Faces

More in my series of old photographs from the years of 1968 thru 1970 while in Viet Nam. The above picture was taken the day we carried the clothes and food to the Genrang Orphanage. From left to right is Coloniel Kennedy, Lt. Titcomb, the sister in charge of the orphanage and Kim our friend and interpreter.

One of my hobbies while in Viet Nam was developing photos in the photo lab and sometimes one of the Vietnamese would bring me a negative and want me to make them a print. Usually I would also make one for my album as well. That's where this one came from. She was a waitress in our enlisted men's club and went with us to the orphanage that day.

Here is that same very pretty young lady holding a very special little girl. She had blonde hair and blue eyes making her even more of an outcast. Someone asked if I ever went back or wanted to go back. I have never been back but would leave tomorrow to be able to see Qui Nhon again and check on that orphanage. I have never stopped thinking about this special little girl and often wonder what happened to her.

This is Jim Rouse who worked in my unit and was holding a little girl that was dressed completely in new clothes for the first time in her young life.

Another of the photos I developed and this was one of the youngest of the helpers that took care of our quarters and everyone called her Judy.

Another one I developed of a pair of girls that worked in the enlisted men's club and this is Twiggy & Toe.

To close out today this is Chuck Douglas who was in my unit and developed a drinking problem. One night he was on top of our quarters drinking liquor and fell off the flat roof onto the cement below and had to be shipped out. Another sad story.

I am enjoying this journey back in time and hope you folks like it as well.

Viet Nam through Odie's eyes

During my 19 months in Viet Nam I made friends with some of the Vietnamese people and they helped me cope with where I was and made my stay there seem worthwhile. The lady pictured above is Kim Phong and worked in our office at 13th Finance in Qui Nhon. She introduced me to the children at Genrang Orphanage and acted as interpreter since the Catholic nuns spoke no English.

Kim invited me to a Vietnamese wedding for a family member that was held at 7 AM so that was an interesting experience and afterward at a reception I ate some things that I will never know what it was. Of course that's me on the right.

After I had been there for 13 months I took a 30 day leave and went home to visit with my then almost 6 month old daughter Pam who did not want me around her mother at first. The entire pregnancy took place while I was away. While home I had an article put in the local paper about the orphanage and received a lot of support in the way of clothes & food which I shipped ahead of me and when I got back the company commander thought it would be a good thing for a lot of our finance company to go with me to deliver the goods. It was the first time some of these children had worn new clothes in their short lives. They were products of relationships with GI's and Vietnamese women which made them outcasts.

The picture below is of a little boy that came onto the compound every morning with the Vietnamese nationals that worked on the compound in various types of work. He was unique in that he would approach you and salute you no matter what rank you had and always had a huge smile on his face. Working with the Inspector General's office I sometimes had to make trips to smaller finance offices to perform an audit. When I returned from one of those trips I noticed he was around and found out that they found him pacing off the distance from our movie shack to the perimeter fence which would have aided an explosive round to be fired killing many of us. I never saw him again.

There were numerous female workers that took care of our living quarters and our clothes. The two below are a couple of the workers.

In the picture below the lady on the right who I called "mama san" took care of my personal quarters, washed and ironed my clothes and shined my boots. She would iron with a blanket spread out on the cement floor in the squat position for hours and never complain. She worked for a number of GI's and my portion of pay was $9.00 a month and made her very happy.

We actually had a pet that seemed to always be around that we appropriately named "Payroll". He was looked after by a native American from Rapid City, SD who frequently allowed Payroll to have his share of beer. On at least two occasions I remember seeing Payroll passed out. The native was a staff sergeant when I arrived there and was demoted to specialist 4th class due to problems with drinking. One of the sad stories.

In the picture below you can see some of the GI's clothes hanging to dry on the left.

Below is one shot taken at a leper colony I was allowed to visit in 1969. We were not allowed to take pictures of the people who had fingers and toes missing and some with a hole in their face where their nose once was. It was a beautiful village right along the coast.

Although the food in the mess hall was very good we sometimes ate at the enlisted men's club where we could get burgers, steaks and shrimp anytime and the drinks and beers were only 15 cents each and the best shot of liquor was only 35 cents which is why to many GI's got in trouble with their drinking habit. Here I am with a fellow worker relaxing at the club.

The man below is Sgt Mickle, my immediate supervisor in our quality assurance section of 13th Finance. He had ulcers and had to drink a lot of milk.

This is specialist Hayes hard at work in our QA section.

Below are some views around the compound.

When I stopped over in Japan on the way home I picked up these 2 tapestries that hung in my home for many years until they started to deteriorate and had to be thrown away. Hope you enjoyed the tour and memories.

Wordless Wednesday-1969 & having too much fun

I can feel their pain

This morning my wife blessed me with funds to visit her favorite place and get a pedicure. It was my second and certainly won't be my last.


The lady that was taking care of me was talking with another employee at one time and I recognized it to be Vietnamese. I asked her where she came from and she said Vietnam. I told her that I had spent 19 months there back in 1968 through 1970 and spent most of my time in Qui Nhon.


Her next statement moved me when she said she was born in Qui Nhon and later moved to Saigon. I shared with her that I had spent time at the Ghen Rang Orphanage and enjoyed being with the children who were products of sexual relations between GI's & Vietnamese women. Basically they were outcast and no one really cared about them except Catholic Nuns that ran the orphanage


She then opened up and said that she was mixed as well and never knew who her father was. It hurt hearing this knowing how all this happens. I have seen on line that the orphanage I visited was one of the orphanages that were airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975 when Saigon fell. From what I have read there were many families waiting for them so hopefully they were joined with good families.

She indicated that she was only 5 when she was evacuated out of Saigon and had to walk over dead bodies getting out of there. She said the memories of the scene of death bothered her for some time but she eventually put it behind her and moved on.


When she explained to me how it hurt to know she was thought of as nothing and disposable it hurt me as well being part of the group that was over there. I just don't understand why we can't seem to go into a foreign country without somehow messing it up in one way or another.


Of course I can't think back to that time in the orphanage without first thinking of the little blonde hair and blue eyed girl being held by one of the girls that worked on my compound. She was looking so cute and yet she was part of the disposable group of children. All I can do is hope that she was indeed airlifted out of Vietnam and now lives with a loving family. For today I have been there and yes I do feel their pain.

What was I thinking - Part 4

I had heard many times, mostly from the Bible, about lepers and the dreaded disease that was so bad at one time. One of the girls that worked on the compound suggested I go to visit the lepers near the city so I convinced another guy to go as well. It was safe since you have to be around it for a period of time to actually develop the problem.

The residents here had to have a way to support themselves and this group made tiles for floors and walls. The colors were amazing and I was so impressed with how talented they were. It was kind of shocking to see people there with stubs where fingers and toes used to be. Probably the worst sight I saw while in Viet Nam was the man who had a hole in his face where his nose used to be. The specific area was so lovely compared to the city itself. There were palm trees and it was actually on the coast so the shore line was in sight and the beach made it look more like a resort than a leper colony. It made me think so differently after that whenever I would read anywhere and see the word leper.

After I returned from my 30 days at home that meant I only had another 5 months to spend there and then I could go home for good. Spending that extra 5 months over there allowed me to get out of the Army earlier that I would have ordinarily. Those 5 months really went by pretty quickly. I mentioned about not really being in danger which was not entirely true. I also mentioned about hoping that the locals that worked on the compound were loyal to us and didn't try to harm us. Besides the boy I mentioned that was captured while I was away there was also an incident where someone on the way to the mess hall found a trip wire attached to a hand grenade by the LP gas tank behind our mess hall. If that has gone off a lot of guys could have died. Some guys left the country in bad shape due to self inflicted problems like terrible strains of STD from having sex with prostitutes or overindulgence of alcohol. One of my friends, Chuck, was on the roof of our quarters where we had a flat roof for lifting weights or relaxing in the breeze. He was chugging whiskey and walked off the roof onto the cement below and had to airlifted out. Don't know what ever happened to him.

Towards the end of my tour over there as I neared June of 1970 the danger got closer to us and I will never forget the evening when a morter round went off close enough to throw rocks and debris into our compound. That was too close. So, even though I had made friends with some of the locals and the children at the orphanage, I was ready to get out of there. Even today I often wonder what ever happened to my friends and wish I could go back to Qui Nhon and see first hand how things have changed. I can tell from the internet that Viet Nam is a tourist destination today. I think that is a good thing.

So, arriving back at home for the second time finding my daughter, Pam, is almost 1 year old by then. Quite a change for this guy to take in. I made the transition and got on with my life. Like any marriage it had it good times and rough times. Along the way I had 3 more daughters, one that would only live 5 days back in 1971. Surely there were many times I thought to myself "What were you thinking" but I did have 3 great daughters that I am so proud of even though after 33 years of marriage my wife decided one day (2 days before the World Trade Center disaster) that she had had enough and left leaving me and our youngest who was 17 at the time to fend for ourselves. There has been so many changes in our lives since that time, fortunatly for the good. There is good in everything if you just look for it. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

What was I thinking - Part 3

Have you ever felt like you were absolutely helpless. That is the way I felt finding out about my wife being pregnant and then I find out that my dad had a throat cancer operation. Too much going on with me out of the picture. It was out of my control so I just took care of business and took one day at a time.

In the section where I worked I was asigned as part of the IG (Inspector General) team which meant I would have to take trips to our 3 class B finance offices in Plaiku, Anke and Tuey Hoa. That usually meant hitch hiking down the coast on a Huey helicopter. Anke was located in a valley between two mountains and because there were snipers we had to approach with caution. It was a small Army prop plane. The pilot would come in high, get to the appropriate place and cut the engine and fall, cutting the engine back on at the right time to come in for a quick landing avoiding a long approach and chances of getting shot at. When we leave the pilot sits at the end of the runway and guns the engine for all it's worth and lets off the brake and almost goes straight up. Quite a ride. During the time I was in Viet Nam (19 months) I kept records and found over one million dollars in errors on military pay records, some in favor of the GI and others in favor of the government. Yes I said over one Million $$.

All military installations in foreign countries usually hire locals to work on compound and hope that they are good and loyal to your cause. There was this small boy maybe 10 to 12 and every morning when he came onto the compound he would salute whoever he met whether they were a PFC or a General. He was everyone's friend. One time when I came back from an asignment at one of our other offices I found out that they had caught him pacing off the distance between our perimeter fence and our movie shack probably to give coordinates for a mortar round to kill some of us. I never saw him again.

You get bored easily when you don't have acutal work to do and some of the Vietnamese girls that worked at our enlisted men's club suggested I go to an orphanage in Qui Nhon. It was operated by Catholic nuns and one or more of the girls would go with me to act as interpreter since the nuns could not speak english. The children were starved for affection and would climb all over me craving attention. Some of them were blonde and had blue eyes and were products of Vietnamese girls and GIs and were outcasts, not wanted by anyone. I visited them every chance I got and when I went home for my 30 day leave after 13 months I got folks in my area interested by posting an article in the local paper about the orphanage. I got so much clothes and can goods that it really touched my heart. I shipped the boxes and when they arrived even my commanding officer went with me to present all the great stuff to the children. It was a glorious day seeing some of the children wearing new clothes for the first time in their lives. More to later. Coming up a leper colony......

What was I thinking - Part 2

Now bear in mind this is an absolutely true story and the wife is my ex at the time of this account. So I had her fly out to Calif. and it was the first time she had ever been on an airplane and had a head cold at the time so it was not pleasant.

Being married we needed a place to call home. The only place I could find was a small apartment owned by this guy who would not be on the government list saying he would rent to anyone. He only wanted caucasions there. This being the case we could not get any government subsistence so the burden was totally on us. Fortunately she had saved a bundle working and living at home with her folks. We ate a lot of beans to make the money stretch.

California was really beautiful with fields of flowers with vivid colors and near Marina, which is where the apartment was. We were also near an area called the 17 mile drive which takes you along the coastline and I still have pictures of that lovely scenery. This adventure lasted from June through the first of October of 1968 when guess what? Real orders for Viet Nam.

We went home to Rocky Mount and got a small apartment while I prepared to leave again, this time for 13 months. I arrived in Viet Nam towards the end of October & was flown in an Army plane to my new home in Qui Nhon which is a coastal city. I was asigned to a quality assurance section of the 13th Finance Corp having the responsibility of auditing military pay records. After I had been there about a week some of us decided we would walk down the street outside of our compound which was secure with a very high fence all around it. The street was thick with mopeds and these 3 wheeled vehicles that operated like a taxi. As we were walking along I felt a tug and suddenly realized one of the Vietnamese guys on a moped or motorcycle had grabbed my watch which had an expansion band and it gave way and he had it so quick he was gone in no time. Learned a good lesson that day that you need the kind of watch band that is leather and buckles on.

I had a Vietnamese lady that took care of my living quarters, washed and ironed my clothes and shined my boots for $9 a month. She also did for other guys so the amount she received was decent for their economy. To iron my clothes she would spread out a blanket on the concrete floor and iron in a squat postion for hours.

Since my unit was the 13th Finance Corp and also the General's compound we were relatively safe from violence. Not a jungle atmosphere. We had an EM (enlisted men's) club where we could get steaks, burgers, etc. and the mess hall had some of the best food I have ever had so my conditons were excellent.

After I had been there just about a month I got a letter from my wife saying she was pregnant. Oh well, it would be a total of 13 month from the time I left until I saw her again, missing the entire pregnancy and finding a rather large daughter who didn't want me around her mama. To be continued......