50 Years Ago Today
Rocky Raab
Member Posts: 14,439 ✭✭✭✭
I was airborne over Cambodia when I was radioed to come back to base because I was going home the next day. It was an early DEROS and it meant I'd be home for Christmas. It also meant that - if I could land one more time - I had survived Vietnam.
Poignantly, my right seater that day would not survive the war, and he knew it. He had been a North Vietnamese captain in artillery, and had defected to our side. He abandoned his wife and child in Hanoi, and with the US now pulling out his days were numbered. I salute him for his dedication, his courage, and his invaluable help to me. He was my very best right-seater/translator. He would have been among the first to be executed after the fall.
There will be a cocktail tonight. And a tear for Truong.
Comments
The range of experiences, good and bad, of those on this board never ceases to amaze me. Happy 50th anniversary of returning to the world Rocky! If you don't mind I will hoist a toast tonight to Truong as well as all the others who have made the ultimate sacrifice to fight against oppression and evil. Cheers, Bob
Proof that our wonderful government has a history of abandoning our friends. It isn't just Afghanistan.
There will be an accounting at some point. Maybe at a point where we, as a nation, desperately need a friend but no one shows up. The many people we have stabbed in the back will have finally caught up with us.
Thanx for sharing. RIP Truong.
Very nice and proper that you still honor you comrade.
Thanks for sharing....glad you are here with us !
Glad you made it back Rocky...So sorry for your friend... Truong...I will quaff a mug for the both of you...(And thank you for your service!!!)...
Combat Vet VN
D.A.V Life Member
Had my cocktail. Had my tear.
In a weird twist of fate, at a SHOT Show a while back, I was walking past some vendor's booth when I saw an obviously Vietnamese young man with the name Nguyen Truong on his badge. I commented that I had once known a man with that name.
He replied that it was an unusual name, and that he was named after his father, who had been an artillery captain in the war. I was utterly stunned. I just had to ask, and the young man said, yes, his father had disappeared and they never heard of him again.
Amazing. Maybe seeing that young man liberated brought peace?
Amen.
that sure brought back some menories, I 'left' Nam 3/31/1972
thank you for your service
'and glad you made it home and sharing your stories
as for me I can not imagine the feelings of knowing I am going home, had to be complete joy but then knowing my pal is sentenced to die . then many years later meeting his son whats the odds in that , fate maybe ?
but had to help bring a little comfort knowing his son lives on
I can't be absolutely sure that was his son, but if not the coincidences are astronomical. In any event, I never heard from either of them again.
One never knows where you might meet someone, had to trigger a lot of memories seeing a friends, highly possible son like that. Thanks for your service Rocky, and your enjoyable reading books of some of your experiences in Nam.
Wow!
Thank you for your service Rocky.
It took me three days to get home from 'Nam - two days on the calendar because of the International Date Line - so today is the day I walked up to the icy front steps of 9938 South Claremont St in Chicago in my short-sleeve uniform and astonished my wife, who had no inkling I was coming home.
I was getting to be a short time "ground pounder" during that time period, were you 2 spotting for the "rabbits in the grass" ?
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
We were doing what Nixon said we were specifically not doing. We were inserting small teams on the ground to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia and do other sneaky stuff. It was an all cloak and no dagger operation.
I’m sure these last few days have brought a myriad of reflections and emotions.
Thank you for your service Mr. Rocky.
Mule
A moment to remember for sure. TYFYS.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Indeed they have, mule. Many memories and many reflections - good and bad on both counts. No dreams, fortunately, but my quiet moments tend to get invaded with mental images and emotions.
But enough of that. I'm not the only cowboy to have ridden that trail. Or been kicked by that horse!
Many of my younger day friends and buddies served. I didn't due to medical conditions . One was a slick pilot ,another flew the electronic snooper / spy plane and one was a marine corp long range patrol guy . Another was a waist gunner on a spooky gun ship .Good men all .
Rocky, thank you for your service. I will lift a toast to your friend Truong tonight.------------Ray