Introduction – Chapter 1 – Chapter 2 – Chapter 3 – Chapter 4 – Summary
Saigon Rex Hotel, Hue and Dong Ha
Toast to Doc Howell. First Night
Major Carey leads yet another tour to the battlefield. This trip consisted of the Major, former Sgt. Jerome Ski Czarnowski, former (radio operator), former Cpl Jerry Bynum (M60 Machine Gun team leader), Dave Arnold (brother of LCpl Robin “Tink” Arnold who was killed on hill 362), Paul Daigle (a very close friend of mine), and me — former Staff Sergeant Danny Brickey.
Paul and Me with shots of Patron 4am. Yep, that’s the tab on the table.
We all arrive in Saigon within an hour of each other, around midnight. Mike has our transportation, and off we go to Hotel Rex, an icon in Saigon. It was the headquarters for all three major American television stations, broadcasting the Vietnam War into the living rooms of every American home. While getting to know each other, and having several adult beverages, (as a man of my word, I hoisted the first toast to Doc Howell), the Major lays out the battle plans for the next 10 days. Every day was carefully planned and scheduled by Mike and our tour operator, Nguyen Ngoc. All of our tickets, lodging and meal plans were ready and waiting for us.
I’m thinking, “I can’t believe I’m here in Saigon, sitting on top of the REX with these Marine warriors.” When I’m feeling in complete awe or emotional, my arms are full of goose bumps standing at attention! This is so awesome!! For years, my friend Paul and I have read and discussed Vietnam books, movies and documentaries. Army, Marines, VC — you name it we discuss it. Tonight, we look at each other and say, “Can you believe it? We are here.”
Three Little Pigs
Everyone retires leaving Paul and me sitting up there, like two little kids just happy to be somewhere. We are mesmerized by the company we have been in. But, before they leave, Paul volunteered to pay the bar tab, and I’m like, “Dude!” Ok, I start to feel a little guilty and tell him I’ll pay half. Anybody who knows me knows that I never volunteer to pay for anything. The honcho hands me the bill and I say, “Are you freakin’ kidding me!!” In a panic mode, about to lose my breathe, I ask, “Did we drink that much?!” Paul looks at me, laughing, and says, “Danny, this is the trip of a life time, man. Think about it, we just bought the first round for the Marines your dad served with, and we are in Saigon, Vietnam.” Then he tells the honcho to bring two shots of Patron. We need to toast! Its 4:00 am, and the skipper says reveille is 6:00am. Oh my…
14 Cases of Water
NOTE: In almost every book I have read, when a Dogface, Flyboy or Jarhead gets off the plane for the first time in Vietnam, they comment on how hot and how heavy the humidity is. I did not experience this. Maybe, I was looking for it. Maybe, it’s April, or maybe it’s where I live, Arkansas. Arkansas weather conditions are similar to Vietnam, hot and humid summer days. I don’t know.
This day, our journey is by plane to Phu Bai. Before leaving for the airport, I stop at the front desk to exchange American money for Vietnamese Dongs. Holy cow, the exchange rate was 1,931,711.58 Vietnamese Dong to 100 US Dollars. I see Paul in the lobby, stick my hand out to shake and say, “meet a millionaire”. Paul laughingly says to me, “you cheap bastard, meet a multi- millionaire”. Dang, he one upped me again.
Arriving at the aging airport of Phu Bai, I’m like a zombie, I’m so freaking sick. We are met by our driver and tour guide. Then, off to Hue City, with sight seeing along the way. As we are entering Hue, I have my head resting on my arms against the back of the seat in front of me. I hear the guys laughing and exclaim,”Look at that. Holy cow, look at them!” I raise my head, and there are two guys on a motor bike, one driving and one carrying house scaffolding. This structure was like 15 feet long and 8 ft wide, on a little 80cc motorbike. Everywhere we went, we saw some amazing feats of balance on motorbikes. The funniest I think was up on the Cambodian boarder. A guy had 3 live pigs strapped on the back of his motorcycle. The pigs had green foliage tied to their upturned bellies. It was explained by the tour guide, that the pigs would lie quietly; if the green foliage was strapped tightly against their belly. He said, “They were transporting these pigs to the Cambodian market.” It sure was a funny looking site.
The other balancing act that stands out in mind, was in Da Nang. There were two motor bikes with 14 cases of water strapped on the back, 14 oh my god! I couldn’t figure out why the front wheel didn’t come off the ground. Still a little under the weather from the flight (maybe drinking until 4:00 didn’t help), I turned in way too early (truth is I’m so freakin’ sick that, looking back, I think Jet lag had a lot to do with it). Everyone else shared dinner, and passed the evening away getting to know each other. They talked about the sites they had seen earlier.
Dave Arnold was off on one of the rickshaw rides. You know the cart you climb up and in with the little Vietnamese guy who weighs only about 80 pounds grabs hold of long handles up front, balances you on a pair of wheels, and then trots off to your destination. Later that night, I heard Dave got rolled in a massage parlor. What? Just kidding, this was a practical joke played on Ski. However, Ski didn’t find it very practical or very funny.
Hue City looking across the river to the Citadel
When I awoke, my first thought is, today is my son Joel’s birthday. And I speculate, how many Marines were here in 1966, for their son’s birthday, wondering if he would ever see him, again. I think to myself “Happy Birthday Son.”
Soccer field, seen from Camille
We enjoyed a big breakfast, on the 14th floor of the Camille Hotel, which offers a 360-degree view of Hue City. From the books I’ve read I can almost trace the steps the Marines took fighting through the city, street to street, house to house, when regaining control in 1968. The soccer field used for staging and supplies lies over to my right. I can follow the road to the bridges used to cross the river to the NVA/VC strong holds in the Citadel and to where U.S., ARVN and friendly forces were held up inside the Imperial Palace. This is to cool. I’m looking at where the history books claims the forces of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam (NLF, or Viet Cong) and the People’s Army of Vietnam (NVA) fought against the forces of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the U.S. and their allies. The battle of Huế became one of the five longest and bloodiest single battles of the Vietnam War. I finish walking from window to window, gazing across the city and the river, and go down to meet everyone so we can go on to the Perfume River. Well, first we have to drag Dave away from the hired help, he absolutely fell head over heals for one of the hotel desk clerk girls.
Dragon Boats
So, we travel through Hue City to the Perfume River, board a Dragon boat and motor up the river to the 400-year-old Thien Mu Pagoda.
Thien Mu Pagoda
The Dragon boat was part of a big fleet, it has an empty wooden hull, with big sliding plexi-glass windows. The seating was little plastic lawn furniture type chairs. Not being of solid structure nor being anchored down, one has to kinda balance with the boat and waves. For the larger guys, they stacked two or three chairs on top of each other. It’s a rather funny site to see, that along with the balancing act. The river had several of these dragon boats racing for the pagoda along with fishing rigs trying to bring in the morning catch. There were little sampans flying by, and what appeared to be even more dragon boats, stripped down to a flat deck right off the water, maybe 10 inches off the water. These would be totally loaded with soil or rocks, a Vietnamese version of a barge. On the banks were either farmers in their fields or people fishing and washing cloths. There were one or two small floating restaurants on the water.
Sea Snakes
The Thien Mu pagoda is 7 stories tall, built in 1601. It is surrounded by a beautiful garden and the Perfume River. It has a well manicured courtyard on the inside. One well known artifact displayed, is an Austin Martin car, that the monk Thích Quảng Đức drove to Saigon in 1963. In protest to how monks were being treated, he went to the center of an intersection, and using gasoline set himself on fire. The picture and story of him burning with the Austin in the background is in many Vietnamese books and documentaries. The writer and photographer of this monks death won a Pulitzer prize for their efforts.
Big Lobsters
After an interesting visit to the Pagoda, we tour the Imperial Palace and the Citadel. The history of Hue and the Imperial Palace is rich and dates back to around the 17th century. Again, I’m in awe. After seeing so many documentaries, hearing stories, reading books and here I am. Colors are vibrant and the architecture is magnificent. There’s a lot of damage to the structures still evident today – themselves considered casualties of war.
This afternoon, we start for Dong Ha and the DMZ. Emotions and anxiety grow, for everyone knows that soon we will ascend Hill 362. Before leaving for Dong HA, we make a brief stop at the largest market in Hue City, and look at floor after floor of clothing, leather goods, fine china, etc. It appears that every vendor has the same products. I’m thinking, to whom do they sell this merchandise?
Everywhere you went it was: You buy?…Hey! You buy for me… ok, I make you good deal today.
NOTE: A quick tidbit on Hue: my dad’s platoon leader and good friend in 1964 is now retired Lt. General Ron Christmas. He was Commanding Officer of H/2/5, and a significant player in the re-taking of Hue City in ’68. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions. But that’s a story for another time.
NOTE: After a day of traveling and sight seeing, an interesting dinner this night in Dong HA. The appetizer is deep fried sea snake skin. Then, we proceed to consume snake, lobster, something I could not identify, and I think, crab meat spring rolls. A touch of snake blood wine drink, which actually is snake blood and vodka shots, followed with beer, of course, and green tea. The menu was large water filled concrete tiled vats, filled with your choice of fresh live catch. One just points it out, has a seat and voila! Dinner is served. Sounds a little bizarre, but it was good eating, and a great time to be had by all, including Phong and our driver, Stay. Everyone passed on dessert, which I believe was gonna be watermelon. I don’t know what kind of sea snake we ate — just brown with dark rings and all slithering around in a big tiled tank. The chef would let you watch preparation of the snake, to include bleeding him out for your snake blood wine. Hum. No thank you sir.
