The fall of Saigon, 40 years ago this month. Aviation history.

There were some amazing displays of badassness all around. The Chinook and Birddog landings in particular were insane to watch, imagine just headed out to sea hoping for the best. If I'm ever in LIT, I'll look for the C130.
 
While this was all before I was born (Child of the early 80s) we obviously learned much in school and my father came close to being drafted at the time. I had the opportunity to travel to Viet Nam a few years ago and it was a very interesting moment to compare and contrast what I learned in school and to see it on the ground. Given the population demographic, most of the population was not born at the time of the war. I am most certain though that they too had family involved. I ended up at the War Museum and the Reunification Palace which had more propaganda than anything else. It was most certainly interesting to see. The scars on the land are very clear with old airfields, monuments, and other areas that still have clear evidence of the fighting. Some how seeing the machine gun bullets strafe areas really gives you pause to what our soldiers encountered.

I personally found everyone to be more than friendly, with the government wanting to impress upon me their history (numerous government officials wanted to make sure I had a front row vantage point to their story). Save for one old lady in Delat that punched me, and yelled something in Vietnamese. The food is amazing, the beer is great. It makes for a very interesting, historically humbling, visit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top