By Steve Stricker

Columnist

 

PTSD? First flight out of Southern Missouri, first jet flight St. Louis to Vietnam, July 1969, nervous about flying, nervous about dying, long 24 hour flight – miserable! Stops in LA, Seattle, Washington to have an engine worked on (stress), Alaska, Okinawa, Tokyo – flying past Mount Fuji on a beautiful clear day was one of the most wonderful sights of my life and in slow motion seemed to last for hours.

Landed in Binh Hoa, no idea of day or time due to crossing time zones, early morning on a blue Air Force Bus, windows screened to knock down RPG’s , (Rocket Propelled Grenades), hot, humid, anxious, to Long Binh – I was here, a Soldier Abroad from July 1969-July 1970.

Week later transferred from Long Binh to assigned duty station – 18th Engineer Brigade Headquarters, Dong Ba Thinh, Vietnam across bay from huge Cam Ranh Bay Air Force Base.

Letter to hero mom, Get, “One of the safest places in Vietnam.” Next day almost killed in a massive rocket, mortar, sapper attack directly on top of me that made all the news at home.

“I thought you said you were safe.”

Day later, transferred back to Long Binh, attached to USAECV (United States Army Engineering Command Vietnam) 14 miles from Saigon. As “the most eclectic soldier in Vietnam,” there were so many moving parts as to what I did that year – amongst them had my own Jeep and was all over South Vietnam including Saigon many times, often driving past our American Embassy and the Palace of then President of South Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu…should have been so dead.

Nine long months later, I went to Taipei, Taiwan for R&R. Tour bus pulled to the side of the road to allow two black Citroen limousines to speed by bumper to bumper. Bus driver said it was Chiang Kai-shek, then President of Taiwan….

Month to go in that death hole, to Australia for my last R&R – incredible! I had reserved a room at the famous Sydney Hotel for the week but was seldom there as before arriving arranged to spend time with a Sydney family and two families in the Outback.

On bus from Airport to Sydney’s Reception Center, were “birds” in short revealing skirts, whew, starved eyes. At the reception center, a very cute Aussie female soldier began flirting with me, then to Sydney family on a harbor boat to meet them and another cute Aussie and I began chatting – she had never met or head and American voice. Awesome family and experiences.

Then to the wonderful Outback family, no electricity, water heated by pipe running through fireplace, kangaroos everywhere! At local store looked like them, until I asked a question and having never heard an American voice, entire store stopped to listen – could hear a pin drop!

My other Outback family lived in a small village, had electricity, car, and was where I drove my first “wrong-side road, steering wheel and left hand shift.”

Too soon to Reception Center to “checkout” and my fate in Vietnam. Then, thee she was, the cute Aussie female soldier. We chatted, she pulled me to her and gave me a hug kiss right on my lips and said, “Keep your ass down, Yank,” hugged me and I got on that bus….whew.

Finally, thankfully, back to the US buckling in for flight from LA to St. Louis and my sister Mary Ann, a stewardess kissed me on the cheek, said, “Welcome Home soldier,” and tucked a flower into my uniform lapel.

The kiss from my Aussie friend and that stewardess’ kindness cause tears to flow down my cheeks even now because those were THE only acts of compassion I experienced upon returning home.

 

Steve is an Oxford resident, worked on the Ole Miss Campus, and received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (Counseling) from The University of Mississippi.