Army Nurse Return Trips to Vietnam

I arrived in Vietnam on November 1, 1969, and quickly realized that this was going to be the most extraordinary year of my life. I was assigned to the 91st Evac Hospital in Chu Lai, just 75 kilometers south of Da Nang in I Corp. My uniform for the next elven and a half months was green fatigues and combat boots. I spent three months working on a medical ward treating malaria, hepatitis, jungle rot, and intestinal parasites. Twelve-hour shifts were the norm, with one day off each week. My personal space was a 9 x 12 room with a metal twin bed and locker, the footlocker that I had brought from home and a bare light bulb. Free time was spent at the officers club, on our tiny beach, waterskiing on the South China Sea or making trips to the PX to see what the latest shipment had brought. Beanie weenies and condoms were among the always-available items.

The remaining eight and a half months of my tour were spent in the emergency room at the hospital. We received the wounded, U.S. as well as Vietnamese, directly from the field. Amputees of one or more limbs, massive head wounds, multiple shrapnel injuries, and gunshot victims were nearly every day occurrence. Many of my 12-hour days became 14 or 15-hour days. I very soon realized that I was doing nursing I would never have an opportunity to practice again.

When I returned to "the world" after serving as an Army nurse during the war, I continued to think about that country, its people and how my time there had changed my life. I also was convinced that the beauty of the land would return at war's end. I knew that I wanted to visit the country during peacetime. I didn’t know how or when but was thrilled when the opportunity came in 1994 while I was working as a travel agent. 

Return Trip I
At that time, tour companies and airlines offered family trips, giving agents the opportunity to travel at a greatly reduced price to individual countries, cruise ships, specific hotels, etc. Such an opportunity came along in 1994 and I joined a group of 15 other travel agents for my first return trip to the Far East. I was amazed at the attitude of the Vietnamese people. They simply loved having visitors. Because the United States had just lifted its embargo on Vietnam, things had not changed that dramatically since I left in 1970. 

On this first visit, we did not get to Chu Lai where my hospital had been. I knew that there was almost nothing left to see as the Vietnamese had sold the property to a Singapore company to build an oil refinery on the site. I did, however, have time to reacquaint myself with places where I had been during the war. One area that I was particularly interested in was the Hai Van Pass, from Da Nang to Hue, through the mountains with beautiful views of the fishing villages below. With the destructive effects of the herbicide Agent Orange having worn off a bit over the previous 24 years, the foliage was even lusher. 

We also visited Saigon, Da Nang, Hoi An, Haiphong, Halong Bay, and Hanoi. I paid my first visit to China Beach, now well known as a result of the TV show. The lengthy curve of pristine white sand lived up to my expectations. Haiphong was a dank, dirty city. I found Halong Bay, a peaceful cove with underwater mountains, hiding stunning caverns, to be one of the most beautiful places that I had ever been to. Hanoi was chilly, gray and clearly more influenced by the French than Americans, a stark contrast to the colorful, lively Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). We also spent time in the Delta down south (very hot) as well as Cu Chi where we crawled through the tunnels. They were used by the VC to gather information and avoid being captured. Incredible!

Return Trip II
In January of 1996, a longtime girlfriend, who had not served in the war, accompanied me back to Vietnam in an effort to get to where my hospital had been during the war.  We visited the places that I had been to in 1994 and added a visit to My Lai, site of the March 1968 massacre where dozens of innocent Vietnamese civilians were killed. A tombstone listing the dead was located in each of the houses’ foundations. It was a very sobering experience. 

Making our way back north on Highway One, we turned onto a side lane, bouncing along until we reached a beach. We were about to get as close to the hospital site as possible. At the command of our guide, I jumped out of the car and ran towards the water. I shot numerous photos, realizing that we were truly near the base of the cliff on which the hospital had set. It was the closest that I would ever get to re-living my year in the war. 

The final stop on the 1996 trip was to the "Hanoi Hilton" (Hoa Lo prison) where many of the American POWs were incarcerated. During my 1994 trip, I was able to sneak into an area of the prison where I could still photograph cells that housed prisoners. However, by January 1996, all of that had been demolished to make room for a high-rise hotel. All that remained was a small museum, still, present and open to visitors today.

Return Trip III
 In September 2013, accompanied by my husband, we had an opportunity to visit Vietnam once more. With a group of lawyers and spouses, we toured Vietnam, Cambodia, Northern Thailand and Myanmar. The changes in the cities were dramatic. Numerous hotels had sprung up in Saigon, Hue, Da Nang, and Hanoi. When we visited Halong Bay in 1996, my friend and I did not encounter another boat on the water. In 2013, numerous boats were taking tourists to the hidden caves, several of which had been fitted with stairs, walkways and brightly colored floodlights. We even spent the night on a boat that housed 100 people. 

Tourism had definitely come to Vietnam. Compared to the places that I had stayed on my two trips in the 90s, our hotels for this trip were extremely lavish. Most of the hotels were under five years old and the landscape, especially in the cities, had changed dramatically since 1996. While in the countryside rice is still planted by hand with the use of water buffalo, in the cities ATMs were plentiful, bars too numerous to count. Traffic congestion went from bicycles and motorbikes to full-size cars and even SUVs. I also was amazed at the number of foreign visitors. In 1996, my friend and I did not meet a single other American tourists during our 10-day stay. On the 2013 tour, we encountered travelers from many countries - shopping, biking, boating, hiking, and dining at fine restaurants. For the record, ti cho (dog) was not available on those menus!

Trip IV
I thought that I had made my last trip to Vietnam when, in September 2014, I was privileged to be included in a group of 12 veterans, 11 men and myself, through a program at the College of the Ozarks in southern Missouri, who would tour Vietnam.

Each of us veterans, partnered with students from the college, made the trip to Vietnam to locate, as best we could, where we had been stationed during the war. Our routes took us off the beaten path and took me to areas of Vietnam I had not yet been to. I had not experienced the Central Highlands and relished the cooler climate. Some of the men took our group not just to the cities but in search of specific buildings within the cities. Some were stationed along the river in the Mekong Delta area where the heat was most intense. Photo of Da Lat, a principal city in the Central Highlands. 

As we made our way across the country, the student that was assigned to a particular veteran would write a blog at the end of the day about that vet and his/her visit. Two of the men in our group were former POWs having been imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton for six years apiece. Another member of our group was a Medal of Honor recipient. As fellow Vietnam vets, we easily bonded over the two-week trip. It truly was the adventure of a lifetime.

Vietnam has undergone many changes since I set foot in Long Binh in 1969. Despite the war, the embargo, and the numerous countries that have attempted to rule it, Vietnam has endured.