Vung Tau

Did any of you guys get far enough down to check out Vung Tau? The Blue Angel Bar use to me my favorite hangout, on the mail runs. Or, there was also 101st Airborne HQ, on main street. It was the only 3 story building in town when I was there, 65-66. Had one of the greatest fights of the Viet Nam Conflict there, between 3 of us, 3 Cong boys on R&R, and a bunch of sailors off some visiting destroyer.

Earl

Sorry Ray. I didn't have a chance to find out much about anybody, in Vung Tao. That's where the Big Red One came ashore. I spent my first 16 days in country there, and then was shuffled off to recon a few areas, including Dian, where 1st ID HQ wound up. After that, the only times I got to Vung Tao was on mail runs, when I was lucky. The rest of the time I was usually running through the jungle somewhere, blowing shit up. Or, Laying around in the weeds, playing with the snakes, and waiting in ambush patrols. I never knew that there were reserve units in Vung Tao. The only reservists I ever heard of were guys that had been activated and sent over. We had a few in our company, but most were either draftees or RA idiots, like me.

Earl

Vung Tao wasn't an R&R center for us, when I was there, but the Cong had an R&R camp just outside the city limits, and were crawling around town like fleas on a hound. But, according to some crazy agreement between governments, they were not allowed to enter the city armed. Neither were most of the GIs. If you were caught packing in Vung Tao, you had better be carrying orders that specified some mission requiring weapons (like mail guard or something). The VC didn't like it, even then, but unless they walked up and told you, you normally couldn't tell a Cong from any other Vietnamese citizen, so it really didn't matter.

Earl

Yes Ray, your memory serves you well. Flaming C-4 is no problem, until it is also put under pressure. Then it goes bang, very loudly. I've tried squid in several different forms since then, but I have yet to find anything to compare with what I had on French Beach, with the Cambodian girl.

Of course, the fact that she was dressed in a very skimpy string bikini, well endowed for an oriental, and absolutely gorgeous, might have added to the pleasure considerably. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination. I was a young, single, hot-blooded American soldier boy back then, and totally unattached. I wasn't informed until much later, that probably half the people on the beach at that time were VC. All they told me was that when the sun went down, Charlie owned the beach. By the time the sun went down, I was in a hotel room.

Needless to say, at daybreak the next day, the young lady and I parted the best of friends. She herself may have been Cong, but Vung Tao was a neutral city, and neither of our minds was on causing anything but pleasure for the other. I never saw her again, and have wished several times that I'd had a camera to take her picture. Her apparent open and guileless beauty would have brightened any art gallery, could the artist have done her justice.

Earl