KSV News: Short Round 040

Modern Vietnam- 1

My wife and I are embarking on a one month visit to Vietnam. When you read this, we will be “In Country”. I have been back on four earlier visits and concentrated those trips on the USMC combat areas in northern I Corps. Our furthest north on these trips was walking the ground at the highest levels of Hill 881N. Absolutely amazing views looking back at the Base from there. With a powerful pair of binoculars, you would literally be able to see Marines taking a crap on the Base. And there was even better visibility of our positions on 881S and 861. They could see most everything we did, when we did it. I have no idea why it did not dawn on us when we were building defensive trenches and positions that they were watching us do it.

I have hiked up both 881S and 861 on these earlier trips. We stayed overnight in a local hotel in Khe Sanh (1” mattress) on two separate occasions. The highlight of one stay was being awakened with flashing lights and loud noises just outside our third floor window. As you can imagine, that triggered some pretty strong emotions until we sorted it out. Opening the window and looking out, there were maybe 100 folding chairs in the parking lot in front of the hotel, all filled with locals. The flashing light and sound was a John Wayne movie being displayed using the front façade of the hotel for the screen.

It is my intention on this trip to visit only the “pretty places” in Vietnam. Places that we never could enjoy while “in country”. For example, our first hotel night after Saigon will be at a boutique hotel that is on a lake close to Cambodia that you can only reach by boat. No kidding. How cool is that!! You can only get there by boat. How their world has changed!!!

In my upcoming Short Rounds, I hope to share with you some of what we find in the pretty places of modern Vietnam. My one “no war stories” exception will be a trip that I have planned to revisit 881N and marvel at the changes there.

So, the point of this request is to gather requests for any special places that you would like us to see and report back.

We will do our best to visit them if they are any place near our planned routes of travel which are north on the west side and south on the east side down Route 1. We will not be able to visit the Delta. Nor will we visit the north beyond one cave complex above Khe Sanh that is purportedly so large it has a rain forest growing in it.

Please send your requests to admin@khesanh.vet Attn: Bob

I highly recommend you visit our Red Clay II library of articles and check out https://khesanh.vet/anatomy-of-a-fire-mission-showing-how-infantry-and-artillery-fight-together/

Bob Koury: Website & Digital Manager