Going Back to Vietnam After the War
By Thomas P. Williams

Vietnam  | one comment  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

I had arrived in Vietnam on March 31, 1968, joining the amtrac platoon of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines (2/4). I served the first six of my 20 months with them, during which time we were involved in the battle of Dai Do–three of the worst days of my life.

In May 1997, almost 30 years later, I went back to Vietnam with other members of that battalion for a 29th-anniversary tour. This is the story of my return to Vietnam. It is something I had always thought of doing since I left in 1969. On this trip we would go in peace instead of war, and this tour would be a lot shorter than the first one. I felt extremely honored in that I would be going back with my old commanding officer, Lt. Col. (now retired Brig. Gen.) Bill Weise.

We left my home in Vermontville, Mich., with a certain amount of apprehension as to what we were heading for. We spent a few days with four former platoon members in California, talking about old times, and then went to visit another platoon member in Oceanside.

We returned to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego–my first visit there since basic training. Our welcome at the base was far different from the one I had received in 1967. We were welcomed aboard by Lt. Col. Stevens, a former member of the 2/4. He was the battalion commander of the 2nd Recruit Training Battalion. With Colonel Stevens as our escort, we toured the base. While observing a platoon of recruits on the obstacle course, we were amazed at how well they were treated by their drill instructors, who were much less intense than ours had been in 1967. When one drill instructor put us into the famous yellow footprints, I had a vivid flashback–I remembered standing in those same footprints 31 years ago. Amazingly, we fell right in like we were supposed to do, something we all thought we had forgotten.

Next we went to Coronado Island, where we were surprised to see the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in dock. Kitty Hawk is the ship Ellis E. Austin flew his last mission from before being shot down over North Vietnam, never to return, in 1966. Austin was a three-war veteran from my hometown of Vermontville who was shot down just two weeks before he was due to return home and retire from the Navy. My wife was with me, and seeing the carrier was an emotional for both of us, because we still hold out hope for some news from Vietnam regarding Austin. There we were, standing on Kitty Hawk’s flight deck 31 years and a day after he had disappeared.

Next we went to Camp Pendleton to see the Amtrac Museum. Amtracs are the amphibious vehicles we drove in Vietnam, used by the Marine Corps to move troops from ship to shore during amphibious assaults. We felt our age when we saw the same type of vehicle we drove on display as museum pieces.

I think we all delayed getting ready to go for our flight to Vietnam on the next day, a Thursday, hoping we would wake up and find out it was a dream. We flew Singapore Airlines and were pleased with the service we received. Part of the tour group flew to Southeast Asia from the West Coast, while the rest of the group came from the East Coast. We stopped in Tokyo and then went on to Singapore. The 12-hour flight and the 10-hour layover in Singapore seemed like a lifetime.

Our group finally departed for Hanoi, arriving there on the morning of April 26. We realized we had arrived in Vietnam for real when we saw the red flag with the yellow star flying high above the airport terminal. Seeing MiG fighters parked on the runways reinforced that feeling.

Going through customs was easy and fast. It was far from the ordeal I had feared it would be. We were soon aboard our bus for our 45-minute ride to downtown Hanoi and our hotel. The Thuy Tain Hotel was a shock to us–it was very nice, as good as any hotel in the States. We were treated almost like royalty while staying there, and we were impressed with the staff. We felt like they really wanted us there and went above and beyond to take care of our needs. The staff in hotels here in the States could take lessons from them.

Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Vietnam War

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