I’m Sharing This Blog Post From Pdogbiker’s Vietnam War Blog

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All Viet Nam War boys were given an opportunity to go on a Rest and Relaxation for one week. We could choose either an In-Country (Vang Tal) or an out of the country that was on their list of eligible countries. I have put together a pdf file of both Photos and text that I took in my country of choice! Single boys were eligible to go to Honolu only if there were vacancies otherwise only married folk were ony eligible to go there or in other instances to wed your sweetheart.

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I Have Been Asked Many Times About My Bracelet That I Wear

My Answer to my bracelet that I wear every 24-7 for my last 54 years is drawn out in my photo storybook of the Viet Nam Montagnard mountain people in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam. They are not of far east descent but rather of the Polynesian race. They most likely migrated into Viet Nam from the country of India in the early 1800s. We pulled out Viet Nam in approx. 1972. My story is all centered around one small Hersheys Tropical No Melt chocolate bar in its beginning in one Dega Montagnard Tribe of peoples. Then it blossomed to a 1/8th of my Ruck Sack of candy bars. The Montagnards had no stores, Doctors, or even any medical facilities whatsoever. It was only them and their harsh mountain lands to live off of. You can imagain a small kid about 7 years of age tasteing sugar and Chocolate for the first time ever since they were born! I actually fell in love with these people, I was well known as the “Candy Man” to all of my war brothers. I always traded my share of my Hot Beer in Cans to their Tropical Hersheys Candy Bars to give them to the Montagnard kids whenerver we parlayed with Village Elders! We were resupplied most every 4 day cycles and on our 8th day we nomally received our our SP pack which contained their gosh awful qt. cans of Grapefruit cans, condensed white and chocolate milk cans plus the Hersheys Tropical Canday Bars, Stationary and toiletries! W/O a huge monolog ya must read my text that accompings my photos.

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Warren Wikin’s New Book “Nine Days in May” Is Now Available @ Amazon.com

*** Warning*** The read of my included Snippet .pdf file is not for the “Faint at Heart” types Warren did not hold back any of his punches from his 6 to 7 years of interviews with us in his prep to write his book. Not even with our brother’s military language that they used.

In The Viet Nam War Even After A Huge Battle You Could Unknowingly Have A Huge Impact On Your Enemys Death Family Approx. 50 Years Later

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The 9 Lives That My Lord And Savior, Jesus Christ Has Provided Me In My 73 Years

It has been suggested by a few of my Blog readers that I should consider writing a book on my Vietnam War Experiences, especially my past 8 lives. I have decided instead of publishing a book, to publish my remembrances into a .pdf format 89 pages of both text and accompanying photos as much as possible for my Blog Readers. I have included a bare minimum of my life before my two years of my military obligation. Then I go into details from my memory banks during my military tour and also my time following my military time. I should have been killed 1 time in 12/1966, 5 times in 1967, 1 time in 2000 and finally 1 time in 2001. The last 2 times was of natural causes that were Credited to my “Agent Orange Exposure” in Vietnam!

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Yes, There Were And Are Asian Tigers In Viet Nam

The ole saying is, this is the proof in the pudding! There were Asian Tigers in the Central Highlands of Nam. This 4th I.D. Long Range Recon Patrol (LRRP) killed one. My backup man, Steve Edmunds is in a California Hospital recuperating from a Stint insertion into his large Aorta Artery for a large Aneurism! You will to believe me on this one, there were two 4th I.D. boys that lost their lives to these large cats. I read a Nam story of a squad size ambush patrol in the Central Highlands. They heard a large animal as if it were stalking them. Luckily it didn’t find them. The next morning they found Tiger Tracks nearby to them!

Eating In The Ia Drang Valley Region Of South Vietnam

Extract from a famous persons remarks at a Dinner Honoring Nobel Prize Winners of the Western Hemisphere
April 29, 1962:
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together except for when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Someone once said that Thomas Jefferson was a gentleman of 32 who could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, and dance the minuet. Maybe I could have filled Thomas Jefferson’s shoe when I dined alone in the jungle of I Drang Valley, RVN. Dream on Day Dreamer!

The Famous Combat Infantry Badge (CIB)

I honor all of the Infantry veterans that honestly fit into the criteria of the membership of this elite club:

C.I.B.

Today, most people in the United States do not even know what a “C.I.B.” is. It is a small, simple, blue badge worn by the members of a very exclusive fraternity. This fraternity isn’t academic or athletic or dedicated to making money. Yet, the admission standard was very strict. Not all the members of this fraternity wanted to join, but every single member paid the same dues. The cost of membership was easy to understand. To belong, you had to be willing to kill other human beings and the only way out of this club was to die or go insane. The school was the University of South Vietnam and graduation was a bitch.
The United States Army awards the “Combat Infantryman’s Badge” to infantry soldiers who served in a combat unit, line crew, fire team, or in some other combat capacity during a time of war. Maybe it isn’t the most famous medal or award but it is the most honored. Only the “Medal of Honor” is worn above this beautiful, hard symbol. For the men that display this badge, the world is a different place and their perception of life and other human beings is a closely kept secret. Only their fraternity brothers know the truth or would understand the meaning. They witness life through different eyes now and their personal perspective is forever tinted with blood and pain and terror. Not everyone survived the initiation.
The ones that did survive eventually filtered back to their homes and began life again. Trying to forget, trying to remember, these soldiers will always be haunted by the intensity, desperation and camaraderie of their tour of duty. Some were welcomed home with open arms and others spit upon, but all were changed. Tens of thousands died, hundreds of thousands were wounded or captured while their friends and family sat each night and calmly watched this nightmare unfold on TV. A dark time for this country that in some strange way defines us as a nation now. Because of these men and this violent time in our history we are, as a nation, even more decisive and aggressive when there are American lives at stake.
Truly, this will be the only reward for this brotherhood of warriors and a lesson well learned. Time is a blessed healer for these fighters but it is also a teacher for the country that asked of them more than should have been asked. Assimilated and made to disappear after the Vietnam war, this group of men are finally getting the chance to speak out and answer questions about their experiences. Dispersed throughout society, these aging combat soldiers now have sons the same age they were during the fighting. Sons and daughters that would judge for themselves the effects of war and peace on men and society.

A Small Montagnard Lad Riding His Docile Water Buffalo

Photos like this one still makes my eyes to water up. It also takes my mind back 52 years ago. Every time that our orders came down from above us to prepare a Montagnard Village for evacuation back to where they would be more protected from the NVA. Unfortunately for them we couldn’t transport their water Buffaloes via Chinook Choppers with them because of their massive weight factor. The small  children couldn’t fathom why we had to kill all of their water buffaloes in sight to deny the NVA their use of them in carrying all of their heavy arms relay from the Cambodian safety sanctuary into Viet Nam. It was also like the Buffalo had their hatred for us Americans. They would often give us mean hatred snorts toward their. The kids could call out to them in their native language and minded the kids to no end. The Yards and their Water Buffaloes were all one so to speak. Often I had observed their water buffaloes spent a lot of their time underneath the yards homes that were built on Bamboo Stilts. As the Yards hooches entrance technique they would cut notches into the hollow bamboo trunks for foot holds as they climbed into their hooches that were built from bamboo and grass thatched roofs.

 

I Knew In The Year Of 1967 That Every Montagnard Female Wore The Same Colors Of Their Skirts Right Down To Their Trimming Colors

I never did see them weaving their yarn until I saw this photo. Believe you me, we always visited many of their Villages to interrogate  their village  elders on any North Vietnamese Army activity in their surroundings. They reminded me of our own American Indians when we parlayed with them. Instead of the American Indians and peace pipes, the Montagnards traditions were to place a huge crock of rice wine as their hub of a circle and with an ultra long Bamboo straw they would pass the straw around to each other in the circle both Americans and Montagnards. They were an honest people and we could take their words to the Banks. Trustworthy to the point that their village elders told each and every one of their men when they joined up with our Green Berets “A” teams to protect our “A” teams right up to their point and including for them to take a bullet that was intended for our Americans. It’s no wonder that our Green Berets in North Carolina with their own assistance and financial assistance went back and rescued as many as possible of  them  from the jungles of Laos and Cambodia. They settled them on a Farm, that they also purchased for them, in Ashboro, N.C.