Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Joint Field Activities

At the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), we divide our work in Vietnam into units we call Joint Field Activities, better known to teams as JFAs.  During a routine fiscal year, we conduct four JFAs lasting 34 days throughout the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in areas best suited to work based on the weather.  We have been conducting JFAs in Vietnam since 1988, and have begun advance work for the 111th JFA (also known by its number within the fiscal year as 13-3VM).

The last complete field activity that I participated in as a team member was the 14th JFA in July 1991.  A lot of things were different then from team composition, the roadways, cities, communications, and my age.  I was 25 years old and knew very little about the organization, known then as the Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC).  The organization changed its name to the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA) and grew exponentially in 1992.  It wasn't until a year after I returned as a civilian, in 2003, that we changed our name to JPAC, and went worldwide in our POW/MIA search.

Now, at the age of 47, I am returning to the teams - at least for the time being - and will begin a new chapter in my work here in Vietnam.  I leave on Sunday to integrate into the Investigation Team and will work in Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Tri Provinces for the following 30 days.  I look forward to the operation, but know I will miss the time I have with my family.  In the past, I traveled extensively during the JFAs, offering support to the Detachment leadership, or conducting small activities in the form of interviews or analyst support for forensic reviews. But, in those cases I generally would not be gone for longer than two weeks at a shot.  I think it is funny that I see dealing with not being home as the toughest part of this; especially considering we will be moving through dense jungle and over rugged terrain in extreme heat and humidity with such unfriendly and inhospitable travel partners as leeches, snakes, spiders and mosquitos.

I will have my camera and hope to get some good pictures.  Unfortunately, the security limitations we have on our computers mean I will not be posting any until after the activity is over.

I feel I have everything in order before I leave. I have spent some quality time with Diep and Megan and I think they are set while I am gone. After the JFA, I have only a couple of days in Hanoi before we leave for home and I will have three weeks in the USA, traveling extensively - if things line up with what I currently envision (big IF). 

Diep will have an early birthday party on Friday. She turns 43 on 20 May and probably is just using her birthday as an excuse to host a party.  That's fine, it will be a small get together and I will try to look like I am enjoying it.

Megan has exams this week. Her grades have come up in the last few months and she seems to be more focused.  Not only on her school work, but on her heatlh, too!  Things are looking positive for her to get a summer hire job at the embassy when we get back from our home leave, as well.  Even if she doesn't get a position, her efforts have been a success. If nothing else, she has better insight on how to build a resume, submit an application and do a job interview.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Tay Thien Meditation Center

The Fraser Suites apartment that I live in organizes periodic tour trips to locations in the vicinity of Hanoi, but until last Sunday, I had never taken one of the trips. Honestly, most tourist destinations in the locality of Hanoi don't interest me and this one scheduled for Tay Thien didn't look particularly different.

Diep had signed up for the trip on Friday while I was at work, with the intention of taking Megan along.  Megan balked immediately, leaving Diep to find another tour partner.  She asked me, and though I was reluctant to go, I agreed because I knew I was going away for a whole month next week.  Diep gave me an "out" saying she could get someone else to go with her, but I stuck with it, knowing Sunday was Mother's Day and wanting to do something with her.

Tay Thien Meditation Center is a large complex in Tam Dao Distict, Vinh Phuc Province, 85 kilometers northwest of Hanoi. There are several temples and pagodas within the complex and a cable car that connects the lower reception center with the temples and pagodas near the top of one of the mountains.  Tam Dao Mountain Range skirts the outlying western side of Hanoi, and is better known as Thud Ridge to pilots who used to go "Downtown" during the war.  There are many aircraft crash sites in the Tam Dao Mountain Range, though it is better known by the Vietnamese as a colonial tourist destination for French tourists back in the day, and for Hanoians looking for a day trip or weekend destination out of the city.

First and foremost, I was much unimpressed with the pagodas and temples. Though the area has a long history in Vietnam, there is very little still on the site that is older than a decade or two. The humidity and termites make sure most structures in Vietnam get rebuilt over and over again every twenty years or less.  This may be an unfair statement since I don't care much for the religious tourism that exists in Vietnam in the form of pilgrimages to the various historic, religious sites.

The cable car helps those pilgrims with time constraints or health issues to get from the reception center to the holier sites on top of the mountain by cutting the 7-plus kilometer hike up the mountain down to a 10 minute, scenic cable car tour. While this was convenient for the time our group had at Tay Thien, it was fairly sterile of any real interaction with nature.  Before getting on the cable car, many of the members of the tour group had stated they wanted to walk down the mountain rather than take the cable car, Diep and I included.  After the ride up, however, many opted out of the walk and decided to take the cable car back.  There was only Diep and I, along with another man from Hong Kong who still wanted to walk after getting to the top.

The walk back was on a concrete stairway, winding through dense trees and across streams, offering very scenic views of a prominent waterfall on the way.  There are rest stations located every 200 - 300 meters which was good for those walking up the mountain, but fairly unnecessary for us walking down.  Anyone who has walked hills for a significant distance, however, knows that it is nearly as hard to walk down hill as it is to walk up.  This was good for me to show Diep that my job isn't always a five-star lifestyle; that visiting crash sites in remote mountainous areas is a chore to some degree.

Diep almost stepped on a snake on the path, as well.  It wasn't big and looked harmless, but it is hard to tell around here since most snakes in SE Asia are poisonous.  It would seem one would see snakes in Vietnam all the time, but that generally is not the case since most wildlife is snatched up and put in the pot as quickly as you can say, "Boo!"

Diep got up this morning a little sore in the calves, but she had a good time.  I did, too!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Back to Work

This morning I am back to work. All in all, it was a good week off and I feel fairly refreshed.  Siem Reap was a great destination and I find myself thinking I will go back again some day.  I like Cambodia in general and there are several towns that I would like to spend more time in, in the future.

The day after arriving in Saigon, Diep and I left early on a Sinh Cafe tour by bus. We spent 12 hours on the bus and two hours waiting in Pnom Penh, leaving us pretty exhausted by the time we got to Siem Reap that evening.  fortunately, it didn't take but about 12 hours total to get back to Saigon.  I think we will look more closely at air fare on our next visit.  The long bus ride aside, the tour itself was not bad.  I find myself wondering, however, if we would have been better off on our own, rather than with a professional guide.  With only one day in Siem Reap, I think the best way to go was with the guide, but if we had three days to explore the area I think we would have been better off on our own. The guide was very knowledgeable and more informative than I expected, though he did seem put out when I gave my opinion that Pol Pot was a physcho.

The beauty of the Angkor Wat and other temples in the area are beyond description for me. I posted some photos on my Google Plus and Facebook pages, but I think they are very much like the photos of everyone else who has traveled there.  I think the awe lies in the fact that all of the temples were built between 800 and 1200 AD and that they were abandoned for some three hundred years before being rediscovered by French explorers.  UNESCO and the Cambodian government deserved much credit in keeping the grounds in good condition for all to enjoy the beauty of this area.

Megan decided not to go with us because she had been before and she didn't much care to go again. This worked to our benefit, Diep and I, because it was one less person to worry about in our democratic way of deciding what to do.  Plus, we were more comfortable in the hotel room.  She ended up going to Long An to see some of her maternal relatives. She enjoyed it because her cousin let her drive the motorbike all the way back. I am not sure how far it is from Diep's house to Long An, but I know it is more than an hour on the bike. 

We got back on Friday, and Megan took her SAT on Saturday. Since the testing center was 15 kilomters from the apartment, I just waited at the test center rather than dropping her off and picking her up later. The five hours just sitting around was a pretty boring, but it wasn't as bad as 12 hours on a bus. 

Now I need to concentrate on our next mission in Vietnam.  After the mission, I plan on taking home leave to the U.S.  Diep is really looking forward to it this year and so am I.