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Author’s Note: Meeting those warrior who you
fought against was like meeting old friends – it was a strange bond of
fellowship between warriors.
A
DREAM REUNION IN THE IRON TRIANGLE
We found the weather just
like we all had remembered it – hot and very moist. The humidity was the biggest
factor as my shirt seemed to be glued to my skin but in modern Vietnam there was
air-conditioning and in our rooms and even in the van we were taking around the
countryside – all came equipped with a/c. Thank God for the blessings of
civilization!
We stayed a short while in Saigon and then headed out to see the
country that we all thought we knew. Each of us had wanted to see where we had
been stationed so each day we would go off to see our old base camps, air fields
and battle grounds. It was amazing how much of everything had changed and for
the better. Old airfields were now reclaimed fields of grass and small trees.
Base camps were either completely gone or now occupied by the new People’s Army.
On one of your trips through our old
areas of operation we were heading back to Saigon down old Highway #13 –
“Thunder Road” as used to call it back then. This road travels right through
the heart of the old “Iron Triangle” – a place where I was once shot down – on
April 16, 1967. It was now April 18, 2002 and it seemed like a strange
anniversary. As we drove down the road I got a flash back of a dream I had 10
years before. I had dreamt this trip down the road and a house that was on it.
In my dream we had stopped to chat with an old VC veteran and his family and
were invited inside his house. I could still see the images from the long ago
dream I had. I was getting that feeling that I had been here before in that
dream experience.
I told Dave who was leading this
tour that I wanted to stop up ahead at one of these houses to talk to the people
and possibly go inside. He looked at me with an odd half smile and said
something about that being strange because he was just going to have the driver
stop so we could do just that. It seems that Dave had planned on us all stopping
at this old veteran’s house across from a destroyed ARVN tank that was left
along the highway as a monument of the war.
Dave told me that he had always
stopped at this guy’s home and that he was a former VC officer of some kind. He
was a double agent in that during the daytime he was a part of the ARVN (South
Vietnamese Army) as a animal doctor taking care of the dogs and such – then he
would render first aid and medical care to the VC in the tunnels.
Dave was a little shocked by the timing of my request to stop as it
was just a very short distance from the house and he never informed us about
this extra stop on our journey as he wanted to surprise us with it when we got
there. I told Dave that I had already seen all this in a dream. I am not sure
what he thought about that statement at the time but we stopped and did go
across the street to see this old man and his family.
We were cordially invited into his
home. There was an outside courtyard in front of his home. His front door was
directly facing this. A small personal shrine to Buddha was straight out from
his door step and was decorated with fresh flowers.
When we walked inside you faced
another altar with religious pictures and statues on it. There was a table next
to it where we all sat down. His lovely wife who stood much les than five feet
tall – and was about 70 years old brought us a glass with real ice cubes in it.
She then gave us each a bottle of cola. I would normally avoid taking anything
with ice in any third world country – this was given with so much loving care
that I was not about to insult them by not taking it.
We went on to have wonderful
conversation about what he did during the war years and how that affected his
family. He asked us about America and where we lived and what we did. This
conversation went on for over 30 minutes during which time his daughter and a
grandchild came through to see us. It was a real pleasant experience spending
that afternoon with hi and his family. It was hard to believe that just 35 years
before I had crashed no more than a few thousand yards from his home – and he
was my enemy. Now we were sharing a soda with ice in what used to be the least
secure place in all of Vietnam – were the French had lost hundreds of men as did
the Americans years later. The irony of it all amused me but also made me feel
good that real recovery from any and all wars was possible. Here were all us old
warriors all sitting around a former VC’s dinner table talking about our
grandchildren. What a difference 35 years made!
We got up to leave and went
out to his courtyard for photos. He wanted to have all of us in his photos with
his family. I told him that I had dreamt about his house and his family and this
day’s events some 10 years before – his wife and him looked at me and said,
“Yes, I believe that is true.” Neither one of them doubted or even thought it
was strange that I had made that statement - it was like telling them that the
sky was blue. They fully understood what I had told them and both of them gave
me the biggest hug.
I left there feeling
much better about life, the aftermath of the wars and the hope for people to
live together in peace. This showed me that forgiveness and understanding were
very much a part of nature – just as the devastated forests and jungles of
Vietnam are now all growing back. I still see that old man’s face with his
smiling wife at his side. They have lived a history of times and events and seem
none the worse for it – in fact, they seemed to enjoy life. There was no
bitterness about the many years he spent fighting the Japanese, The French, The
Americans and his own countrymen in the South. To him and his family those wars
were long over – he now lived in the presence of this moment and that has been
his secret to finding peace within.
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