Tet - A Half Century Later

 50 years ago today, just after my father arrived in Vietnam, the Tet Offensive began.

Bob Hope at Phu Cat

These are pictures of Bob Hope performing at Phu Cat Airbase in 1968. My Dad was in the audience, but these aren't his pictures; his Vietnam photo album is MIA in their apartment.

40 years ago today

On this day in 1975 Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell to the Communists, signaling the end of a war that had stretched back to the 1950's. 

It was America's first real defeat (albeit, via a lack of politcal strength, not military might) and led to untold suffering by millions of Vietnamese. 

I have no problem with restored relations with Vietnam, and I welcome their success going forward, but I do grieve for the lives of those we failed so many years ago.

45 years

 I regret I didn't do the math sooner, but this past Monday (January 21st) marked the 45th anniversary of my Dad's arrival in-country for his tour in Vietnam. Thank you for your service Pop!

Two Dates

Today would have been my maternal grandmother's 90th birthday.

Today is also the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Ap Bac, where Viet Cong forces pinned down and defeated a South Vietnamese force 5x it's size, along with their American advisers. It's been described as the Viet Cong's first major battlefield victory and credited with all sorts of influence on how events played out in the next 12 years. IMO, that 'influence' seems exaggerated by historians It was influential in the moment, but I don't see its reach extending that much into the future.

The American Experience: My Lai

This morning I watched "The American Experience: My Lai", with some trepidation. I was expecting to be hit over the head for an hour with more opinion than content . Instead, the documentary let the facts of March 16, 1968 speak for themselves; it was a wise move, as it was more than enough to cement the fact that the murder of 500+ women and children was an inexcusable war crime. 

Of note were the interviews with the men of Charlie company, and the myriad personalities that are on display even 40 years removed from My Lai: the meek follower, the strident soldier, the guy that just wanted to go home, the creepy rationalist. This should be required viewing. Grade: A+ (and as always, a tip of the hat to Hugh Thompson for his actions that day)

A talk with a Vet

I love collecting stories from people, even I never record their words on paper. That was the case the other day at work, when in a lull I found myself conversing with a man in his sixties. He was a retiree who spent some of his free time flying old WWII planes, mainly Mustang knockoffs and (my favorite) the Corsair.

I asked him what he was doing in Milwaukee, since he mentioned he lived 45 minutes away in Lake Geneva.

"Oh I was up at the VA getting something looked at. The docs want to take some more shrapnel outta my back, but I said I'd get back to 'em. Sure they numb you up, but that sucker hurts like hell for days after the surgery."

I asked him if he'd been a pilot in Vietnam, thinking he'd been a helicopter pilot that took some flak. He said no, he was an Army Ranger. Now when you talk to a guy from that era and you hear the words 'Ranger', 'Green Beret' or 'Seal', it makes you wonder if you're about to hear a tall tale. No one wants to say 'I spent the war as a clerk typist in Saigon', but I had a genuine feeling about this guy, especially when he detailed how he got his wound.

"We were checking out a village, see, that was our job. To come on in before the troops and make sure things were the way they were supposed to be. Sometimes it got hairy, but most of the time we weren't there to fight, we just had to check things out. Anyway I'm wallking through the village and I tripped over a landmine. And I mean I tripped over the damn thing, like my shoelace was untied or something. Blew right up. My back looks like a damn road atlas. It was allright tho, I left with all my arms and legs, which was good. But every once in awhile they want to go digging for some shrapnel. Last time was twenty years ago, but they said some of it shifted. Might be no bigger than a grain of sand, but they move. They might just move a [shows me his fingers a cm or two apart] in five years, but they work their way around. Doc says its near an organ and he wants it out."

He shrugged. "You know I'm on pysch meds. I ain't ashamed or nothing. Had a nervous breakdown. Doctors at the VA say it's Post-Traumatic but that's bull. I was always a little mixed up, from way back. It started getting worse and my wife bailed on me, and that was it, I cracked up."

He shrugged again. "Anyway, nice talking to ya. I didn't know it was this late. I gotta get back."

Fifteen minutes I spent talking to the guy, and in all that time I never got his name. Not once. If I see him again I'll ask for a formal interview. I've done two or three, with research, transcriptions, the whole ball of wax. One's even on file down at the Milwaukee Historical Society.

But even if I never see him again, it was time well spent.

A Q&A with my Dad about his time in Vietnam

In the '90's I conducted a half-hour interview with my Dad about his service in Vietnam. Eventually I gave up trying to transcribe the tape myself and turned itover to a professional service. They folded soon after and I got neither the tape nor the transcript back. All that remains is this brief bit I personally transcribed. With luck, I may someday conduct a new interview.

* * * * *

Q: Could you please state your full name, branch, and date of service, and lowest and highest rank?

A: Edward M. Slap-, United States Air Force, July 1966 to July 1970. I started at E1, highest rank attained was E5.

Q: Why did you choose to enlist in the Air Force when you did?

A: Didn’t have much choice at the time. It was either that or being drafted. There were not many alternatives for young men at that time.

Q: What age were you then?

A: Oh, uh, nineteen

Q: The Vietnam War had already been raging for some time when you enlisted, what were your feelings about the war back then?

A: … hard question because, like I said, we didn’t have many options as, as a nineteen year old at that time. [You] Either had to go in the military, stay in school the whole time, or become …or head to Canada. Basically the only three alternatives a young man had.

Q: But what was your feeling about the war itself? About what was going on over there?

A: Well the war itself seemed, for what we were told, at age nineteen you just kinda don’t know too much about what’s going on yet, but it seemed like it was, at the time, a just war. Uh…there were some very serious questions being raised already at that time as to how we were going about it. Not only the reason why but how we were going about it. [I] Had questions concerning that.

Q: Like what?

A: Well, it was just like [unintelligible] all we were doing is prolonging the war. It’s the old adage, ah, I hit you, you hit me back, I go out and get a club, then you go get a club and I go get a knife, then you go get a knife. I mean, it seemed [our] battle[s] were just escalating it, were not really settling anything.

Q: When did you arrive in Vietnam?

A: January 1968. Ten days before the Tet offensive started.


Q: What were some of your first impressions of that country and its people?

A: Of [the] country?

Q: Of the country and its people.

A: Well, we arrived about 11:30 at night and it was incredibly hot. Good Lord, was it hot! We just came out of Wisconsin and Seattle, Washington in the middle of winter and I think it was something like 98 degrees at 11:30 at night. You just couldn’t, and I mean you wouldn’t, by the time you got maybe hundred yards you were just soaking wet from perspiration and nothing you could do about it. You know just…didn’t even see my first Vietnamese until about…the following day because we were at Cam Ranh Bay checking in, and my first [laughs] impression of them was, was how incredibly short they were! God they were a small people. My God, I’ve seen kids in, going to junior high here taller then they.

Q: But were they-

A: And yet, after a while you start to learn that height didn’t really mean much.

Q: Where were you stationed?

A: Phu Cat Airforce Base

Q: Where was that?

A: About 40 miles East of Pleiku and about 50 miles North, Northeast of Qui Nhon, right off the, uh, south China coast.

Q: That was Northern South Vietnam?

A: About, uh…we were in the upper half, the lower upper half.

Q: What was your job at that base?

A: Supply Specialist. Just, anything to, our primary job was to make sure those airlplanes kept flying. And, uh, just anything they needed, anything the army unit needed, uh, our job was to get it to ‘em.

Q: You got there right before the Tet offensive. What do you remember about it, when it started?

A: [pause] Well, I didn’t really know it was a, Tet offensive, just, you know, it started. We . . . came under attack around 1 o’clock in the morning. And, uh, at the time we had not been, we were sleeping on a cot, sleeping on a cot, in the middle of a main hallway because our permanent quarters weren’t ready yet. And, I had sacked out and the first thing I knew I could remember hearing the concussion and the next thing I knew some guy who was trying to get out tripped [chuckles] over my bunk and fell right over me. And down went the cot, down went everything. I was on the floor then people stampeding out, grabbing their gear, trying to get up, trying to get this big shit offa me, tryin’ to find out where my stuff was because that was the first time I had been through it. And get over – get your weapon, get over to your, uh, assigned spot where you know down into the bunker. And then you just kinda wait it out, see what happens.

Q: What did happen?

A: Well, it was a mortar attack and, the barracks area itself was . . .away from the flight line where the aircraft were so there was a bit of a