Company L

We pause along the road and take a picture of the military gate which fronts what soldiers formerly knew as 8th RRT and sailors/Marines knew as Company L, Marine Support Battalion.

We pass miles and miles of bucolic rice paddies. I like believing no military gun fights have occurred for twenty-nine years.

The ocean appears on the East side. In the foreground, pens have been erected to farm eels and shrimp.

Driving through the mountain passes North of Danang; I'm remembering the adventure, excitement and nervousness we felt on this journey thirty-four years ago.

The Vietnam Draft

Passing roadside workers in dirty military uniforms, Tho tells me that military service is mandatory for one year. Six months are for basic training, and then six months are spent on construction or maintenance projects. Most projects are military related, some are road gangs.

Right-of-Way

What's that? If we drive our car on the right shoulder, surely that means we want anyone driving the other direction to use our lane. Also, when driving through a winding road, it must save fuel and time to crossover to the oncoming lane. That's the only reason I can think that Huieu drives this way. Actually, EVERYONE drives this way. What, me worry? Yep!

Hai Van Pass

A dramatic coastline merges with jungles and narrow waterfalls as we ascend to Hai Van Pass. The clouds descend, or we move up into them; it is an ethereal. Visibility is down to fifty yards but Huieu, undaunted by common sense, passes trucks over that solid line.

He finally parks at the pass. A roadside vendor employee holds my door as I step out. Imagine how surprised everyone is to see our car roll backward into a slowly moving line of traffic. Amidst much yelling, I and three other men stop the car safely. I give an upraised double "V" and everyone yells "Yea!" or whatever they say in Vietnam.

Danang

At noon we begin a search for Hill 327 and Hill 364, two communication locations used by 1st Radio Battalion. After several approaches, we're stymied by the disappearance of roads from my 1969 maps, the addition or extension of new roads, but finally, military camps. It seems that every place we used in the war has either disappeared to jungle, or is so good the Vietnamese military also uses it. Nice security.

War Fears

Tho says he went into the war with three friends from school. Only he survived. On March 29, 1975, when Viet Cong entered the city victoriously, the town folks were very scared because they didn't know what was going to happen and they feared the worst. I told him when we landed in Vietnam from the United States; we were also scared because we didn't know what was going to happen either.