One thing every Marine, Sailor, GI and Airman heard, again and again, during their Vietnam tours was “Hey, Marine! You want boom-boom?” You can probably guess what they were soliciting. Do you want a girl? The fact that war creates this industry is something that young girls and young men carry with them for a lifetime. I’m sorry to say that I’ve heard it again during this visit. It took me on a walk on this trip back on my last night in Da Nang.
Pho took me to the Da Nang Hotel which was the hangout for MACV, CIA, Red Cross and AID boys and girls during the war. The advisory team that I was with as part of the Marine Liaison Team to the 51st ARVN’s kept a suite of rooms there. They would rotate every six or seven days for a night. I was sitting at the bar my last night in Da Nang with my team’s XO, an Army Captain, listening to these civilians cracking fun at the grunts and bragging about how much money there was to be made. I figure that if I didn’t get out of there right then, I was going to shoot me another rat.
My last night in Vietnam this week, I tried to retrace my walk that night a long time ago to say “I’m very sorry” to a young mother who was pimped by her younger brother. The guilt of that occasion has always seemed out of reach of an “Act of Contrition.” I found the block and the group of houses around a central garden, but nobody answered the bell. I put a note on the ground with some money hoping that it might help someone. I hoped it would help me. The next morning I woke up very sick and purged a lot over the next two days. I figure that may be my real penance.
S’lan,
Tom
P.S. I guess you all certainly know about the internet worm. It has shut down many cyber cafe’s over here. I think that it also must have jumped out of the internet into me. I arrived in Hoi An about noon Monday. Since then, until this morning, I have been very sick and staying in bed trying to drink as much water as I could. Except for two rolls, I haven’t eaten until breakfast today. I’m hoping that I’ve turned the corner, but if this suddenly stops, I must have a few more miles to go.