Memorial Day Weekend

Today marks the end of my first week back to Hanoi.  While I was in Laos and central Vietnam, Diep brought her mother, sister-in-law and four year old nephew to Hanoi to stay with us.  I knew she was doing this, but I had it in my mind that they would not be here much longer after I got back.  It really doesn't matter that I didn't ask about this before I left for Laos because I have very little say in the matter anyway.  To ease the strain of having other people in the house, Diep took her family on a boat trip and to Cat Ba Island.  That gave Megan and I three days of pizza and peace while they were gone.

 

Everyone is back now and the Memorial Day weekend looms.  I have to go in on Monday for a half day, but I plan on taking the full weekend off.  Having two days off is actually a big treat.  With the field activity underway, it is often hard to get time off.  If anyone needs anything, they know they can call me and I am just a few minutes away by motorbike.

 

Tuesday I will depart again with the boss to two sites in Quang Binh and Quang Tri Province.  I enjoyed having my DSLR camera with me so much on my trip to Laos, I think I will bring it again on this trip.  It gets a little unweildy, but I sure like having the pictures when I am done.

 

I am reading Hanoi, Adieu: A Bittersweet Memoir of French Indochina at the moment.  It is taking much longer than it probably should because I am only able to steal small segments of time away to read it.  It is an allegedly true biography of a Frenchman who lived in Hanoi through the mid-1930s into the 40s... and probably into the 50s, though I haven't read to that part yet.  It is fascinating to read to imagine Hanoi during that time period since I can recognize many of the referenced landmarks in the book, but I think anyone could appreciate the writing style.  A friend from Australia gave me the book (or maybe he loaned it to me??) and for that I am grateful.

 

Another book that I recently finished was Until They Are Home: Bringing Back the MIAs from Vietnam, a Personal Memoir  written by my previous boss, Thomas "Ty" Smith... my favorite Det Commander of all time.  If you want to read a book about me and my job in Vietnam, read this one.  I am referenced in the book no less than 20 times, and probably much more, and he used many of the photos I took in the book.  It isn't a book about me, though one might question that after reading it.

 

Diep plans on throwing some sort of party on Saturday.  I laid the ground rule a couple of weeks ago that I have no responsibility in the organization and preparation of this get together.  My sole responsibility is to show up (it is at our apartment) and be polite.  The former part may be easier than the latter part of my responsibilities. Wish me luck!

 

 

Back from the Trilateral Investigation in Laos

After ten days in Laos, Danang and Hue, it is good to be back in Hanoi.  Taking eight Vietnamese witnesses across the border to investigate four cases in very different locations took a bit out of me, but I am happy to report I survived.

The witnesses were pretty cool.  It was a good mix of infantry and artillery guys who operated in Laos during the war... I know, I know, they weren't supposed to be there any more than we weren't supposed to be bombing them over there.  One of the world's worst kept secrets I suppose.

In the process of the investigation, I got the opportunity to visit this plateau that precious few people have ever been on.  You can view it just west of Houn by clicking on the hyperlink Plateau.  Four of my witnesses pulled security on the plateau for nearly two months to prevent against an aerial helicopter assault that would have given a distinct advantage to those forces in the bombardment of trail runners in the eastern valley below.

Other highlights included playing around with the local Lao kids.  One of the witnesses later wanted me to agree with him how miserable they were,  but I just couldn't agree in good conscience.  The fact is, they seemed totally oblivious to their poverty and looked quite healthy to me.  Some of the kids took hundreds of photos of me with their cell phones, making me feel as much like a rock star as I ever have.

We also flew on Mi-17 and AS350 helicopters throughout the investigations.  I love flying on the squirrel (AS350) because it feels just a little more complicated than driving a car.  Since we had Vietnamese witnesses onboard, I took the opportunity to ask the pilot if the helicopter had a horn.  I was a little surprised when he responded that it did.  In fact, the horn is a warning indicator for when the rotor speed drops too much to provide lift to the chopper.  It can be activated manually to test it, however, and that was what I was hoping for.  Knowing that Vietnamese blow their horns on the streets incessantly, I told them the helicopter had a horn.  They were skeptical, wondering out loud what in the world a horn would be used for in the skies.  When I had the pilot blow the horn (sounding much like a motorbike horn), the witnesses were delighted and speculated it was used to make the much bigger, lumbering Mi-17 get out of the way.

Not unlike me, the witnesses grew home sick quickly and were anxious to leave Xepon where we were staying at a guest house after the first two days.  The youngest of these guys was 65 and the oldest 76.  They moved with varying degrees of deftness, but they all did well on the trails and in the heat.  Only one of the witnesses smoked and they all drank in moderation.  This is no doubt a testament to their longevity... I can only imagine a group of U.S. veterans in a similar situation, and in my mind's eye, they don't fair nearly as well. The success that we enjoyed in the investigations also varied greatly, but I still am grateful to these gentlemen for giving time in their waning years to do this mission for us.

I took a lot of pictures during the trip, and my better ones I posted on my panoramio site, I geomapped as many as I could to give a better idea of the terrain and remoteness of these sites.

We were back at the hotel at 1500hrs on the last day of the trilateral investigation.  I had a meeting with the Americans immediately upon return, but the Vietnamese witnesses and officials were able to shower before we were on the road to Danang.  We stopped an hour at the Lao Bao Border for a little duty free shopping and then ate dinner in Hue City.  We finally made it back to Danang at 2300hrs that night.  I was given the honor of riding in the fold down jump seat in the 12-pax van for the five plus hours on the road and found myself nursing a chaffed ass for the next few days.  It didn't help that just a day later I was off to Hue with the Det Commander on a site visit. 

Diep got to Danang just an hour or two after I got back from Hue on the 19th.  The 20th was her birthday so we got a little time to ourselves in the Furama Beach Resort since Megan opted out a week earlier.  We did a little swimming in the South China Sea and she did some shopping while I was helping to get the main body into Vietnam for the 103rd Joint Field Activity.

We all got back to Hanoi on Saturday, and here I am back at work on Monday.  Nevertheless, it is good to be home. 

Crossing the Vietnamese Laos Border

This morning I took off from Hanoi on a 0800hrs flight to Danang.  When I landed, I was met by two of the three counterparts I will be working with for the next 10 days.  We got in the new Mitsubishi Pajero that their office is now using and started on our seven plus hour journey headed for the Lao Bao Border Gate area.

We stopped in Hue and had lunch with two of the local MIA province officials.  My counterpart had some coordination to do with them in preparation for a follow on mission we will do about a week after I get back to Hanoi from this trip.  We ate at a restaurant on Dien Bien Phu Street named Không Gian Xưa that specializes in sticky rice... like we won't be getting enough of that in the coming days.

Back on the road again, we mostly napped on and off for the rest of the trip up HWY 1and then West on HWY 9 (Also called AH16).  We pulled in to the Xuyên Á Hotel around 1600hrs and I got my room.

We are scheduled to eat dinner this evening.  I will probably end up meeting all eight of our witnesses tonight.  This is a very critical time for me to establish my position with these guys.  I have already read the backgrounds of the cases they will be doing and know each of their names, but now I have to put the face to the name.  It will be good if I can nail their names without having to stutter through them every time I have to address them.  Of course, it is easy enough to call them Bác (older paternal uncle) but I think it will give a better impression if I can "learn" their names quickly.

Wish me luck! Tomorrow we cross on through to the other side.  Hopefully our Laos team is waiting.

Lazy Weekend

Today is the second day of my lazy weekend.  I feel like I wasted this morning because it was totally beautiful and I just stayed in the house. I thought about getting Diep to go for a walk with me, but I could tell that she wasn't into it... and, it is Mother's Day.  Diep doesn't seem to want to do anything until after Megan gets up, and she gets up late in comparison to us.

Yesterday, I took the opportunity to go for a walk with my camera while the maid cleaned the house. I hate hanging around in the house while the maid is cleaning.  I mostly can't stand the noise that the vacuum cleaner makes. The pictures were nothing special, but I did try to capture some of everyday Hanoi activity.

The weekend wasn't a total waste, though.  Diep and I went to the Press Club on Friday night and she had a great time.  Even I enjoyed the evening a little, and I am not much for going out to clubs and bars at night.  I am usually so tired by Friday night that I would just rather laze around the house.  I am much more likely to want to do something on Saturday night, but that isn't the way things work around here.

Megan seemingly had a great weekend. She went running and then to lunch with one of her classmates and then she rode around West Lake on her bicycle with another.  She was also thoughtful enough to give her mother a card for Mother's Day.

Sigh of Relief

I can breath a sigh of relief that last Saturday was the last of the very stressful events I had been planning for and performing over the last two weeks.  I really dread the weeks like those past few that I had because the stress is a little more than I like in my life.

So, Sunday, Diep, Megan and I went out to downtown Hanoi and just walked around for a while.  We left around 4:00pm so it was a great time to take some photos.  It was overall a relaxing time, though it was a little tough for Diep because she has been battling one sickness or annoyance (not me) after another since she got back from Saigon.  The good news is, it seems to have all passed as of today.  She will take it easy for the next couple of days, but she should be back to normal after that.

Having just said the stressful days are behind me, I can't forget that we are moving into our next operations cycle and that means I will be on the move again. As a matter of fact, I go to Laos in just a few days and I will be back in Vietnam just in time to meet Diep in Danang so we can celebrate her birthday together on May 20.  I know Mother's Day is somewhere in between, but that is for Megan to work out with Diep, not me.

Megan will be preparing for end of year tests that she has, so she won't be coming to Danang.  No big deal for her, I think she is like me and would rather be home doing her own thing anyway.

I will travel quite a bit throughout this operations cycle and then towards the end, I will be looking at getting back to the U.S.  Unfortunately, this is my home leave time back home and I don't have as much flexibility in traveling to other places besides my home of record.  I still have to give all of that a closer look so I will keep everyone posted.

My sister mentioned black and white photographs with colored highlights the other day and it got me interested in seeing whether I could figure out how to do it in Photoshop Elements.  It wasn't as hard as I thought.  It was a matter of selecting whatever it was that I wanted to keep color, then inversing the selection;  then turning the rest of the photo to black and white.  Once I did that, I re-inversed the selection and played with the contrast and hue to get what I wanted for the colored portion of the photo.  The blog title photo is what I came up with.  Not a bad first try, but I find myself wanting to experiment more now.