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I left a war in Vietnam in 1971. On my journey back I rediscovered my soul

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Category: FredinVietnam

Tet 2019: Vietnam in the Year of the Pig

February 5, 2019 By FredinVietnam

All of the new friends I made traveling throughout Vietnam last year are in the midst of celebrating Tet 2019, the Lunar New Year. ManyRead More

Thank You For Your Service

November 11, 2018 By FredinVietnam

So what DID you do in the war, Daddy?  This is the time of year that folks say to countless thousands of veterans:  “Thank youRead More

Hanoi Hilton and the Nobility of John McCain

August 27, 2018 By FredinVietnam

We each have a defining moment in our lives.  For John McCain, there was more than one. You might say my one encounter with theRead More

The Bourdain Legacy: What We Ate in Vietnam

June 11, 2018 By FredinVietnam

No mention  of food in Vietnam is complete without a heartfelt nod to the trail blazing of Anthony Bourdain.  I dedicate this post to hisRead More

American Women Who Served in Vietnam

May 28, 2018 By FredinVietnam

Today, Memorial Day, or anytime you salute those who served — in Vietnam and elsewhere — also remember our sisters who went to the field,Read More

30/4: The Fall of Saigon in 1975

April 30, 2018 By FredinVietnam

Today is just another spring day for most of us. But for Vietnamese, both there and here, April 30 is monumentally significant My friend OanhRead More

Children of Vietnam: Souls of a Nation

April 11, 2018 By FredInVietnam2018

Look deep into their eyes and you will find hope Everywhere in Vietnam, the children shout “Hallo!”  Toddlers, teens, school children and street kids. OnRead More

Here Come The Brides Vietnam Style

March 18, 2018 By FredInVietnam2018

Weddings in Vietnam are filled with indigenous traditions. The groom and his family have a strict protocol to meet the bride in her family’s home,Read More

Vietnam Beaches—Then, Now, Always

March 8, 2018 By FredInVietnam2018

  Vietnam was—and will always be—about the beach. Or, is that me? That first day in 1970, coming off the air conditioned jetliner from Guam,Read More

A Moment In Hue: Coming of Age in Vietnam

March 3, 2018 By FredInVietnam2018

The Saigon Morin Hotel is a touch of time-worn French Colonial splendor in one of Vietnam’s most famous former capital cities, Hue.  We just spentRead More

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VIETNAM SERVICE RIBBON

About This Site

 

Americal Division Information Office, Chu Lai, 1971

Welcome to my Vietnam memoir. Take a present-day journey with me to rediscover my past.

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Pages

  • Back FROM The World: Vietnam Redux
  • Chu Lai Maps

Recent Posts

  • 30/4: The Day of Recrimination When Saigon Fell
  • Christmas in Vietnam: 12 Days of Darkness
  • Induction Day: The End of Woodstock
  • My Lai Revisited: Ghost of The Americal Division
  • Thank You For Your Service?

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HANOI STREET FOOD PARADE

STREET CLEANING: Down and dirty gut job
SAVORY SELECTIONS: Shallots and garlics and chilies and tumerics and more
MOBILE MEAT MARKET: Beef tendon to go
SENSATIONAL SHOPPING: Touch, taste and smell
HERB MISTRESS: Inhaling the essence of Vietnamese cooking
PIG ON A STICK: BBQ pork is a quintessential street snack of Hanoi
BHUDDA’S HAND: Citrus fruit that’s part medicine, fragrance and flavoring
PICKLED TALONS: Cold and spicy chicken feet go perfect with draught beer
SANDWORM FRITTERS: Seasonal specialty of Hanoi.
BUN CHA AND NEM: Hanoi’s signature dish along with fried spring rolls.
STREET DOUGHNUTS: Fried rice flour cakes dusted with sesame reminiscent of Little Italy’s zeppole
GOOD ANYTIME: A sticky rice dumpling cooked inside a banana leaf that’s ideal for breakfast, snack or lunch

HANOI PHOTO GALLERY

MOBILE GREEN GROCER: Veggies on a who wheeler
OLD QUARTER: Street signs at the edge of town
THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS: Railroad living
RAILROAD LIVING: A train runs through it
TALL AND SLENDER: Tube architecture
RAILROAD LIVING: Keeping track
RAILROAD LIVING: Spitting distance to the tracks
RAILROAD LIVING:
VIETNAMESE CAPPUCCINO: With a cafe den nuam (hot black coffee) nearby
COFFEE TIME: Giang can really stir it up in his hometown of Hanoi
FRENCH COLONIAL: Hanoi Opera House
LAKE LANDING: B-52 Wreckage
WAR RELICS: Fire in the lake
CAFE B-52: Tables with a view
A VISIT TO UNCLE HO: The final resting place
MODERN MAUSOLEUM: The tomb of Ho Chi Minh
NIGHTLIFE: BW in Hanoi
STREET THEATER: Song and dance team inear Hoan Kiem Lake
DATE NIGHT IN HANOI: Yeah, we blend….
GIANG NGUYEN: Tour guide extraordinaire
STREETS & FEETS: Hanoi hustle
PICNIC IN THE PARK: Muong Province street food
YEAR OF THE DOG: Tet greetings in Hanoi

HONG KONG GALLERY–PRELUDE

Vegetable stir fry from Hutong Restaurant
Prawns with dried chilies from Hutong Restaurant
LOBSTER AND PORK: Old school, Cantonese style
BRAND BLITZ: High end mall crawl
IN COUNTRY R&R: Vietnam beach “resort”
HONG KONG HOLIDAY: Lunar New Year on Kowloon
HARBOR LIGHTS: Hong Kong has dueling skylines
SOUP DUMPLINGS: Mack’s Noodles’ finest
BLACK CAT AND NOODLES: I like my working class lunch with a touch of class
BW ON THE RISE: Take a ride on the midlevel escalators
CRISPY ROAST CHICKEN: Never had a hem come to a better end
CITRUSY SCALLOPS; Tender and chilled at Hutong
DUELING SKYLINES: Hong Kong in the magic mist
WAN CHAI: Hong Kong’s answer to Williamsburg, Brooklyn
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN: The mechanical kind
MIDLEVEL ESCALATORS: Conguaering the verticality of Hong Kong
MANGO PUDDING: Sweet way to end a Cantonese meal
MALL CRAWL: Easy to get happily lost among the luxury boutiques

Photo Gallery

Were we ever this young?
Photo Credit: Mark Melnick, copyright 2013
HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Welcome to the Americal Division, 23rd Infantry.
ON A BLUFF NEARBY: From our PIO hootch, across a narrow grassy valley, we’d watch the MedEvac choppers land whenever the shit hit the fan in the field.
Somewhere in the Americal AO,
At the Van Col Orphanage, outside the Americal base at Chu Lai, 1971
VAN COI ORPANAGE: Infants, toddlers, right up to adolescents. The orphaned children of Vietnam were one of the saddest aspects of the war.
SMILING THROUGH IT: This little girl’s charm and heart could melt almost that barbed wire when I met her.
Lt. Col. James D. Shumway III, CO of 523rd Signal Battalion, Americal Division, helping deliver donated clothing to the orphanage.
CHRISTMAS PARTY: Huong helps out at the Van Col Orphanage, An Tan, Vietnam, at a celebration provided by soldiers from the Americal Division
From the Spring, 1971 issue of Americal Magazine

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