earlier battle. When I arrived in 1969, the division had been in country four years, basically sticking to base camps and night defensive positions, patrolling the bush and setting ambushes at night. The Americans and the South Vietnamese owned the day; the North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese communists (Viet Cong in the vernacular of the time) controlled the night.

During the darkness, the enemy would leave their tunnels at Chu Chi, tote rocket propelled explosives outside our Lai Khe base and fire them at random. Most of the time they missed but too often they destroyed people and property. The picture shows clean up after a direct hit on a Lai Khe bunker.

Most Americans living today have little idea how traumatic the 1960s were to our country. An undigested long overdue Civil Rights movement roiled the nation. Peaceful protests demanding greater freedom for African-Americans shook the halls of Congress and led to the destruction of racial segregation.  Unfortunately rage in the inner cities resulted in riot after riot during the warmer months of those years.  

Right below summer 1966, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, assistant to Martin Luther King, prays during a march through Mississippi at signs demanding the impeachment of Earl Warren, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and another criticizing King.

Ironically, black and white soldiers fought together in Southeast Asia, as the USA tried to live into a great meaning of freedom for its minority citizens.  It was a turbulent, polarizing time. Divisions in the early 21st Century in this country are tame by comparison.

Below, 1st Infantry military police in Lai Khe passing a bunker, 1969.

We are born in to a time and place in history, and my time has been that of the post World War II era, the Cold War and now a protracted conflict with Islamic extremism.  My brother- in-laws and I served in the Cold War era (of which Vietnam was a part), and my nephews in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

U.S. interventions such as Vietnam and Iraq have not been wise, both conflicts self-selected by the American government in response to perceived threats.  Certainly in the case of Vietnam in the 1960s there was an over reaction to communist ideology and not enough confidence that the capitalistic system would prevail over centrally directed economic autocracies. And not enough knowledge of the long history of an ancient culture and peoples.

Below right a 1969 ambush on Highway 13 north of Lai Khe.  We called it Thunder Road, an unpaved dirt strip in 1969.  Compare if you will the same road in 2015, lined with business parks, sidewalks and lush fields.  The highway toward Cambodia is now paved with traffic lights and development.  The killing fields I knew have blessedly turned into homes and industry.

Over 55,000 Americans died in Vietnam and an estimated 1 million North and South Vietnamese.  For those of us, the 3 million plus Americans who rotated in and out of the long running conflict - 1963 to 1975, the time in country has been seared into our consciousness.  

The veterans of that war are thinning out as Mother Nature takes her toll.  Here is more of my story, one of millions. May future governments think very hard before they send young men and women into harm's way.  Many support wars when they begin; many fewer do so when the conflicts go on and on and on.

Above, fire, destruction and American G.I.s on Thunder Road, 1969

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To know more on this conflict, one might read Patrick J. Hearden's well-named 2005 publication, The Tragedy of Vietnam.

Next post, more 1969 and 2015 photographs of one old soldier's memories....

After 46 Years...a Trip Back in Time, Part 8

by Glenn N. Holliman

This memoir of a return to Vietnam after forty-six years had passed since a young soldier served with the 1st Infantry Division, US Army, continues with photos of time as a typical tourist is some beautiful parts of northern Vietnam.... 

Ha Long, March 10, 2015

Below, a map of beautiful Ha Long Bay, a World Heritage site, in northern Vietnam and an overnight cabin cruiser.  

       

Tuesday, left late morning for the maritime port where the cruise boats take overnight tourists into the Ha Long Bay.  The sea bed has collapsed leaving a bay of gum-drop shaped islands, magnificent in height and shape marching into the Gulf of Tonkin.  Ocean going vessels with cargoes, do not dock but unload into smaller vessels, coastal trawlers. Fascinating to observe the larger ships as our boat weaves and dodges among the islands and many others. 

Our cruise manager is 38 years old, a French teacher.  Her grandparents served in the French War and her parents from 1973-75 helped maintain the Ho Chi Minh Trail crawling through Laos into the South Vietnam.  Phuc was born in 1977 and remembers the austerity of the pure communist years, when food and clothing were rationed.  Had a discussion with her at length.  Her generation has no memory of the American war, only that in 1986, economic policies changed, and people could again own their own land.  Agricultural production increased quickly, and now no one is hungry.

Below Grace captures a picture of an ocean going vessel unloading and a view from the Ha Long caves of the island formations.
             
       

There are only 13 on this cruise, and a crew of fifteen.  The company, Bhyay, owns 17 boats, and the food and service are excellent.  Clean, bottled water available….My wife would enjoy the ambiance. On board are Australians, as well as two American ladies from Long Island, a German couple and a couple from Guildford, England.  Remarkable how Vietnam has become a major tourist mecca.

Below my daughter, Grace Holliman, and cousin Karen Holliman at a meal on board.  Also Grace in one of the spacious rooms.

Our first stop was a floating village where we tendered in, climbed a floating dock and then boarded boats hand paddled for 45 minutes through spectacular scenery and by floating homes, cabins without running water resting on the water!  Nets protect the children from falling from their homes into the 18 ft deep sheltered bay.  The economy is driven by fishing and tourism.  Our cameras are snapping pictures left and right.

Back on board we have a cooking demonstration, how to make spring rolls, and then we eat them!  Delightful.  Happy Hour starts at 5 pm, and I chat with two Australian couples, all born in the 1960s with no memory of the American War.  More and more, I am aware as an old man only I carry within me the ghosts of the past.

Below, Karen closest to the camera prepares spring rolls and a squid she caught during night fishing.

Another grand meal, fish and shrimp of course, and then we go squid fishing!  We stand on the bow, are given poles with plastic lures, bright lights are turned on and like children, we drop our lines and pull them up and down.  Karen catches an 8 inch squid which will be on the boat's breakfast table.

That night our boat anchored in the floating village bay with another 30 or so similar craft, three story villas on the water the highest being an open air deck.  Dining is forward with seating only for about 16.  Marvelous way to travel.

To bed early, but an observation from earlier this morning at the Saigon Ha Long Hotel.  The women are largely in western style clothes – skirts, heels and arranged stylishly.  The only heavy Vietnamese tend to be middle aged men, all dressed in western clothes of coat and tie.  English is taught in all schools, not Russian as in the 1970s and 80s.  The USA may have lost the 1965-1973 war but capitalism is winning the present. 

Economic development is proceeding with the blend of moderating socialism and capitalism.  These are a strong people who have defeated the French, Americans, the Chinese and each other in 20^th Century wars.  If they can have a century of peace, they will become more prosperous.  Education and economic investment are now needed and time to work its magic.

 

March 11, Wednesday Ha Long

Body clocks still unsteady, and Grace goes to the top deck for Asian stretching exercises – Thi Chi – with the Australians.  I do journaling and watch this lovely part of the world sail by as we move to our next event this morning.  We ‘sail’ to the Surprise Cave and climb steps to walk through a massive cave complex with a lovely view of the bay.  Bushed, I shower and they feed us again – a brunch before we dock at 10:30 am back at our harbor.  This cruise well worth the money.

A driver takes us back to the Saigon Ha Long Hotel, about a ten minute drive, and I answer emails and nap.  Karen purchases us tickets for a tour tomorrow.  Time for a nap.  Later a drink in the hotel with Grace and then dinner with Jim and Karen on the 14^th floor.  We note the Celebrity cruise ship, the Millennium, in the harbor.

March 12, Thursday, Ha Long

Up early for a tour north of Ha Long City, through the coal country, to a Buddhist Temple, one of the oldest in the nation.  We have a driver, tour guide and a guide in training.  Tweet, the 23 year old guide, a bubbly girl.  This is pilgrimage time for the Vietnamese.  They were dressed in their finest, all western garb, at the temple.  We ate lunch there – all vegetarian.  Many people took pictures of us and with us as Westerners are rare for most Vietnamese.  We felt like ‘stars’.

Below the temple and right, I chat with our tour guides, delightful young persons.

Stopped at a market, more how does one say, traditional…some of Vietnam is very modern – a suspension bridge, a museum, but in other places, modernization has not taken place.  But no doubt the country is growing prosperous, and no one is hungry.

 

Next post, we go to Ho Chi Mien City (Saigon) and memories come flooding back....