My dad was in Vietnam around '70-72ish not sure on exact dates, he also spent 2 years in Germany before that, he was promoted to Captain when he got over to Vietnam. He never spoke too much about his time over there but I have a few letters that he wrote to his mother during his service. One of his letters really sticks in my mind, he wrote. " I saw a little girl who got it, she looked about 5 or 6, laying on the road on her side, legs blown off and disemboweled. Wow, bad scene! This ****** place and stupid people, they will never make it." and this " I never have anything nice to write about huh? Thats because there ain't none. This place warps you. You see everyday death, corruptness, crime, filth, poverty, funky attitudes, worthless VN's. You dont pay any attention to it and it becomes a way of life. Not only is it physically unhealthy here, it is mentally unhealthy."
His unit was the 204th military intelligence detachment, attached to G2 HQ XXIV Corps and worked in the tactical observation command (TOC) A lot of his job was providing tactical intelligence on all North Vietnamese and Viet-Cong units. Then later he became Asst Chief and Chief of Security for the Counter-intelligence section. I need to get a transcript or something for all his medals, he told me he never received a lot of his medals (didnt want them) so other than a few purple hearts and a bronze star and a couple others are what I saw, I am not sure what else he got.
I remember in my young years he used to wake up in the middle of the night yelling guys names, screaming or whatever, a lot of it I couldn't comprehend or was too young to remember, something happened to him over there that caused nightmares and flashbacks. He loved military history but would never watch movies/documentaries on the Vietnam war, and never told me much about it when I asked. His answers usually were, "you dont want to know" or "maybe I will tell you someday, just not right now" He passed away back in August 5th 2006, he was 61 yrs old and died of lung cancer. Agent orange was listed as a complication of his death. I am not sure what that meant and why it was recognized. Somebody from the VA suggested it and helped my mother with the paper work to have him recognized as being in direct contact with agent orange. Maybe it was for some type of benefit or something? Sadly my mother passed away a little over a year later on August 26th 2007 of heart failure, doctor said heart disease, I said broken heart. They were married for 34 years.
