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Posted on March 1, 2017 at 01:12:51 PM by Pat Ryan (6/29th Arty & 19Cambodia Vet.)
Jerry
FYI: I am writing to let you know that my wife Mary and I have just returned from Vietnam. My older daughter is Global Marketing Manager for Otis Elevator and has done business in Hanoi and Saigon (HCMC). She decided that her Christmas present was to take me back to Vietnam so she could show Mary and me Hanoi (& Halong Bay) and Saigon and so that I could show the family where we were in the Central Highlands. She used her frequent flier miles to fly us there and back business class and to provide some top-notch hotels. Our son, the oldest, joined us in Hanoi and used some of his hotel points to also provide some of the overnights. Our youngest and her husband were unable to join us because of their jobs.
Mary and I returned to Des Moines last evening and are exhausted and screwed up on sleeping. I've already had two naps today. The third is on the way.
But I wanted to tell you about some of what we saw, especially in the Central Highlands. Of special importance to me was visiting LZ Hard Times on the north edge of the village of Vinh Thanh.
Indeed much about the village of Vinh Thanh (The Honoured Ones) has changed. First, road 637 that comes up the west side of the Song Con is no longer a dirt road but a blacktop road. Vinh Thanh is no longer a straggly village of shacks (?) along a dirt road with the firebase north of it. It is now a beautiful little town of nice new houses and wide streets that has overgrown the RF-PF camp and firebase (both north side and south side). The shallow conical peak that the RF-PF camp sat on is still there, but it is a park in the middle of town. There is a marker on the east side of the park. However, our tour guide told me the sign says that it was a prisoner of war camp. I told him maybe it became one before the end of the war, but I had never heard that. Our guide said, “Pat, it says it was a prisoner of war camp from 1962-1975.” I told him that to my knowledge that was not true.
When we came up road 637, the highway angles west (instead of rolling through the old village, which is now a side street) before going north again through town. The new part is now the main part of the town. My guess is, the highway now lies atop the old airstrip, going north. But at first we stayed east along the old road, which I believe is now a branch numbered 630 on maps (coming out the north end of the old village that the RF-PFs used to walk from the village to the camp). I wanted to stay along it near the Song Con to get my bearings. I was looking for the area where we went skinny-dipping and the Coke girls came to watch (that happened the second time we were at Hard Times on the north side).
Twenty years ago I wrote about 100 pages of my recollections of Vietnam for Mary and our kids. Then without letting the kids (only Mary) read it, I set it aside to simmer. It simmered for twenty years. Before this trip I reread it, made no changes, and sent it to my three kids, and Patrick and Mary Beth read it before accompanying us on the trip. In it I tell the story about the Coke girls showing up while we were frolicking in the nude.
So the first thing we did on this trip after coming through the old part of the village was to stay along the river edge and go to that spot on the river-again to help me get my bearings.
At a certain point I directed the driver to stop. I got out to take pictures. Our guide knew I was interested in getting to the riverbank, but there is now a row of older, more rural homes between the road and the river. The guide opened a gate and began walking around in the people's yard, and a small dog came out barking when we let ourselves into his territory, but the dog backed off. (Before taking the trip I had the three-shot rabies vaccinations and figured I could deal with rabid dogs to keep Mary and the kids safe). The guide claimed he saw somebody in the house wave an okay for us to pass through the small property to the riverbank. I saw no one, but my kids and I followed the guide's lead and headed to the riverbank. The river looks very much the same. But there is a very good view of the location from the new east-west concrete bridge that crosses the river (about even with the north end of the landing strip that was along the west side of the large firebase.)
The old part of the town to the south was much the same as before, with some old shacks mixed with newer houses. But where the RF-PF camp was and where we had been dug-in along the southern side of it and later on the north side of it, Vinh Thanh is now a new, modern Vietnamese town. The new areas (the old military areas) are now the bulk of the modern town.
The town is beautiful, and I took several pictures from the car as we drove the streets. I suggested earlier that the new highway diagonals west on the south side of town instead of coming through the older part of the town, and my best guess is that the new main road turns north again about where the landing strip was on the west side of the firebase. We stopped along that main street for coffee at a very nice, modern, open-air coffee shop. As we and the guide and driver were getting ready to leave, an older man wandered in. It seemed like he was related somehow to the young woman who was running the place. I told him through the interpreter that I had been there twice in early 1970. He was thrilled and said that he had been there too. He was a 15-year-old boy at the time. My kids took pictures of us together.
The mountains on each side of the valley are very much the same.
There is much to tell about HWY-19 from near the Cambodia border to Dragon Mountain/Camp Enari, to Pleiku, to the Mang Yang Pass, to Anh Khe, to the Anh Khe Pass, to road 637 (north along the west side of the Song Con to Vinh Thanh/Hard Times), and to Quy Nhon on HWY19 along the south side of the Song Con after it turns east along the north side of HWY-19.
We also spent 3 days in Hanoi with a side trip to overnight on a Halong Bay ship before flying to Pleiku. Among many other Hanoi sites, we visited the location (there is a marker commemorating the event) where pilot-now-Senator John McCain was pulled out of Truc Bach Lake after being shot down and Hoa Lo(a) Prison (the “Hanoi Hilton”), where he, “Pete” Peterson and other pilots were held. At Pleiku I was amazed to see the little old control tower still at the airport (the former Pleiku airbase where I had first arrived in the 4ID AO). Unfortunately, I missed getting a picture of it because we landed just after sunset. But I think I may have one from back in the day.
After two nights at a brand new luxury beach resort (with golf course and a golf tournament taking place while we were there) on the ocean in Quy Nhon we went north generally on HWY 1, seeing Phu Cat Airport (the former US airbase), the mountain that LZ Arnold Trail (late April-early May 1970) hung on (I think), My Lai, Hoi An, Danang, and Hue before flying to HCMC (Saigon) for about another four days.
At Pleiku and An Khe we drove around Camp Enari and Camp Radcliffe for some distance. It would appear that many of the buildings are gone but others are being used by the Vietnamese military today. Both are now Vietnamese military bases, and our guide and driver said you are not supposed to take pictures of the two posts, but I got a couple on the sly.
Finally, I fell in love with Vietnamese food. We have a lot of Vietnamese in Des Moines due to the forethought of a far-sighted Republican governor in the 1970s, who made the state of Iowa a resettlement agency for the Vietnamese. As a consequence there is a very good Vietnamese restaurant here. Mary and I have patronized it several times before, but I suspect we will be there more frequently in the future.
Enough for now. I took lots of pictures-many from the car along HWY 19 from near the Cambodia border to Dragon Mountain/Camp Enari/Pleiku, to the Mang Yang Pass, to Camp Radcliff/An Khe, to the An Khe Pass and its switchbacks, to road 637 (north to Hard Times/Vinh Thanh) and on to Quy Nhon. Larry Brainerd (Cpt C 6/29th 1969) has asked me to bring my photos to a Rolla, MO event this spring. I will if I can get the display technology figured out. I will probably also take them to the 100th anniversary 4ID Reunion in August in Colorado Springs.
Sincerely,
Pat Ryan. C 6/29th Arty
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