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17 April 10

This afternoon some of us hired a guide and van driver and visited some
placed each of had been when we served here in the Army.

We went to Long Binh, which is now a huge industrial park with


manufacturing plants financed by Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Thai
investors. Nothing like it was in the 1960s.

Then we went to Bien Hoa, which was where I entered Vietnam and where a
couple of the guys had been stationed. We didn't recognize anything there
either, so the guide asked if anyone had ever been assigned to Di An
(pronounced Zee Anh). That's where I attended school to learn Vietnamese
language, culture, history, religion, etc. so I suggested we go there since it
was nearby.

We couldn't find the old army base, but saw a Cao Dai temple and I asked if
we could visit it. We met the caretakers who were very cordial to us. I think
it helped that I greeted them in Vietnamese and observed the proper social
protocol. They invited us to go inside the temple and take pictures and sit
down for a nice visit.

Cao Dai is one of the minority religions of Vietnam. I called it the Vietnamese
version of Unitarian. It's a conglomerate of Buddhism, Confucianism, and a
little Catholicism thrown in. Since it is polytheistic, it's quite OK to add Jesus
to the list of ancestors, philosophers, etc. to be worshipped.

We stopped at a coconut stand where fresh coconuts are sold as a source of


a refreshing drink. The coconuts are still covered with the green husk which
is chopped off enough to cut a drinking hold in the coconut and insert a
drinking straw. The other guys were a bit reluctant to try it, but the little lady
prepared one for each of us and all but one of the other guys agreed that it
was pretty tasty.

Aside from the coconut milk, I haven't eaten since breakfast, so I think I'll see
what adventuresome dinner I can locate.

Tomorrow morning, we will fly up to Hue, settle in there and get ready for the
"real work" that we came for.

Ed Pilkington
18 April 10

It's Sunday night here - Sunday morning there.

I hired a pedicab this morning and took about one and a half hour ride around
Saigon. Imagine the busy street with thousands of motorbikes, a large
number of trucks, busses and a few automobiles and one pedicab with no
stop signs nor traffic lights. Comical, but not as dangerous as it would seem.
However if the Dallas area had similar traffic, the fatality rate might exceed
that of the war in Iraq.

I saw the Presidential palace (from the outside), briefly went in the Museum
of War Remnants (a propaganda museum with 105mm howitzers, armored
personnel carriers, a jet fighter, etc. all with U.S. markings on them.
However, I can attest to the fact that most of those models of weapons
ceased to be used by the U.S. forces long before the war ended. They were
actually taken from the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam), then
painted so the claim can be made that the Americans were soundly
defeated. Next week is the 30th anniversary of the "liberation" of South
Vietnam.

Most of the Vietnamese you see were babies when the war ended or were
born even later, so they tend to accept it all as fact (which is the intended
purpose).

I also visited a pagoda, a Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple.

Aside from that, I have been complimented several times by local


Vietnamese that I speak the language well. My real problem is my limited
vocabulary. Last night at a restaurant I spoke to the waiter in Vietnamese
and he spoke to me in English. We were both practicing on each other.

Today, we made the journey to Phu Bai/Hue and are staying in the brand new
Celadon Palace hotel - a truly 5-star place. We will have our first day of clinic
work tomorrow and are scheduled to see 150 - 200 patients.

I'm attaching some photos to this: they are the armored personnel carrier,
caretakers at the Cao Dai temple, "Ba" preparing coconut to drink the milk,
(Couldn't resist taking a picture of the restroom at the Cao Dai temple) and
me in front of the Presidential Palace.

Tomorrow will be chaotic and busy. I've got a few things to complete to be
ready.

Ed Pilkington
23 April 10

This was our second day working in a Hue suburb. It has been unusually cool weather-wise
today. The high temperature was in the mid to upper 70's. Yesterday, it was about 100. Some of
our patients today arrived wearing wool coats and some of our interpreters complained of being
cold all day dressed in T-shirts and jeans. (The interpreters are all students at Hue University
majoring in English.) In 1969, I NEVER saw a wool coat. As I think about it, where I worked, no
one could have afforded one anyway. They made capes out of palm and banana leaves to keep
warm on chilly rainy days.

I will finish out the assignment working security. I know more Vietnamese language than the rest
of the team put together, so I greet the patients at the top of the stairs when they come from
triage and ask where they need to go (Bac Shi, Bac Shi Mat, or Nha Shi) and direct them in the
right way. My station is next to the dentist (Nha Shi) so I sit them down and give them a sequence
number of who's first, second, etc. I also direct (and often escort) patients to the pharmacy
(phong thuoc). Everyone gets to leave with a bag of vitamins, tooth brush/paste, and prescription
drugs if appropriate.

I've had some lower back and hip pain myself. Sometimes I think I can barely make it up the
stairs to my duty station, but then need to help a 97 year old woman go down the stairs (which
means I have to get back up the stairs). Two extra-strength, 500mg tylenols make it all possible.

As was the case yesterday, several of the patients arrive wearing their old NVA helmets. The old
ARVN soldiers don't wear any semblance of their old uniforms, but they are the old men who hug
me and kiss my cheeks when they arrive and when I direct the down to the pharmacy after
they've been treated.

Last night I ate dinner at the Mandarin Cafe. Mr. Coo owns it and does several other things such
as laundry, guided tours to the Citadel, the Perfume River pagodas, burial grounds of the kings,
and is a professional photographer. I knew our whole team was scheduled to have lunch there
today, so my room mate and I took our laundry last night and picked it up at lunch today. Rather
than charge by the item, it's by weight. Laundry for both of us together was 115,000 Dong - under
$10.00

I had planned on Sunday to take one of the vans and go to Phong Dien, My Chanh and An Lo.
However, the veterans in our group (16 of us) have been invited to have lunch with a veterans
organization of former NVA/Viet Cong. I think it's important that I attend.

We will be going to Dong Ha Sunday afternoon and the highway runs directly through Phong
Dien, so I can have the van stop at the district government building and I'll take a couple of
photos there - assuming it's still the same building. I think it will be the same because it was a
permanent masonry building even in 1968, although pock-marked with RPG and mortar rounds.

In 1969, most people lived in houses made of bamboo, thatched roof and dirt floor. Now they
have been replaced with masonry houses, tile roofs and concrete floors. The bamboo is used for
pig barns and chicken houses.

I'm growing weary, Need to stop. Didn't have time to transfer pictures from the camera.

Ed Pilkington
25 April 10

The last place I lived in Vietnam was a couple of miles West of the village of An Lo. Yesterday,
on the way from Hue to Dong Ha I arranged for the van I was riding in to make a detour from An
Lo to where I was.

In 1969, a U.S. Navy construction team was rebuilding a railroad bridge that had been blown up
and the Vietnamese Regional Force company I advised was the security force to prevent the Viet
Cong from thwarting the attempt (night time attacks, rocket fire, etc.) My team lived in an old
French bunker on the hill above the bridge. I have a photo of me next to the bunker. I wanted to
see if it was still there. We (I and some of the other vets) found the remains of the bunker. Most
of it was destroyed when an electric power line was installed. The picture of the remains is
attached.

We had to approach the place from the other side of the river and walk across the rebuild railroad
bridge. Also attached is a picture of the two Vietnamese railroad workers whose job seems to be
to bring down the barricade when a train arrives so the motorbike traffic will stop for the train.
Both of them were very excited (joyful) that I was there and besides the picture gave me a mailing
addresss to write to them.

We will be in Dong Ha today and half of tomorrow, then to Da Nang for R&R before returning
home. The work in the clinics have been gruelling, but very rewarding.

Last evening, I walked across the Dong Ha bridge into the former North Vietnam. That was a bit
eerie. When I lived at An Lo, I visited Dong Ha, but of course never walked across the bridge to
the enemy side.

Yesterday morning, I sat across the table from some former adversaries. We attended a meeting
with members of a veterans organization of former NVA/Viet Cong fighters. The local TV news
was there and it was broadcasted within an hour of the end of the meeting. It was, again, a bit
spooky to be shaking hands with those who were attempting to kill you in the past (and vice
versa).

This hotel only has two computers in the lobby and no Wi-Fi in the rooms, so I need to let
someone else have a turn.

Ed Pilkington
26 April 10

We spent the day today in the "boonies" at some of the former military bases along the DMZ. A
couple of our group were stationed there near the end of the war at places like Con Thien, Camp
Carrroll, Rockpile, Vandergrift, Khe Sahn, Most of you are too young to have even heard of these
in U.S. History class, but it was meaningful and healing for those who lived through it.

I found a guy selling old american dog tags and other odds and ends. Among them were some
U.S. Silver dollars dated 1882. I bought 4 of them for $5.00 each - after we haggled about it for a
few minutes. He started out wanting $10 each. I still wonder how 1882 silver dollars turned up in
Khe Sahn, Vietnam in the year 2010.

I had another neat thing happen today. As usual, I wake up very early, so I had about 2 hours to
kill before our team meeting. I decided to go exploring and came across a little coffee shop called
"Tam Ca Fe" (which means 8 coffee) and decided to go in and see if they had any "good" coffee
(I'm looking forward to Starbucks next week.). It turned out that this coffee shop employs deaf
people to be waiters. I learned that American Sign Language and Vietnamese Sign Language
have some words in common. The three young people who were running the place were excited
to have an American in their shop and extra excited to have one who knew sign language. There
was a large poster on the wall with the hand alphabet and one of them began to try to "teach" me
the alphabet. I got ahead of him and he realized I already knew it, so we switched to some
regular signs. I told him I wanted black coffee and that's what I got - STRONG BLACK COFFEE.
They also brought me a cup of hot water so I could cut the strength down a bit.

Tomorrow, we will make our way to Da Nang for the final couple of days R&R before heading
home.

A maintenance person just came to check on our air conditioning in the room. I told her "duoc"
(OK) without thinking about it., When I get back home, I'll have to be careful not to refer to
teachers as "Ba" and "Ong" and the kids as "Dua con gai" and "Dua con trai".

I need to go now. Am looking forward to being home.

Ed Pilkington

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