... Visa-Free Policy Important To Attract More Tourists To Vietnam; The trenches, which should have been full of VC and NVA troops, were only partly filled. The series complements a Maryland Public Television initiative All of us were up for raising hell, but not you Joe, you opted to stay in the motel room with a bottle of whiskey and a good book. You never had to go through the PTSD so many of us did. Updates? You can’t make this shit up! I’m not sure what the total casualties were for this multi-day operation, but I do know that it was considered a great victory by the Cavalry and I found out many years later that our battalion was presented a Presidential Unit Citation for the battle. His mother had picked him up and started running away from the village and that’s what saved both of their lives. I pointed out that we had no idea what we were up against and that it would be extremely dangerous to do so. but couldn’t escape the village, I wondered where she got the bullets To remember that it can and will happen again – indeed, still is happening. First we guarded bridges along Highway 19, then they sent us back to base camp to pull Palace Guard (or guarding division headquarters) which we discovered was much to our liking, since there was always the possibility of day passes to go to town. The villagers were mostly rice farmers, but some of them also mined the South China Sea for salt. Our platoon Sargent, Paul Jackson, a lanky southerner and army lifer, led the way and was the first to get to the trench. This ferment in the “national script” also swept into the essentially new medium of journalism, which afforded great access to the Vietnamese people. Vietnamese articles and stories provide natural models of the language in an interesting and engaging context that help you deepen your knowledge and increase your knowledge of Vietnamese.. The second time through was just mopping up, but we were relieved and glad when it was over. I’m glad you were spared all this. In our society, we pay people to do the job most of us would never do. We count about 15 dead and five wounded. Tim O’Brien said it best in The Things They Carried: “War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. Both are bleeding and calling out for help. I backed away from the bushes a bit and went to my knees, frantically trying to clear my weapon. Then came that goddamn horrible night at LZ Bird. I don’t think so. Perhaps the two most influential literary movements, when one considers their lasting effect, were the Tu Luc Van Doan (“Independent Literary Group”), led by Khai Hung and Nhat Linh, and the Tho Moi (“New Poetry”) school, which included important writers such as Xuan Dieu, Che Lan Vien, Cu Huy Can, Bang Ba Lan, and Luu Trong Lu. With the success of the Viet Minh and the abdication of Emperor Bao Dai in August 1945, the current stage was set: in the North, a form of Socialist Realism became the orthodoxy, both in poetry and prose, yet there were notable nonconforming poets such as Xuan Dieu, Che Lan Vien, Te Hanh, as well as To Huu, who served as the poet of the Marxist viewpoint. There were other reasons why I joined the army, but one of the main ones was to serve my country. In the heat of battle, there’s no time to think. Their differences in defining Vietnamese nationalism would lead to further extremes of right and left in later years. His uncle was a VC fighter and was killed there. Ehrhart, the … To remember that for every name on the wall there was a family back home – wives, girlfriends, children and friends affected by their death. Apparently he ran straight out to meet the attack head on. You didn’t have to come home to an ungrateful country that was being torn apart by the war. For nearly 2,000 years after that, most Vietnamese writing was in Chinese ideograms. If you are a veteran, know a veteran, or are related to a veteran, and would like to place a personal story on the Online Veterans Tribute, please mail it to: American Veterans Center 1100 N. Glebe Rd. The two assholes that barged in that night got more than they bargained for. Huey choppers by the dozen came roaring into the rice paddies, dropping us six or eight at a time, far enough from the village to be out of small arms range. I assure them they will be okay. They say time heals all wounds and in my case I think it has, or at least it has scabbed over nicely and doesn’t hurt so much any more. I managed to survive the night – only six from our platoon made it through unscathed. I’ll never know if he makes it. In the earliest centuries of the independent Vietnamese nation, a great deal of the literature was produced by Buddhist monks of the Thien school (a prior form of what is better known as Zen), which had reached Vietnam as early as the 2nd century by means of Indian monks traveling to China. When the figure was ten or fifteen feet from us, we both fired two or three rounds each. They are two battalions of the NVA’s 22nd Regiment – well trained, well disciplined and motivated, reinforced by local VC insurgents. The hilltop smolders and dead bodies sprawl everywhere. A young Vietnamese-American man was born in Vietnam but raised in California. Dr. Seuss’ first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was rejected … It’s a brave new world now and truth be told, I much preferred the old one. I saw a body slump and after firing those few rounds, my rifle jammed. The long blades also gave up their dry leeches, which stuck to any exposed skin like so many wormy little vampires. One of the drawbacks of elephant grass is that it can hide danger as easily as it can provide cover and safety. Some analysts have speculated it may have been one of the most intense battles of the war, if not the most. Demolition experts arrive to disarm the satchel charges that failed to explode. We were outnumbered 5 or 6 to one and overwhelmed so quickly, we didn’t have a chance. You were the small town country boy and I was the city slicker from Chicago. The hilltop fire-base was blanketed with an eerie, early morning mist and still smoldering from the battle in the night. Written in the Chu Nom vernacular in 3,253 luc-bat couplets of the oral folk tradition, The Tale of Kieu was immediately a great classical work and also a work, when read aloud, that was accessible to the masses of Vietnamese who could not read or write. There were no signs of bullet wounds or blood. As we trudged through the blood soaked mud the sight was mournful. The alphabetical system of writing, called Quoc-ngu, or “the national script,” was much simpler to learn than either Chinese or Chu Nom. You can’t make this shit up! Professor of English at North Carolina State University. To their great relief, they were ordered out and my battalion, the 1st Bn. I still, on occasion, do get choked up though, when I think about the terrible waste of life and the brothers I lost that night. He was one hell of a soldier too. Early morning light glinted off her shiny, jet black hair for the M-16 strapped on her back Personally, it has never been far from my consciousness. What we could tell was that it was coming toward us. As I did so, I could see one of the VC through a small gap in the hedge. 40% to 60% of those were either in combat, provided close support or were regularly exposed to enemy attack. The Pentagon and MAC-V (Military Assistance Command – Vietnam) headquarters, though interested, still have not anything more than the foggiest notion of what happened. The Vietnam War, like all wars, had a million ways to kill us. Corrections? Rigor mortis had stiffened the bodies, making the task even more unpleasant. Except for the peak, which was occupied by 1st Cav. He pointed to a large tree and said that during one of the shellings they had rounded up the village livestock and put them all in that area thinking they would be protected, but another direct hit killed virtually every animal in the village. To remember that unless we put an end to war, it will surely put an end to us all. Eventually the onslaught is too much – it’s down to hand-to-hand combat now inside the perimeter near the artillery pits and we start pulling back. We weren’t motivated. Through my interpreter/guide, we questioned him and asked him if he remembered the battle. While actress Bea Arthur, who died in 2009, will forever be remembered as Dorothy on the 1985 to 1992 sitcom The Golden… Our country has become a police state run by multi-national corporations – a corporate plutocracy. We carefully reconnoiter our old positions, wary of booby traps, searching for wounded and assessing the damage in human terms. Many of us were unable to cope with it, were not able to get through it and return to anything like a normal life. The fighting was the most intense any of us had ever experienced. We never see him again. Thanks to Jenning’s quick thinking, within seconds we are flipping the unwrapped grenades to him, with pins straightened, so he just pulls the pins and lets them fly. Cavalry Division and the brave men of B/2/19th (105mm) and C/6/16th (155mm) Artillery units. “After a year I felt so plugged in to all the stories and the images and the fear that even the dead started telling me stories, you’d hear them out of a remote but accessible space where there were no ideas, no emotions, no facts, no proper language, only clean information. My Vietnam – All Stories webadminvietnam 2017-05-08T16:31:49-05:00. I’ve also been in touch with other veterans and shared my experiences with them. Read More ». We pulled you up and out before you drown, but it wasn’t easy to do doubled over in laughter as we were. My Vietnam – All Stories. Our patrol leader led us to a spot about 50 meters from the ridge, where a hedgerow ran perpendicular down from the top of the ridge to a well worn foot path. 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. In order to get out in front of our company, our patrol had to march to the front gate of the base – no small hike – then back north again. Beautiful white sand beaches, then, a bit further inland, emerald green rice paddies and quaint looking hamlets of mud and straw huts, or as we called them, hooches. Twentieth-century Vietnamese literature was a chronicle of movements, evolutions, and revolutions as writers witnessed the disappearance of their feudal past under French colonialism. I’ve heard varying numbers on dead and wounded, but having been there I tend to agree with S.L.A. There was no fire coming from the village until we got about 50 meters away – even then, the gunfire coming at us was only light sniper fire. My first thought was: Fuck! The number of dead and wounded at Bird vary widely, depending upon whom you ask. We try to calm him, but he’s insane with fear and crying out in pain, pleading mournfully for help, but any attempt to get him up out of the bunker in the heat of battle, will most likely mean death for us all. And at the same time, I knew if things were reversed, she would have done the same to me. Paul Jackson and several others from Charlie Company, 1. His Truyen Kieu (The Tale of Kieu), or Kim Van Kieu, is generally considered the pinnacle of Vietnamese literature. I’ve been criticized in the past for things I’ve written about Bird. My head is near the outer face of it and I’m doing what passes for sleep in Vietnam. The Christian religious right in America, though a minority, have turned Christian principles on their head and taken over our government. He would volunteer for any and every dangerous duty that came along. The thick air already smelled of death and blood. Dawn is a long time coming. A lot of people now see the world for what it really is, but too many feel powerless to do anything about it – the cards are stacked against them. He was our self-appointed sniper. The oral poetry tradition is purely native. They’ve done away with the draft, so only a minuscule portion of our population has a vested interest in, or even cares about war anymore (which is endless now). It’s hard to look at each other. The Confucian mandarinate that had served the throne and nation for centuries would then be gone entirely. home before morning: the story of an army nurse in vietnam by Lynda Van Devanter, 1983 Generally considered the top memoir by a female Vietnam veteran, this brutally frank book is written with many detailed descriptions of the wounded and dying men Van Devanter saw as a nurse at the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku during her 1969-70 tour. Our country was never the same after Vietnam. For all we knew, these few VC were just the tip of an iceberg. We were flown up to Camp Radcliff at An Khe from Saigon as a unit to replace the mortar platoon of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment which got wiped out at LZ Hereford in the Central Highlands a day or two after we arrived. I knew right then you’d be a good man to have by my side in Vietnam. Regardless of what you thought about the Vietnam war, the fact is 2,709,918 Americans served in Vietnam, representing almost 10% of their (very large) generation. I hated being in a kill or be killed position. It was just another battle, fairly early in the war and soon forgotten by all but those who were there. Its serrated edges sliced our bare arms as we humped the rolling hills. Most popular. While concurring on the prestige of Chinese writing, Vietnamese literati were intent on establishing the independence of Vietnamese writing, even as they accepted models from the full range of Chinese literary forms, especially the “regulated verse” form, or lüshi, of the Tang dynasty. This morning, like every other, we marched single file, spread out 10 to 15 feet apart, because as god and every non-com in the army knew – if we clustered together “one round would get us all” (one mortar, or artillery round that is). We shook hands and buried the hatchet so to speak. Many men die in war, but don’t drop until years later. the fight at Bird was a defeat for the United States, no simple reverse, and barely short of disaster. They are coming in waves, and it isn’t long before we see them behind us inside the perimeter. This was done as it was getting dark so by the time we reached our first stopping point of the night, it was fully dark, except for the glow of lights from the base and the search lights from the towers which panned back and forth. We tell him he will be OK, and we’ll be back for him as soon as possible. NOTE: Again, I want to thank Sally Saville Hodge at Hodge Media Strategies for taking the time to edit this piece. Here’s what retired General S.L.A. Definitely one lucky son of a bitch! He’d rather spend the rest of his life in Leavenworth at hard labor than go through another night like this. Its general adoption, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spread literacy throughout Vietnam and sped the introduction of Western ideas and literary forms, including the appearance of the Western-style novel and short story. Both the VC and the NVA were elusive and contact was sporadic. Out of 26 men in my platoon, only six emerge without a scratch. Out in the darkness, just beyond our perimeter, hundreds of small, wiry, underfed bodies are slithering through elephant grass, closing in on us with uncanny stealth. Recently back from Vietnam Like the time we were crossing some flooded rice fields – walking on the paddy dykes as we did. We are terrified and expect to momentarily be annihilated. Our country was never the same after Vietnam. We quickly set up an assembly line of sorts and three of us start doing this as fast as we can. They would come in and hover with the skids three or four feet off the ground and we would jump to the ground under the sound and downdraft of the rotor blades. Indeed, by the time Nguyen Du had finished his Tale of Kieu, French military engineers had already built the fortifications of the Hue citadel for a new dynasty of the Nguyen emperors. He crept up slowly, not knowing what to expect and when he peered over the edge he was face to face with a squad of VC laying in the trench. Dangerous for us, dangerous for the enemy and even more dangerous for the hapless villagers caught in the middle. The fighting was the most intense any of us had ever experienced. Due to the so-called Fog of War, it was not often we knew for certain when we had killed someone in battle – there were only a few instances during my tour in Vietnam when I could say for sure I had and this was one of them. The illumination rounds floating down on their tiny parachutes caused the village to take on a surrealistic aspect as the light from them, along with the palm fronds above created a thousand moving shadows. Finally, the team leader got on the radio and told him we would try to go back – if we could find it again in the dark. My experience at Bird I’m sure was quite different from the experience of an artilleryman that night. A dense, tropical cloud cover is blotting out the moon and stars. The enemy had had his way, Our losses, compared to theirs, were mournful. Omissions? A few minutes later, a figure in black silk pajamas emerged from behind the corner of the hooch, crawling on hands and knees straight toward us. I had the dubious honor of being the radioman that night. It is probably of Taoist inspiration and affirms a belief in genie and immortals. You were broad shouldered and stocky and I was thin as a rail and wiry. Andrew deGrandpre and Tony Lombardo November 23, 2016 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial includes more than 58,000 names of men and women killed or missing in action during the Vietnam War. We lived on a farm. One of the long-timers, Donald Woods and one of the new recruits, who was spending his first night in the field are dug out after having spent the night in the bottom of their foxhole, buried alive by the overhead cover which had collapsed on them. The higher ridges nearby are used by the enemy to great effect by raining rocket and mortar rounds down on us once the battle begins. So being the practical guy you were, you decided to step down into the water, walk across the gap and climb up the other side. From the opening salvo, it’s obvious we are vastly outnumbered. My squad leader, Sgt. We had some good laughs along the way. Editor and translator of. Can you imagine that? It’s after midnight and pitch black. “You’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead.”. I think the day after is worse than the battle itself. I’m happy to say this particular lieutenant learned his lesson and eventually became a decent leader. The young girl we killed that night has haunted me ever since and it’s just one of a thousand memories I wish I didn’t have. Along with the borrowed conventions of Chinese literature came Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. He screams for help out of the pitch black darkness – there is nothing we can do for him. You were RTO at the time and had that heavy radio strapped to your back. The steady stream of grenades we put out are highly effective. It wouldn’t stop bullets, but it did provide cover. I was given command of a three-man 60mm mortar squad in the 3rd Marine Division’s Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. Our company’s position that night was opposite that ridge, just south of the mountain. Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam by Nick Turse. 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