VIETNAM
going back to vietnam
six years of fund raising and 7823 miles of travel
the vietnam veterans of diablo valley head back to vietnam
However, this visit would wind up somewhat bittersweet. Our
memories of a dimly lit, rundown dive bar with no indoor plumbing
and a single surly local bartender, supplanted by the revelation that
the DMZ had been remodeled and modernized. Oh sure, you
were still allowed to write on the walls with magic marker, but
everything that had been there six years earlier had been changed
in the “great remodel of 2008.” The new had replaced the old, and
we were reminded that our memories of Vietnam of the past were
no longer valid today.
I
t was a dark and stormy night... We find ourselves in Hue,
Vietnam. A group of five of us have trekked to a local watering
hole known as “The DMZ Bar.” We are midway through our 15
day journey across Vietnam, distributing wheelchairs in partnership
with Oakland, California, based East Meets West Foundation, and
visiting old haunts. There are 17 of us in our group, but for a few
of us the DMZ Bar holds fond memories of an evening we shared
there during our last trip to Vietnam, in 2006. It was a night of
laughter and tall tales (all prefaced by the words “True story…!”)
accompanied by beer and an endless supply of coconut peanuts. It
was the night we all wrote our names on the wall with magic marker,
some of us leaving messages for other travelers who would grace the
same space long after we had left.
This message would serve as an underlying theme for many on this
trip. For those among us returning to this country for the first time
since the late 1960s and early 70s, this trip was the opportunity
to experience modern Vietnam and gain understanding of the
life that has evolved since the Vietnam war (or “the American
war,” depending which side you had been on). Of course, it was
wrought with the apprehension and trepidation of not knowing
how we might be received, or how we might remember what we
had forgotten, intentionally or otherwise.
Several in our party set out on side trips to visit locations familiar
to them from their time of service in their respective branches of
the military (we had Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast
Guard represented among us). Again and again, a similar story
was repeated “I found the place where our camp / airfield / base
had been, but now it’s just a Vietnamese War Memorial / shopping
center/ highway, etc…” This is the face of progress in Vietnam. >
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: >>> The Gang assembles outside the White
Hotel in District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, on day one. Many thanks to Ann
Tours and Mr. Truc Vole, our excellent interperter and fixer. >>> In Can
Tho we provided wheelchairs to swimmers wtih Olympic asp irations.
>>> Pictured Left to Right : Jerry Yahiro, John Reese, David Behring and
Richard Lambert with one of the many tennis wheelchairs donated to
East Meets West’s INSPIRE SPORTS programs throughout Vietnam.
w heel ch air fo undatio n.o rg
C h a n gi ng the Wor ld
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