Stars and Stripes 6.18.15

Volume 7, No. 26 ©SS 2015

FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015 For information please contact Waverly Williams 803-774-1237 or waverly@theitem.com

‘How do you combine all of this into one memory?

Death of your best friend, all the bodies pieces and parts, getting shelled and shot at, seeing Bob Hope, racial tensions, friendly fire incidents .... ’ — Robert Parrish, Army, 1970-71

Pages 2-4 and at stripes.com/vietnam50

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Friday, June 19, 2015

As Stars and Stripes looks at the monumental moments, actions and people from the Vietnam War during its 50th anniversary, we struggle to do justice to all aspects of the life-changing war.

We wanted to hear from those who fought, and so we asked our readers for the memories they carry with them today.

For more memories, go to stripes.com/Vietnam50. You can also add your own experiences there, and share photos.

David Ziemke in Vietnam, 1967.

Courtesy of David Ziemke

Scorching heat followed by cold monsoon rains. Roadside shrines with candles flickering in the early morning darkness. Green tracers. Those damn ants!

— James B. Purkhiser, Army, 1966-67 The black exhaust smoke from the engines was so thick that I couldn’t see the planes after they lifted off.

— Tony Galvez, Air Force, 1970-96 We were almost overrun at Song Mao. I still ‘see’ the sounds, confusion and chaos starting at midnight.

— Larry Seaman, Army, 1967-73 903rd Medevac Corpsman, main duty station, Qui Nhon Air Base. The smell and visions of the all the burned casualties.

Didn’t want to know their names; afraid they would be somebody I knew.

— Lonnie Strickland, Air Force, 1967-71

Halloween night at Firebase Rita in the Fishhook region, three miles from Cambodia.

We were overrun by more than 800 North Vietnamese troops; more than 100 RPGs were launched at us. We ended up lowering the barrels of our 105 Howies and did direct fire on them.

Many were able to get past the wire and we fought all night. Early in the morning we all heard the Air Force coming.

The commanding officer (Lt. Col. Charles Calvin Rogers, Medal of Honor recipient for his actions in the battle) directed napalm within 100 meters of our site.

Scariest Halloween of my life!

— David Ziemke, Army, 1967-75 I was fighting for my country but mostly trying to get home in one piece.

— Brent Houston, Navy, 1970-73

The unexpected, the camaraderie, the humor and the horror — Gary Martland, Army, 1966-70 The body of a fallen comrade blown in half by an RPG and the air full of tracer rounds that the dustoff pilot had to fly through getting the wounded out.

— Ronald Auble, Army, 1967-69

I came to the terrifying conclusion that there were people all around us that really, really wanted to kill me. My outlook on life changed forever.

— Tim Petersen, Army, 1969-71

Courtesy of Michael John Lukasavage Courtesy of Ronald Auble

The first enemy I had to kill on night ambush. Rewired my brain, but I didn’t get caught up in it like some.

Did my best to protect our guys in the base camps from sappers and mortar or rocket attacks. Five-man team worked only at night and we all were scared. ...

— Michael John Lukasavage, Army, 1968-70

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Courtesy of William Pearson

As described by William Pearson: “I was a 1st Lt. Infantry, Ranger, MAT Adviser Team37, Advisory Team 36 out of Pleiku. I spoke Vietnamese and Montagnard. Loved the kids, and the Montagnards, who assisted our survival in the difficult Central Highlands. We made a difference.”

The death of my college roommate and best friend in Hue, Vietnam, on 6 Feb., 1970, 1st Lt. Owen T. McCandlis. I escorted his body home for burial. I lost 15 great friends.

— William Pearson, Army, 1969-70

The friendship and bond between your team members in hell.

— Ewald Klemm, Air Force, 1970-74

Courtesy of Joe Kline

The closeness and brotherhood of the men I served with.

— Joe Kline, Army, 1969-71

On Jan. 28, 1970, a North Vietnamese MiG-21 shot down an HH-53B Super Jolly Green Giant helicopter with the call sign “Jolly Green 71” over North Vietnam during a search-and-rescue mission to retrieve a downed U.S. pilot.

Sgt Gregory L. Anderson and the crew of the helicopter did not survive the air-to-air missile attack. Greg and I were aerial combat still photographers and door gunners flying the rescue mission in separate helicopters when the attack occurred. Every day I wear a POW/MIA bracelet with his name on it. Greg, you are not forgotten.

— Jeff Whitted, Air Force, 1967-93

Courtesy of Dwight Stevens

Courtesy of Jeff Whitted

The friendships that last for a lifetime and memories that only we share and can validate because we were there.

— Dwight Stevens, Army, 1968-88

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Periodically I find myself still there ...

— Hans J. Underwood, Army, 1970-71 Being with the 173rd Airborne Division in An Khe, Vietnam. It taught me to never get too close to anything today, because it will make me cry tomorrow. ...

— Walter Thomas, Army, 1967 The assault of Mount Co Pong in the Ashau Valley ... I still wake up with cold sweats sometimes but like we used to say, “It’s to the grave, Brother.”

— Rodman Germain, Army, 1970-71

Courtesy of Dennis Latham

I lost me forever in Vietnam. ...

I guess I just feel like Vietnam veterans will be marked men forever.

— Dennis Latham, Marines, 1966-68

One evening following a dinner party, a group of men were discussing various topics.

Courtesy of John B. Givhan

My strongest memory is being wounded (right leg disintegrated below the knee) in the cockpit of a CH-21C Shawnee tandem rotor helicopter at 400 feet altitude by a missile fired from the ground by Viet Cong bad guys. This happened on April 12, 1964, in the Ca Mau peninsula near Kien Long, in the vicinity of the U Minh Forest, South Vietnam, while flying a combat assault mission with my unit, the 120th Aviation Company. My life was saved by my beloved copilot 1st Lt. Robert “Bo” Thompson, my flight surgeon Capt. James W. “Combat Doc” Ralph and my medical evacuation pilot, the legendary Maj. Charles Kelly, the founder of the “Dust-off” call sign in Vietnam.

— John Givhan, Army, 1962-64 The stark and utter sadness of having my friends being maimed and killed, and being mostly unable to help them other than calling a dust-off or comforting them while they died in my arms.

— Leigh Livermore, Army, 1969-71 Airlifting out our battle dead, some in body bags and ponchos and some not covered at all. The finality of life so young, gone.

We adjusted or not, and continued the fight.

— Charles Hollis, Air Force, 1964-92

Being a medic and cutting off arms and legs of a lot of young men.

— Brad Willoughby, Army Came home from Vietnam in November 1967, just after war protest at University of Wisconsin in Madison. U.S. Army wanted to put returning vets on riot control. I said no, I would not point my weapon at Americans.

Soooooo I went back to Vietnam for another tour. Came home in June 1969 to an ungrateful nation. It cost me everything! I’m still paying.

— Cliff Riley, Army, 1966-69 The damage to my husband, who is deceased now. His suffering, and mine, began in 1970 when he came home from Vietnam. The VA would not and still does not acknowledge that he suffered from PTS. I slept with the man, I listened to his dreaming and nightmares. The VA did not. His depression was terrible and scary at times. He died in October 2014 of pulmonary fibrosis and pneumonia probably caused by Agent Orange. He told us all how they would spray and it would fall on them. We were married for 49 years and 4 months. This year, 2015, would have been our 50th wedding anniversary. I miss him terribly.

— Peggy Lato, Army wife

One man brought up Vietnam. Since most of the men in the group were Air Force veterans, the discussion focused on aircraft. The man next to me began to relate a personal story from his tour at Bien Hoa AB in 1965. When he mentioned B-57 Canberra bombers, I experienced an involuntary shudder.

“I was there that day,” I said. I was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

We landed in Vietnam on May 5, 1965, and were establishing a perimeter around the air base. There were 11 B57 Canberra bombers lined up on the runway getting ready for a 0930 flight up north.

Each aircraft had a 750-pound bomb on each side next to the fuselage and five 500-pound bombs going down each wing.

Then, each one had napalm, 50 caliber, and 20mm rounds on board.

When it went off, the napalm went first and made a huge fire. Then there was a big explosion, which at the time we thought was the bombs going off.

We started running down the perforated steel platform toward the fire after the first explosion, because we knew a lot of guys must have been caught in it.

Then the big explosion went off.

I was blown up into the air and landed on my back. Everything went black for a while and when I came to, I felt a deep pain in my chest. I thought I had been hit, but it was the air coming back into my lungs. I rolled over on my stomach and faced toward the runway. At one point, I saw a big piece of metal skipping down toward me. I didn’t know what to do so I just laid there and watched it. It hit in front of me and went over my head. When I was still on my back looking up in the air, I remember thinking it reminded me of a cartoon — when something blows up and you see all kinds of debris in the air.

Courtesy of Gerald F. Owens

Gerald F. Owens is photographed at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 2012.

Later, we helped clean up. It was a bad scene. Everything was black on the ground and what was left of the bunkers.

This incident occurred early in my first tour in Vietnam. It raised my anxiety to a level not previously experienced in my young life. Fortunately or unfortunately, a high level of anxiety remained with me through that tour and the next two tours as well.

Fortunately, it served to keep me on my toes and ever vigilant during my entire combat experience. Unfortunately, it still remains with me to this day. Fortunately, I have a strong, loving and understanding wife. Unfortunately, my anxiety has caused much grief for my wife and our daughter.

I have sought counseling on many occasions to keep our marriage intact. I have taken anger management classes and received treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder.

I am a survivor, one of the lucky ones. I have had a wonderful life. I know I am very fortunate. I also know that it does not come without a price.

— Gerald Owens, Army, 1959-81

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Friday, June 19, 2015

MILITARY

Congress moves to OK raises for troops House, Senate differ on amount in defense spending bills

BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Congress sent strong messages through two votes on June 11 that it plans to give troops a higher pay raise in the coming year, but lawmakers are still divided on just how much.

The full House approved a 2.3 percent raise as part of its annual defense spending bill.

Meanwhile, a Senate committee approved a 1.3 percent increase in its version of the legislation, which still faces debate on the chamber floor.

Personnel costs have become a battleground as Congress, the Pentagon and White House look for ways to reduce defense spending and federal debt. Troops have seen their raises capped at 1 percent over the past two years.

“We cannot risk having an underfunded military during these uncertain times, and our troops deserve unfailing support as they lay their lives on the line,” Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a release.

The House 2.3 percent raise, passed 278-149 in its massive defense appropriations bill, is above the White House’s proposal earlier this year for a modest increase to 1.3 percent.

‘ At a time when

thousands of military families depend on food stamps, it’s wrong to reduce access to commissaries or increase costs at the checkout line.

These families face enough stress.

’

Sen. Barbara Mikulski D-Md.

The bill also rejects cuts to military housing allowances and commissaries.

The Obama administration has threatened to veto the House appropriations bill.

The Office of Management and Budget wrote that “it is imperative to slow the growth of basic pay and housing allowances, modernize military health care, and reform how commissaries operate.”

The Pentagon has urged the cuts as well, saying balloon-

ing costs for personnel and benefits are squeezing its readiness.

The Senate Appropriations Committee on June 11 agreed with the White House proposal on troop pay increases.

It passed a draft version of the annual defense spending bill that included the 1.3 percent raise.

But senators also balked at cuts to commissaries.

The committee approved an amendment sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., reversing $322 million in cuts to the worldwide chain of base grocery stores.

“At a time when thousands of military families depend on food stamps, it’s wrong to reduce access to commissaries or increase costs at the checkout line. These families face enough stress,” Mikulski said in a release.

The Senate will likely have a floor vote on the bill in the coming weeks, and the raise and changes to benefits will be up for debate again.

The House and Senate appropriations bills must be merged into a final plan for funding the Defense Department. tritten.travis@stripes.com Twitter: @Travis_Tritten

BENJAMIN STRATTON /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

Air Force Secretary Deborah James said Tuesday that the service could send a squadron of F-22 Raptors to Europe in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

US could send F-22s to counter Russian threat Stars and Stripes

The U.S. Air Force could send a squadron of F-22s to Europe in response to Russia’s aggressive posture on the Continent, the Air Force’s top civilian official said.

Air Force Secretary Deborah James told reporters during a stop at the Paris Air Show that Russia is “the biggest threat” on her mind.

“That’s a big part of why I am here in Europe to hold these discussions,” said James, who was quoted by several media outlets.

Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula, along with its military involvement in eastern Ukraine, has some of Russia’s neighbors on edge.

Russia denies its involvement in the fighting going on in eastern Ukraine.

The Air Force has already increased its rotations through Europe as part of the ongoing Atlantic Resolve initiative, which has resulted in an expanded

array of war games and training missions in the Baltics and eastern Europe.

While the Air Force’s A10s and F-15Cs are among the rotating fighters, the F-22 also could be added to the mix, she said.

“I could easily see the day — though I couldn’t tell you the day exactly — when the F-22, for example, rotates in as a possibility,” James told reporters. “I don’t see why that couldn’t happen in the future.”

The stealthy F-22 is considered the Air Force’s top fighter, designed to ensure air dominance.

The aircraft has run into occasional technical issues, such as when the Air Force grounded the supersonic fighter in 2011 because of concerns about oxygen problems in the cockpit.

The F-22 entered service in 2005, but it wasn’t used in combat until September, when it took part in airstrikes over Syria as part of the campaign against the Islamic State group. news@stripes.com

Student loan interest payback checks for troops, vets in mail

BY H EATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — If you’re a servicemember or veteran who took out student loans, make sure to check the mail because you might have some money coming your way.

As part of a settlement over inflated interest rates, Sallie Mae is sending out nearly 80,000 checks, which were

mailed June 12, worth $60 million, according to a statement from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Compensation will range from $10 to more than $100,000, with the average check being about $771. The size of the check depends on how long and by how much the interest rate exceeded 6 percent.

The settlement came after the federal government filed suit against Navient Corp., formerly part of Sallie

Mae, for violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which caps student loan interest rates for servicemembers at 6 percent. The lawsuit claimed that violations went back to 2005.

The settlement includes Navient’s full range of student loans, including private loans, direct Department of Education loans, and loans that originated under the Federal Family Education Loan Program, according to a Department

of Justice news release. In addition to sending compensation checks, Navient agreed to pay a $55,000 fine and request the three major credit bureaus delete negative credit history entries connected to the overcharges.

Servicemembers and veterans who have questions about their eligibility for compensation can call (855) 382-6421. druzin.heath@stripes.com

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VETERANS

‘It’s worse than ever’ Lawmakers hear from employees of troubled Philadelphia VA

BY H EATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes

PHILADELPHIA — Two months after testifying to Congress for a third time about the Department of Veterans Affairs Philadelphia regional office, this time about a “revolving door of taxpayer waste,” a culture of retaliation and improper behavior — like two managers asking workers to pay one’s wife to contact the dead — whistleblower Kristen Ruell said little had changed.

“I’m wondering what problems have been fixed,” she said Monday as a bipartisan delegation of congressmen showed up to grill managers about the scandal that has engulfed the office, which oversees benefits to more than 800,000 veterans in three states. “I’m seeing the same things, and it’s worse than ever. Employee morale is at an all-time low.”

Nine congressmen and one senator inspecting the office Monday said they heard a similar message during a closed-door meeting with Ruell and other employees — very different than the upbeat assessment from managers in a separate meeting.

“It seems to me there’s a bit of a disconnect between what management is saying and what many people who are working here are saying,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said at a press conference outside the office. During the press conference, several lawmakers pointed to an administrative investigation board report expected June 30 that will “name names” of those responsible for the scandal.

“We’re going to make some major changes — maybe fire people,” Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-La., said in an interview with Stars and Stripes.

Among the other issues employees complained about were ongoing nepotism in hiring and promotion, a continued culture of retaliation and a lack of action taken against leaders responsible for the scandal, according to lawmakers and staff who attended the meeting.

Employees “want to hold the management staff accountable,” said Joe Malizia, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents the VA employees. “That’s a big word in VA, but it doesn’t seem to be in action

H EATH D RUZIN /Stars and Stripes

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., right (holding eyeglasses), and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., left, lead a delegation of lawmakers out of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Regional Office on Monday after meeting with staff and managers about problems at the office. here.”

The VA did not make regional office leaders available for comment. Allison Hickey, the VA’s undersecretary for benefits, handed out a press release called “Top 15 Things the Philadelphia and Wilmington Regional Offices are Doing to Improve Service to Veterans, their Families and Survivors” and spoke to Stars and Stripes after the employee meeting.

She said that there was still work to do, but that the office had fixed many of the problems laid out in damning findings from the VA Office of Inspector General. The report mentioned tens of thousands of unanswered inquiries from veterans; returned mail, some of which had been there for years; employees working in a decrepit, rodent-infested building; and two senior leaders who were accused of asking employees to pay $35 each to have one leader’s wife communicate with the dead.

Both managers have been removed while allegations are being investigated.

Hickey said the office has reduced its backlog of benefits claims, resolved

all but four cases in which veterans were getting double payments, and relocated all of the employees in the infested building to the office’s main building.

“Today, despite all of the things that were identified in the IG report, this regional office has done an awesome job,” she said. “Though we know and we own that we have some work to do on these 35 initiatives. ... I think that we are on the right path.”

Hickey called out Congress, saying lawmakers have not done enough to help the VA add positions to the woefully understaffed, overworked department.

Hickey has taken heat for some of the problems after picking Diana Rubens as director of the office. Rubens has come under scrutiny by the IG for receiving a nearly $300,000 relocation package to move from Washington to Philadelphia. Hickey defended her director and the moving package, which Hickey said is available to every federal employee.

“I do see her as part of the solutions,” she said. “I sent her here because I needed one of the singularly

most mature, experienced leaders I could find in our system.”

Some lawmakers have disputed Hickey’s point about the compensation package, saying the program is designed as an enticement for positions that are hard to fill and that Rubens has close family in the Philadelphia area and didn’t need lucrative perks to bring her to the city.

The issues with the Philadelphia office are part of a more-than yearlong scandal that has embroiled the VA and cost its former secretary, Eric Shinseki, his job. A parade of whistleblowers has come forward from VA medical centers and offices from around the country to allege patients dying while on secret wait lists, abusive bosses, unsafe practices and gross mismanagement of veterans’ claims. Current VA Secretary Bob McDonald has vowed a massive reorganization of the second-largest department in the federal government and a change in a culture that many have described as “toxic.” druzin.heath@stripes.com Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes

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Friday, June 19, 2015

SPOUSE CALLS

Terri Barnes’ father, Jimmie Hurley, stands in front of the loudspeakers on a U10 Courier aircraft at Bien Hoa Air Base, Vietnam, in 1965.

Snapshots from Vietnam F

ifty years ago, Jimmie Hurley spent Fa“The single-engine Air Force plane circled slowly over the cluster of huts, blaring out a mesther’s Day in Vietnam, courtesy of the U.S. sage in Vietnamese and bombarding the area Air Force. He arrived there in late 1964, with thousands of leaflets that fluttered down part of the air campaign that preceded onto the rice paddies and dirt roads. the arrival of ground troops the following April.

“The tracer-round, looking like a bright He didn’t fight on the ground, but he was most orange spark, whizzed by about 10 feet to the likely shot at in the air. I say “most likely” right of the plane, making a cracking because I don’t know all the details of his noise that could be heard even above SPOUSE CALLS wartime service, even though Jimmie is the loudspeakers. my father. He died in 2009, and when he “A volley of bullets, perhaps 10, was alive he was tight-lipped about Vietcame even closer, the pilots … veered nam. Much of what I do know I learned the plane sharply to throw the enemy from the pictures he left behind. rifleman below off target.

In Vietnam in 1964 and 1965, Dad was “Later the two Air Force men a crew chief on a U10 Courier aircraft, would speculate on the fire and modified for psychological warfare by the explosion which would tear the plane addition of speakers. The mission of these apart if one of these tracer-rounds tiny, unarmed planes, dubbed “Speaker should strike the gas tanks.”

Birds,” was to fly low over known enemy In later years, Dad didn’t want to Terri Barnes territory, delivering written and spoken reminisce about his time in Vietnam, messages to persuade Viet Cong fighters but when he was there, a 23-year-old three-striper, he preserved his experiences by and sympathizers to surrender and avoid imminent taking multiple rolls of pictures. Afterward, the American airstrikes. photos, like the year of his life they documentMy mom kept a scrapbook during that time. ed, were packed away out of sight. Not forgotten Inside, I found a few photos and a clipping from by my father, but not shared with his family. a December 1964 edition of the Pacific Stars and Once when the subject of Vietnam came up, Stripes. Datelined “Over the Mekong Delta,” the he said, “That was a bad place.” story was Army reporter Mike Mealey’s firsthand account of a flight on a plane like my dad’s: SEE PAGE 14

Ph

otos cour te A boy giv sy of Terri Barne s es an Am erican GI salute in a mischie Saigon in vous 1965.

d plan regroup, relax an Airmen gather to . ion iss for their next m

Friday, June 19, 2015

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Friday, June 19, 2015

SPOUSE CALLS FROM PAGE 12

work, aerial photos of jungles and villages, fellow airmen shooting the breeze and smoking cigars, a weekend of leave in the city. Scribbled notes on the backs of some of the photos include locations — Bien Hoa, Quy Nhon, Saigon.

During the Vietnam War, news photos and footage famously gave Americans at home their first images of combat, and its inherent death and suffering. My father’s photos gave me a glimpse into the other side of the story, the ordinary moments of day-to-day life in a war zone as my dad experienced it.

Every veteran gives up something Jimmie H urley, righ t, both the in service to his or South Vie spends time outs tnamese id her country. Some and Ameri e his residential unit with can force give their lives or friends fr s. om their limbs. Others bear less visible losses. Everyone who serves gives up something that can never be recovered, memincluding time with bers who had their families at flown alongside home, the ordinary him, whose days that add up to pictures he months and years. In had taken and exchange for those preserved. and for his service, He might Dad had the tangible have wondered memories he captured what he had with his black and silaccomplished ver Olympus camera. in his Air . aft cr air ier He came back physiForce career, in a U10 Cour s sit y’s rle Hu of cally well and whole, e crewmember es but he never m na et Vi h ut A So but he kept his thoughts said so. If he about that year of his had those life stashed away like questions, he kept them to his snapshots. himself, like his stories. At spent two tours in Southeast My father spent a in Vietnam. Combat operaleast he passed along his phoAsia and several other aslarge part of his Air Force tions ended in 1975. He retos — whether accidentally signments throughout the career in support of the war tired four years later, having or intentionally, I don’t know.

Pacific theater.

I regret that I didn’t realize I wonder how he felt when their significance until he the war ended in retreat, This publication is a compilation of stories from Stars and Stripes, Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher was gone. the editorially independent newspaper authorized by the Department when fellow citizens viewed Terry Leonard, Editor When he was alive, I didn’t of Defense for members of the military community. The contents his years of service as a conof Stars and Stripes are unofficial, and are not to be considered as Robert H. Reid, Senior Managing Editor know what questions to ask. tribution to national failure. the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, including Now I have nothing but quesTina Croley, Managing Editor for Content He probably watched the the Defense Department or the military services. The U.S. Edition of tions. I’m only beginning fall of Saigon on the 6 o’clock Amanda L. Trypanis, U.S. Edition Editor Stars and Stripes is published jointly by Stars and Stripes and this to learn what my father’s news, remembering the peonewspaper.

Michael Davidson, Revenue Director snapshots can teach me about The appearance of advertising in this publication, including inserts ple he photographed when he his experiences in 1965 and or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by the DOD or Stars CONTACT US was there. If he heard about and Stripes of the products or services advertised. what they mean to me 50 the American and Vietnam529 14th Street NW, Suite 350, Washington, D.C. 20045-1301 Products or services advertised in this publication shall be made years later. ese citizens who were evacuEmail: stripesweekly@stripes.com available for purchase, use, or patronage without regard to race, color, ated from the roof of the U.S. Terri Barnes is the author of religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, physical handicap, Editorial: (202) 761-0908 Advertising: (202) 761-0910 Embassy, he might have won- “Spouse Calls: Messages From a political affiliation, or any other nonmerit factor of the purchaser, user, Michael Davidson, Weekly Partnership Director: Military Life.” Contact her at dered about the fate of the or patron. spousecalls@aol.com or at stripes. davidson.michael@stripes.com com/go/spousecalls.

South Vietnamese military © Stars and Stripes, 2015 Additional contact information: stripes.com I’ve heard Vietnam is a beautiful country, and I don’t think my dad was referring to geography anyway. I do know he valued the friendships he forged there and never forgot the friends who didn’t return. I don’t know what happened to Dad in Vietnam. I do know he came back to an America that, if it remembered the war at all, had little but contempt for the warriors who fought and died in it.

Whatever the reason, Dad shied away from most conversations about his time in Vietnam, preferring to tell stories about other flying experiences. He had plenty. In a 20-year career, he traveled the world, logging thousands of flying hours as a crew chief.

When he retired in 1979, he didn’t have a retirement ceremony or a slideshow highlight reel of his exploits.

No one publicly praised his long years of service or formally presented him with awards or certificates, recognizing the years he had given. That was the way he wanted it, I suppose.

Some years later, my father gave me a large box of family pictures and home movies that had been stowed away in his barn. Among the photographic record of my childhood were his snapshots from Vietnam, tucked in a disintegrating envelope.

When I found those pictures, I discovered a narrative of my father’s life in that war: austere living conditions, aircraft repair crews at

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