Our legacy lives through the stories we tell. The Suck Life wants yours! Make Chesty proud!
Late summer/early fall Vietnam BLT 3/5 1966
As the UH-34 helicopters picked us up at the end of this operation, we knew we would not be returning to our cramped home of these past few months on the converted aircraft carrier LPH-5 USS Princeton. Before we deployed, our seabags had been staged and were to be sent to some squad-sized tents already set up on land. The Battalion Landing Team-Special Landing Force was dissolved, and our floating days ended, to be replaced at a base camp in the suburbs of Chu Lai. All our future endeavors would be embarked from this land-based camp.
The camp was relatively peaceful, with only the occasional whistling of an incoming mortar round. We were in and out frequently on operations, and it was nice place to come back to, feeling more connected to the country’s inhabitants.
Most of the residents spoke Vietnamese, French, and/or broken English. The only Vietnamese I knew were the swear words, but I did have two years of high school French and was semi-fluent.
I usually ate at different times from the rest of the troops, (before or after guard duty) and the assistant cook, who was Vietnamese employed by the base, took a liking to me as we got to chat and know each other. One day he invited me to his home for dinner with his family. I told him certainly, but that I had to clear it with the “powers that be” first, who said OK.
When I arrived at the off-base home, his family was very warm to me and filled me in on their local Vietnam history. The Vietnamese home cooking was ox and noodles, barracuda and rice, and local vegetables, which was both exotic and much better than the regular mess hall chow.
Leaving their place heading back to camp, I was thinking that those nosey state side reporters, who were always sniffing around for controversial stories, would never be interested in a pleasant story like my local dinner visit.
Andy Syor
Semper Fidelis
