Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, February 18, 2015 | Ferndale Record
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to make connections with local leaders. The next day, a car and driver were arranged to take Van Dyken and Echenberg wherever they wanted to go. “It just totally opened up,” Van Dyken remembers. “It was a phenomenal experience.” Doors that he had hoped would be opened a crack were flung open wide. He began to get a picture of where he needed to be and what he might be able to do. Returning for at least one month each year — he is there now in February 2015 with his wife, Marlene — Roger wants to help rebuild lives and hope in Vietnam. He is forging friendship with former enemies. Personal connections The Vietnamese couple is Sy and his wife, Nga, who together have a daughter, Bong, now age 15, and a son, Bun, age 8. The relationship with them has been lasting and productive — while also bringing pain from the past. Already on the initial five-day visit, Van Dyken and Echenberg could see the effects of bombs released in the war. He knew of a north Vietnam transshipment spot that took advantage of a stretch of underground river and caves that is now a national park and a United Nations World Heritage Site. It is beautiful country and could be “great for tourism,” although in war it was thought of simply as the Ho Chi Minh Trail See Van Dyken on C6
Roger Van Dyken, left, was in an Air Force intelligence unit gaining information for bombing runs when he was in Vietnam from October 1978 to October 1968. (Courtesy photo/Roger Van Dyken)
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