Looking Back

Trip 6 is history.  The significance sustains.

With our telescope pointed toward our big bang what can we see?  How we got here?  Perhaps . . . if we consider how our view of the past is pummeled as it passes through our personal context.

On our trip, Veterans looked back at memories, some vivid, some suppressed.  Ghosts of the past were examined in the new light of the present.  One of our Vets told me he was ready to go back and talk openly with his children about his feelings and experiences of the war that he had previously kept bottled inside.  I revisited past trip experiences and saw other places for the first time, but the best thing for me was the chance to see through the eyes of other Veterans and students.

Khe Sanh

Students saw beyond what the classroom could say about a war.  They looked through the eyes of the Veterans at the horror, bravery, sorrow, humility, dedication to duty and patriotism that each one faced all those years ago.  Images from the trip, seeing where it happened, made it real, brought it to life.

  

We gained a new feel for the history, culture and mindset of the Vietnamese, different from North to South, different from Midwestern thought, ideas and values, yet still a part of the humanity we share.

    

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Graveyard Battle

The shadow of a graveyard hung over Joe for fifty years; the Vietnamese graveyard where he almost died.  The graveyard where more than half his unit did die.

As the consummate Marine, he had voluntarily left the relative safety of his assignment at Phu Bai to join the battle to regain control in Hue after the 1968 Tet offensive.  When his convoy was surrounded by the North Vietnamese Army on the road through the graveyard, the nightmare of battle began.  After taking out an enemy machine gun emplacement and engaging enemy troops at close range he was severely wounded in both legs by a grenade, but continued to fight until reinforcements arrived.

On the way to Hue our bus pulled to the side of the road as it passed through the ancient cemetery.  Joe led our group as his gaze swung from one gravesite then another.  “There was a sharp bend in the road,” he said.  He swung his right arm in an arc, then settled on a spot facing downhill toward the road.  “This is the place.”

The low grey overcast and quiet mist created a sanctuary for our mixed congregation.  Joe offered up a prayer for those who died in the battle and healing for those who remained.  With a vial of holy water brought from home he consecrated the site in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

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How Goes the Trip

This is the way we have rolled in the past week:  Up for sunrise and the hotel breakfast.

Grab your suitcase and bottle water and find a seat on the bus.

We’re off to see the sites of the day.

At Cu Chi we crawl through the tunnels;

In Saigon we stroll through the Presidential Palace;

At Chu Lai I remember the time my trusty A-4 tested the aluminum mat runway for the Marines;

A stop at China beach then swing around Danang;

We walk from South to North across the old bridge at the DMZ;

We go into the underground Village at Vinh Moc;

and visualize the battle at Khe Sanh as we walk the ground.

Traveling from place to place the tranquil fishing villages and rice fields we see from the bus seem remote from the years of war represented by the Veterans on our trip.

Each significant area we pass through is a chance to get a pinhole view into what went on as each Veteran recounts his story.

It would take thousands of pinholes to patch together a coherent picture of all that happened.  But, when a Vietnam Vet returns for the first time to where his personal war unfolded and tells his personal story of what it was like, you get a tiny picture of the tragedy, heartbreak and valor that are wrapped in the package we call the Vietnam War.

 

 

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Can Tho Handoff

What a trip.  So much to do, so little time.   For me to describe the excitement and experience of this trip will take some time and more thought. Free time and wi-fi are hard to find.

The best I can do is to hand you off to the College web site where the students are creating a blog that will keep you updated until I can catch up.

Go to https://cofovietnam2017.wordpress.com/

Meanwhile here are a few pix from Can Tho:

 

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Beginning the Tour

 

This is the entire tour group after our first day in country, in pretty good shape except for a bit of jet lag.

When our flight reached the Vietnam coast yesterday, several of the Vets moved around in the cabin trying to get a better view, looking for something they might recognize on the ground.  That’s their personal odyssey playing out. As we go through the trip we will share our stories with each other and the students.  The trip is primarily about education for the college students.  But still, we’re all students.

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Family

This picture is the Friday Night Club waiting for dinner.  Sherry and I got together yesterday with my sister, brother, sister-in-law and cousin.  Let’s call it a small part of the family of Dan.  That’s a miniscule part of the family of man.  Before you roll your eyes and quit reading, let me explain.  After taking my malaria pill this morning, I fought my way through two airports and now, sardined into an airline seat, I’m underway on a trip to the other side of the world, typing to the whine of the engines while bumping through turbulence.

So, as I look around at my fellow travelers, that has me thinking about family, extended family and tribes we identify with — groups I’ve found myself in from grade school through the Navy and beyond.  I don’t expect to have a problem assimilating into The College of the Ozarks group I’ll meet up with in San Francisco.  After all, I did go to college once . . . a long time ago.  And I was a part of that large tribe called the military with all its branches and subdivisions.  Looking forward to meeting the Vietnam Veterans in our group.  That tribe bonds around taking enemy fire in a common war.

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