Ed Frank, Rockland VVA president and co-organizer of the humanitarian tour of Vietnam that my father and I are joining tomorrow night, sent me more news about the group’s activities today. (Scroll down to read his Nov. 2, 3 and 4 dispatches, posted earlier this week.)

While traveling south from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, [...]

The Rotary Club group visiting the Go Vap Orphanage with us in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday included Jennifer Weaver, a 22-year-old recent Lewis & Clark College graduate who has decided to stay on until the end of the year, while her parents and the rest of the group return to Seattle.

Jennifer will live [...]

We visited the Go Vap Orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday, tagging along with Son Michael Pham and his group of Seattle Rotary Club members on their humanitarian trip to deliver clothing, medicine, school supplies and treats for the children.

This little girl, Hien, stole my father’s heart.

I’m having trouble uploading videos to this blog [...]

We touched down in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City last night. (Both names are commonly used; I’ll talk more about that in a future blog post.)
We could immediately see the city is a booming metropolis, with blazing lights on jammed highways visible from the air – an inconceivable sight during the Vietnam War 40 years [...]

Soldiers in the Vietnam War were entitled to at least one Rest & Recuperation trip, usually of about one week. The most popular R&R destinations were Hawaii for the married soldiers, where their wives could meet them, or Bangkok and Hong Kong for the (cough cough) lonely (cough cough) troops.

My father made it to Singapore [...]

Spending Christmas 1967 in a war zone far from home had one perk: a visit from Bob Hope, Raquel Welch and the other entertainers in that year’s USO Show. My father was one of the lucky soldiers who got to attend the show at Cu Chi and, for a few hours, “forget that there was [...]

Like Ed Frank, most Vietnam veterans I’ve talked to have interesting birthday/holiday stories about the war. Dan Griffin, executive director of Westchester County’s Vietnam Veterans of America, has a good one about a light-up Christmas tree his family sent him, which soldiers took turns looking at on Christmas Eve by going into a muddy foxhole, [...]

My father and I are on our way to Vietnam, where we will be meeting later this week with Ed Frank, of Congers, and his group of Rockland County veterans and Rotary Club members on a humanitarian tour of the country. (I wrote this blog post from the airport, setting it to upload while I’m [...]

We’re still en route to Vietnam. It’s a very long trip, especially with the 12-hour time difference and the International Date Line, and my father has been sharing memories of times he almost didn’t make it home 40 years ago.

In March 1968, about a week before he left Vietnam, the 25th Infantry Division’s base [...]

Col. Andonios Neroulias and I are on our way to Vietnam right now, to join up with the humanitarian tour group of Rockland veterans and Rotary Club members. So far, it’s a much nicer journey than 1st Lt. Andonios Neroulias took 40 years ago, though the first leg – New York to Los Angeles – [...]

Trying to win hearts and minds in a combat zone isn’t a new phenomenon created for the current Iraq War; my father’s Army platoon tried to do the same in Vietnam.

But their useful gift for the malnourished villagers – rabbits from a Catholic Church charity, hutched in old ammunition crates – had unexpected results.

Click here [...]

If you’re voting in Ramapo Town Hall today, or just passing through in the next few days, check out this painting by “Doc” Bernie Duff, a veteran who moved to Vietnam and paints scenes from the war. He donated it to the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 333 (Rockland County) in 2005, and the VVA [...]

I’ve been checking the Vietnam weather forecast every day for the last few weeks, and had been relieved to see the temperature hovering in the 70s, in contrast to the reports from last year’s humanitarian tour group from Rockland County about their muggy experience.

Well, it turns out I’ve been foiled by the 12-hour time difference; [...]

Ed Frank, Rockland VVA president and co-organizer of the humanitarian tour of Vietnam that my father and I are joining later this week, sent me some news about the group’s activities yesterday. (Scroll down to read his Nov. 2 and 3 dispatches, posted yesterday.)

The group is visiting the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone and the Khe Sanh [...]

Great news from Ed Frank, president of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 333, on what the Spring Valley Rotary Club’s humanitarian tour group has been up to in Vietnam so far. The Rotarians, veterans and family members are heading south from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, where my father and I will join them [...]

I’m told American dollars are widely accepted in Vietnam. That’s a relief; we’re leaving in a few days, and I haven’t had time to try to get any Vietnamese currency (dong).

Last time my father was there, he used neither dollars nor dongs. Instead, troops carried Military Payment Certificates, which look like Monopoly money:
“American soldiers [...]

From Betty Grable to Jessica Simpson, pin-up girls have been putting smiles on soldiers’ faces since before World War II.

During the Vietnam War, while other guys drooled over images of Ann-Margret and Raquel Welch, my good Greek father fixed his gaze on Corinna Tsopei, Miss Universe 1964. (Measurements: 36-22-36.)

Tsopei appeared a handful of movies after [...]

As promised, here’s the video of my father reading one of the first letters he sent home—New York, NY—during the Vietnam War, dated April 1, 1967. (Scroll down to last night’s post for more details.)

Download:

“It’s a strange feeling and very hard to get accustomed to the idea that there’s a war going on, but I have convinced myself to keep my eyes open and my gun ready.”

Those are the closing lines of one of my father’s first letters home during his service in Vietnam, written April 1, 1967 on [...]

Apocalypse Now, Rambo and other popular movies about the Vietnam War don’t show the real thing, according to my father and the other veterans I’ve talked to lately. Instead, they’ve given me a long list of books to read, supplemented by suggestions from people who have recently traveled to Vietnam.

Nearly everyone’s list includes The Girl [...]

My father said I could wear his old fatigues from Vietnam today. They actually fit, which I think says a lot about the Army rations back then…

Instead, I got into the Halloween spirit by unwrapping something that kind of looks like candy: Mefloquine, an anti-malarial drug. Prescribed by Briarcliff Manor’s own Dr. Gary Lehrman and [...]

Photographer Tom Nycz and I reported on the group of Rotarians, Vietnam veterans and family members leaving from Rockland County last night, bound for JFK airport and Hanoi.

As they said goodbye, they debated how best to say hello in Vietnamese. Click the audio link below to hear what they came up with:

Download:

This ticket took my father to Vietnam 40 years ago, as an Army officer.

Next week, we’ll be using very different tickets to fly back to Vietnam, joining the group of veterans and Rotary Club members who start their trip tonight. For the next few days, I’ll be packing, dealing with medical preparations (malaria pills, etc.), [...]