frisco-kid
Sun December 4, 2005 9:13pm
Rating: 10
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100_0089
The only disturbing place for me on the whole trip was the War Museum in Saigon. I went there after stopping at the Buddhist temple, "U.S. PARATROOPER" hat and all. You pay less than a buck to get in. You then enter a gallery depicting the war in pictures. One of the first displays is of unit patches of all of the American units involved in the war. You then meander through a hall lined with blown-up pictures of U.S. forces in kinda chronological order. The first thing I noticed about them was that they were all taken from Life Magazine, newswire agencys, etc., many of them famous pictures. They were given usually slanted captions. Their museum; I guess they can say whatever they want. Some of them were wrong, also. They had several of the 101st dated when I was with them and the location stated wasn't accurate. They did have one cool picture of us making the jump at Kontum, taken from inside the plane as we exited the door. I don't think I was in it, though. I don't recall a photographer on my plane.
As you exit the building, you go through an outside exhibit of U.S. military equipment. These are the one's I have pictured.
When you cross the exhibit, you enter another building. This is the one I really had a problem with. The whole theme of the exhibit inside is depicting us a s barbarians and war criminals. It starts out with an exhibit explaining Agent Orange; pictures of planes spraying it; topped off with a couple deformed fetuses in jars claiming to be caused by the effects of AO. It then flows into pictures of napalm drops on villes and countryside; pictures of burnt victims; and the centerpiece,.....the little naked girl running down the road away from a napalm strike. The caption conveniently doesn't mention that this was an ARVN Air Force drop. I set the record straight with several Europeans that were near me. It then, of course, went into pictures of My Lai. As I moved through the pictures, I noticed one of the uniformed security guards was watching me. I stopped and locked eyes with him until he looked away. Phuck him. Did the same thing with a couple Europeans that I caught giving me side glances. It then went through a group of pictures of us handling prisoners and dead bodies. One of them was a picture of an APC dragging three bodies down a road. The caption said that the three was dragged to death but, upon a closer look, you could see that one had an obvious GSW to the head. There were others with prisoners being led by ropes around their necks with the caption reading that we treated prisoners worse than we would animals. On the way out of the building there was another room with a sign above it saying something like "Children Remember The War Through Drawings And Writings," or something like that. I could only imagine what half-truths and lies were being presented in there. I was too pissed to go in. I walked out and told my driver lets get the phuck out of here. It might be their museum, but I don't have to like it. I'm sure my body language told them so, too.
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frisco-kid
Sun December 4, 2005 9:35pm
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100_0045_2
Famous Ben Thanh Market in central Saigon. If you can't find it here, you don't need it. There are a couple other markets, but nothing on this scale, except maybe the Cholon Market. We didn't go out there this time, but we did last visit with James and Sue.
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frisco-kid
Sun December 4, 2005 11:16pm
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100_0044
Kath didn't want to get her hair wet with spray, so didn't go behind the falls.
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frisco-kid
Sun December 4, 2005 11:55pm
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12-3-2005-23
After we left Dalat, headed back to Saigon, we stopped 8-10mi. out of town at Prenn Falls. This is one of several falls in the area. You pay a small fee to enter, and it has a bit of a theme park atmosphere to it. As you enter, there are several psuedo thatched roof structures selling drinks, food, and souveniers.
I escorted convoys from Cam Ranh Bay, through Phan Rang, and up the climb to Dalat. There was a Special Forces camp and an aviation outfit on a small airstrip near here that we hauled fuel to. I don't remember seeing any of the falls from the road back then. Always thought this was some beautiful country. It was deceiving, though. We made contact with Charlie up here sometimes.
In FEB67 did a small operation about 30mi. from here around a place called Bao Lac with the 101st. It was also an area of some dramatic waterfalls.
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frisco-kid
Sat December 10, 2005 7:35pm
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3
Don't see too many of these guys anymore. Most of the farming is done by tractor now. There were 3 of them along the road when I approached them, but 2 ran off. This one stood his ground with lowered head, daring me to come alittle closer. I didn't press it. As I remember, they didn't like G.I.s much. Heard several stories of guys being charged.
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frisco-kid
Sat December 10, 2005 7:40pm
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10
Our guide and driver didn't know it, but we were going to run out of pavement on the new road. It ran out about 10mi. before the summit, and we didn't hit anymore until about 3mi. down the Dalat side.
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frisco-kid
Sat December 10, 2005 7:52pm
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20
After leaving Mui ne to the north, you go by some of it's famous sand dunes. You can hire dune buggies to take you out exploring them, but we didn't. As far as I know, they're not found anywhere else along the coast.
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frisco-kid
Sat December 10, 2005 8:59pm
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102_0249
About a week before we got to Mui Ne, there was a big coast storm to the north. It caused some high surf at here. A few days later, there was a hurricane that struck the Philippines. It also caused a high surf at Mui Ne. Between the two of them, there was alot of beach erosion. It did make for some great body surfing, though. Reminded me of my teenage years on Ocean Beach at San Francisco, except you didn't need a wetsuit or treatment for hypothermia in Mui Ne  .
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frisco-kid
Sun December 11, 2005 4:45pm
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100_0071_2
Our driver, Bao. A real nice young man [28yrs. old], who did a great job of driving us all over the countryside. Didn't kill anybody, or get us killed, anyway. He couldn't speak much english, but he liked to rock out to Kath's CD's that she brought along and we played in the CD player in the van .
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frisco-kid
Tue December 13, 2005 6:16pm
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102_0207
After our meal, we did a little beach combing on a beautiful beach that we had all to ourselves. It was about 15yds. from where we were eating our lunch. Found a couple of pretty nice sea shells.
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frisco-kid
Mon December 19, 2005 3:51pm
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101_0200
Phu Quoc is a mountainous island that's covered in rain forest. The whole interior is government property and a preserve. Not too many of these in Nam. During the war there was a POW camp run by the ARVN's on the island, so it saw virtually no fighting in it's interior. It's one of the few places you can go on a hike in the jungle and have a good chance of spotting monkeys and other wildlife. Also, not having to worry about left behind booby traps or ordinance. We were hoping to spot some monkeys on this short jaunt from the car. Didn't see any, but it was a beautiful spot none the less.
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frisco-kid
Mon December 19, 2005 4:46pm
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101_0170
To get to Phu Quoc Island, we had to go Rach Gia from Can Tho. We spent the night there so we could catch a boat to the island the following morning. We had a choice of a ferry [6hrs.] with all the poorer people, chickens, and pigs; or a jet boat [2 1/2hrs.] with the poor people in a hurry, most of the tourists, and I didn't see any livestock aboard.
Rach Gia is a small seaport town with a picturesque waterfront where you can eat a fresh seafood dinner for a couple bucks. The hotel we stayed at was adequate, with clean rooms, air conditioning, and a street view.
We found the town to be the least friendly that we stayed at, though. There are alot of Cambodian commies there, and we got several obviously unfriendly looks and glares. Me walking around with my U.S. PARATROOPER hat with a bounce in my step and a grin on my face, probably didn't win alot of hearts and minds though. Some people just take themselves way too serious .
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82Rigger
Thu September 4, 2008 6:06pm
Rating: 10
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On top of Curahee
Left to Right: Packo, James, Pighumper (Dan) on top of Currahee. No, we drove the 3 miles up. I did jog up the last 100 ft. making me the only one to "run Currahee".
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Gunner Carvo
Sat October 17, 2009 9:10am
Rating: 10
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Carvo-Johnson Wedding
Kinda shaky, but I didn't fall over.
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Gunner Carvo
Sat October 17, 2009 9:10am
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Carvo-Johnson Wedding
Keith Hixson did a great job at my wedding. Thanks, Keith!
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