Daddy-O, give us a sign

Still here Granty, just moving a little bit slower these days.

When King LBJ granted me an all-expense paid vacation to lovely SE Asia, my future life went to shit in a hand basket. In 1969 my unit got a call to respond to a "disturbance" in a village just SW of Pleiku. When we got there, the VC were trying to kidnap young boys (12 to 15) in order to "recruit" them into their "program". A fire fight ensued (not much of one....it was over in less than 5 minutes) until the ARVN's (South Vietnamese......our allies, right?) showed up and started yet another fire fight between us and them. Most of us, including me, thought the VC had yet another squad of fighters. We turned around and gave fire back....they ran away like the cowards they were.

During that last fire-fight with our beloved ARVN allies, which we were trying to defend, I caught two LO RO's to the chest. A LO-Ro is an M-16 shell that has insufficient powder to bring "Killing Strength". When we (America) first started this nonsense, we knew the economy of South Vietnam was in peril. Thus, we made the decision to give them the ability to make ammunition for their Army in order to create jobs. The only problem with that (not for me, thank God) was they loaded the casings with one-half of the required powder and then sold the remaining powder on the Black Market......hence the name LO-RO's, or "Low Round Ammunition".

I was hit twice in the chest....one to the right and one to the left. The one near my heart did not penetrate, but the other one went into my lung. I was evacuated to the Hospital in Da Nang, opened up, and somewhat repaired. Then sent to yet another hospital at Hickam AFB in Hawaii for recovery. When there, I wrote some of my Buddies in my unit to find out who it was that shot me. They did and gave me his name, rank and outfit he was serving in. Like a fool, I re-enlisted (my time was up at this point) for the sole purpose of finding this idiot and arranging a meeting with he and his God.

They then shipped me back to yet another glorious vacation in SE Asia where I spent every waking moment of my life looking for this character. I found his unit, but they heard I was coming back and transferred him to either another unit, or sent him home. I never found him.

Anyhow, and to make a long story more boring, my right lung has been a constant problem, so I have been down a while while I recover from yet another surgery. Christ, they should just put a zipper in me to save time and effort. This was my third opening and every time they do this, it takes a while to recover.

But, I'm vertical again and still looking for that MOFO who shot me. That would be the only reason I would ever, ever go back to lovely Vietnam.

I did some research on Corporal Dien, and found he has died......seems as though his wife beat me to the punch.  She murdered him about 10 years ago because he was "fooling around" on her.  He  and his wife moved to LA in 1984........if only I knew (no real Internet in those days).

Seems like I'm always a day late and a dollar short.