1968 in Vietnam with me on the left at the club with a buddy. Being a part of 13th Finance meant we were for the most part a little luckier that lots of other soldiers being on a secure compound with the job of auditing military pay records making sure both the GI's and the government were being treated equally right.
One of the sad memories is of this individual named Chuck. We had barracks that had a flat roof and one night he was up there and had had too much to drink and fell off getting hurt. Have no idea how it turned out for him but have always hoped he recovered and got better.
Every morning lots of Vietnamese nationals would come onto the compound to work various job assisting us and some would bring a child like this little boy who as he walked around the compound as he met you he would salute you whether you were a private or an officer. I had two class B offices I had to visit by helicopter from time to time auditing their records and while I was gone on one of these trips I found out when I got back that they caught him pacing off the distance from our perimeter fence to our movie shack to give information for a possible mortar round to kill our guys. You just never know really who you are seeing sometimes.
The one person that really made an impact on my happy memories of my tour in Vietnam was this lovely young lady named Kim. She was one of the reasons I can actually say I enjoyed my time in her country. She is the one who introduced me to the Gen Rang Orphanage and accompanied me there to see and know the children there who were products of relationships between GI's and Vietnamese women and that made them outcasts. Some had blonde hair and blue eyes. When it came time to leave Kim and 3 others gave me a large wall hanging with deer on it and their names at the bottom and the orphanage gave me a set of wood deer with one adult and 2 young deer standing on a board for appreciation for helping them.
Some of the children at the orphanage going through some clothes I brought back from a trip home before spending my last 6 months there.
As I mentioned earlier this is an example of a baby born there with features unlike the normal Vietnamese being held by my friend Thu. I had so many happy hours there with these loving children and think about them all the time even to this day. No matter where you go in this world you can find good if you look. I was one of the lucky ones for sure.
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