Viet Nam April 2011

Sometime last year Nancy came home from an ADK meeting and asked me if I wanted to go to VietNam. I thought she was just joking. Then she told me about a school that ADK was building in a small town west of Hue, this was being done with a group called the Vietnam Veterans Recovery Project. I really didn't think much more about it as I thought it was one of Nancy Fancy trips that she is always thinking about. As time went on she kept talking about the "trip" and how she would pay my expenses if I would go. I was not sure I wanted to go, as most of you know I was there 1968-1969 and did not have what I would call a good time. Around the first of this year it was put up or shut up. Nancy really wanted to go, so I gave in and said I would go. Then I find out that the trip was a group of 12 women and me, which I was not real excited about. As it turned out there was one other man, and he had been in country the same time that I was, so that helped. Actually Bud had been an Army pilot and flew L-19s, the same plane that I spent a lot of time in myself, so we hit it off quite well. The preparations for the trip proved to be time consuming and expensive, shots, visa, prescriptions, new clothes, the right shoes, rain gear, snack food etc...

We flew to JFK, in New York, and from New York, it was a nonstop flight to Hong Kong, 16 hours in a Boeing 777, I watched 7 movies on that flight. From Hong Kong another flight to Hanoi and then the adventure began. Arriving at the Hanoi airport all I could think about was the book Up Country by Nelson Demille where the vn Vet goes through customs and they take him to a room and interrogate him. The customs area was bare with only a military officer standing waiting for us, all went well but it sure made me wonder. Now we are on a bus with all the luggage in route to our hotel. The ride from the airport was interesting and a preview to the next two weeks. This is part 1, I will do my best to up date daily this next week, as there is a lot to tell about the trip.