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Have you ever wanted

IronrifleIronrifle Member Posts: 664 ✭
edited January 2011 in US Military Veteran Forum
to go back to Vietnam? Not me, at least not w/o aircover!
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Comments

  • StingSting Member Posts: 629 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think about Vietnam almost every day. The filthy and rotting boots, (the jungle can turn utilities into rags fast), and the green teeth, (takes only 3 days of not brushing). You would be surprised at what a man can miss or yearn to have again.

    I had ring-worm for a year after I returned home and was discharged. One of the ring-worms was right on the front of my throat in that soft spot, and girls used to feel it and ask about it. Just yesterday I was wishing that my ashes could be scattered there. Too expensive though. I want to leave all that I can to my son.
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  • elubsmeelubsme Member Posts: 2,190 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    NO
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  • Rocky RaabRocky Raab Member Posts: 14,429 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Those who have gone back say that NO trace remains of the war. Bases, gone. Runways, gone. The place is unrecognizable.

    The strangest thing? Almost nobody alive there now even remembers the war - or us.
    I may be a bit crazy - but I didn't drive myself.
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  • IronrifleIronrifle Member Posts: 664 ✭
    edited November -1
    They can`t remember the war and we can`t forget..
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  • dheffleydheffley Member Posts: 25,000 ✭
    edited November -1
    Nope, I did all of the "visiting" I ever want to do.
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  • StingSting Member Posts: 629 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Vietnam is a long ways away. You can't get much farther. But if it were only where Mexico or Canada is it would be a nice place to visit.

    I never did get used to the black teeth of the women that liked to chew betelnut. By now though they would have modernized and probably quit doing it. The first time you see the black teeth you are really shocked.
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  • River RatRiver Rat Member Posts: 9,022 ✭
    edited November -1
    It was a beautiful country, especially the north coast near the DMZ. Almost like Monterey, CA, But go back? No way. Spent almost 40 years putting it into the dark and stinky past.

    I'd rather shoot my big toe off. It would be more fun, and less painful.
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  • pwilliepwillie Member Posts: 20,253 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    In my business, I have had many opportunities to go back. I left everything over there.I moved on.
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  • Fighto109Fighto109 Member Posts: 7 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    My best memory of the country was at 36,000 feet, out the window of a freedom bird, and Nam was now just a dot. I miss it not! Nor the smell and the rot of the jungle, this included by jungle rotted feet.
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  • machine gun moranmachine gun moran Member Posts: 5,198
    edited November -1
    You can visit using Google Earth, if you want to. Somehow, there was recently a C-119 still parked at Tan Son Nhat. Wonder who that belonged to.
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  • Belt Fed .50 Cal.Belt Fed .50 Cal. Member Posts: 15 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I visit on Google Earth. A friend of mine went back in 2006 on a vets tour and he said there is not much to see from the war. All of the bases and air strips are gone and all of the towns are rebuilt. He said it was a lot cleaner and the people were very friendly.
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  • 70-10170-101 Member Posts: 1,006 ✭
    edited November -1
    I harbor no hard feelings toward any Vietnamese. And would love to go back, as part of my reconciliation and recovery.
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  • Alan RushingAlan Rushing Member Posts: 8,805 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    For me, it'd be good to see how well the land did or did not heal ... hopefully better than many of us.

    Think that looking for indig friends would be the sorriest experience of all ...

    That whole area of the Central Highlands that I was most familiar ... apparently was "steam rollered" by the NVA armor and larger artillery units. Believe that the NVA poured down thru that area on their way to Saigon and delta region.

    I don't think that I would be able to locate anyone that I had known ... that would be rough, and awfully "real-world." I'm sure that would be the price paid to go back. I'd hope that it would not remind me of the mountains of bad experiences!
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  • Jim RauJim Rau Member Posts: 3,550
    edited November -1
    No, not even.[V]
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  • EvanBEvanB Member Posts: 15 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    NO - It wouldnt look, smell or resemble the memories.
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  • BergtrefferBergtreffer Member Posts: 629 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    No, I would not go back. The black teeth on those old hags was pretty disgusting to see. What was even worse were the women with a young children who worked their kids over with a ball point pen to make them look like they had a pox of some kind. Then after abusing their kids they would be begging for money on the street. That really got me made. The very worst were the women who broke their kids legs or arms and twisted them around backwards, making them look like cripples or deformed little kids. Those mothers were the absolute most disgusting miscreants that I have ever seen. They PO'd me so bad that I just had to get away from them, fast.
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  • MMOMEQ-55MMOMEQ-55 Member Posts: 13,134
    edited November -1
    Guy I know has an import business and visits VN monthly. He wants me to go with him but I keep making excuses. I want to go back but everytime I have the chance I back out. Maybe someday.
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  • john6012john6012 Member Posts: 97 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    When I left on teh Freedom Bird, I never looked out the windows and never looked back. I lost nothing there and don't need to find it.
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  • cavman 69cavman 69 Member Posts: 654 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    not unless it was an all expenses paid, like the first time.
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  • cercer Member Posts: 826 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I Was there last night.
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