A Long Time Ago November 17, 2007

     I thought I would share something with all of you, something I told Jenn was thinking about posting a short while ago. I have been doing some on line research about a little slice of the Vietnam war. Not so much on a broad stroke scale but rather on a more narrowed individual perspective. Mine to be specific. I have found a surprising amount of material and images on web sites concerning the areas of operation where I served and was stationed while in country. I will not postulate or moralize on the war in Vietnam. Just wanted to share my thoughts and feelings on the subject. Still to this day that war remains a controversial subject. Most of you reading this blog were not even born when the war ended. To you my family and friends the war in Vietnam is ancient history to sort of speak, seen in movies and old films on the History Chanel, much as World War 2 was to me in which my father and his brothers served. Vietnam lasted all of ten years, longer than World War 2. Not since the Civil War has this country been so lastingly wounded by a war. Vietnam like the American Civil War tore this country apart. Brother against brother, father against sons and so on. In many similar ways neither of these wars has really ended for this nation.

     I served in Vietnam from 1969 to November of 1970 serving with the 101st Airborne Air-mobile Division. I’m very proud of my service and prouder still of having had the honor of serving as a member of the 101st Screaming Eagles. (their moniker). A very decorated and distinguished division. They are now serving in Iraq. They were the first allied troops to be deployed on D-Day behind enemy lines. At The Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944 they were the besieged division at Bastogne and when the Germans demanded their surrender their replay was “Nuts” which was a polite way of saying “F you”. Three weeks latter that same German field Marshall surrendered to the 101st. Anyway, enough of the history lesson. Most of you know that I am a bit of a history nut and I apologize for rambling on.

     So a few nights ago I sat here at the computer and punched in to my good ole Google search…FireBase Birmingham, 101st Airborne 1969-1970 and up popped about 15 web sites devoted to the subject. Some of them veteran web sites, some official military sites. I found a wealth of information from blogs to images and histories. In my personal photo collection I have numerous pictures that I took during my tour in the Army and tour of duty on this particular fire base. Perhaps a little elaboration is in order here. A forward fire base was used as a forward artillery installation and communications center for the support of field units ( infantry grunts) out in the field as you might have guessed. We had quite a bit of artillery, much of it very heavy stuff and it was a very noisy place at times. 16 and 18 inch guns  generate a lot of decibels when they go off! I on the other hand was Signal Corps. Myself and six or seven other guys ran the radios, commo equipment and classified encryption devises on the fire base and when needed I humped in the field with the grunts with a radio on my back. On the fire base we were shelled most every night. It got to be routine. Funny the things you can get used to.

      I was 21 years old, average age for my counter parts I served with. Anyway as I sat here perusing through the blogs and viewing the images I was stunned at what I found and for long periods of time I just sat here staring at my monitor screen and lost in thoughts and time traveling back in time. I wish I could convey my feelings. Sometimes and somethings there are just no words for. Gazing into my monitor and alternating between memories and images, back and forth over and over completely lost in 37 years ago. Not only were there images of Fire base Birmingham (and others I had been to) but many of the photos were of the SAME exact scenes I had photographed. I brought up on my monitor my pictures folder images I took on 35 mm film (digital did not yet exist then) in Vietnam and began clicking back and forth between the two. My God! I can show them to you. The same views, locations, scenes, the very places I stood as I clicked my camera 37 years ago.

     Then there were even images taken only a few years ago. What was a place of war and violence now looks like condos nestled in the valley below what used to be Fire Support Base Birmingham (or “B’ham” as we called it then). I guess everything changes over time. The strange thing was, I was almost angry at the changes I saw in the images before me. Almost as if “they” had violated sacred ground. I know that makes no sense but that was what I felt as I viewed those images. The fire base and the surrounding area that I had come to know for that year so long ago was so very different then. Dusty hot and barren and during the monsoon season a muddy hell. Now the jungle has reclaimed its own, lush, green and lovely as it was before the war and as it should be. Yet I felt a strange sense of loss that I can not explain. Perhaps in my mind’s eye I thought that even after all these years it would still look the same. That if I could go there and walk that mountain again it would all fit like pieces of a puzzle in my mind and in my heart. Everything would be as I remembered it.

      I do not look back on Vietnam fondly. The war was horrible and ugly. I lost friends there. The following February after I left Vietnam, FireBase Birmingham was overrun by the North Vietnamese Army. Maybe if there was such a thing as the Vulcan Mind Meld I could let you look inside my head and you would understand my feelings. I am filled even now with a strange sense of melancholy I can not explain or even begin to describe. One of the web sites listed is a site posted by the Vietnamese Government. It offers tours of battle sites and fire bases, one of which is Fire base Birmingham. The tour guides are former members of the NVA 97th regiment. The very same people who fired on us and shelled us nightly. Life is funny isn’t it?

      Before I die I have two wishes I would like to fulfill. Yes…I would like to go back to Vietnam someday and tour Fire base Birmingham with my family. The other is to go to Washington DC and visit the Vietnam wall memorial and the WW2 memorial, also with my family. I don’t think these are things I would want to do alone. Going back to The Nam is probably an unrealistic wish and will likely never happen due to the expense of such a trip. But before I die I want to see and touch the wall. Of all the veterans I have ever talked to there is one thing they all seem to say in common. A piece of you never comes home. God bless America’s veterans and God  bless America. Good night family and friends. Love you all.

        Rondad