(POWs return, 1973, Midway flight deck, Delegation at the Caravel Hotel, Saigon, military relics of an old war, and the gates to the former US Embassy).

Morning, Folks!

There is a lot going on and many tugs on memory in all sorts of directions. By separate correspondence, Marlow is in with a story we will run by lunchtime, but with the flurry of “news” about things like “worst fuel prices in 40 years!” and the release of the Strategic Oil Reserves that will leave us with about half of what we had saved for an “emergency” there is speculation about shortage and disruption. There is a parallel story about ‘why thing happen that don’t appear to make a lot of sense,’ but it is too involved to tackle this morning, since they actually do make sense if you get a peek behind the curtain.

There was also a flurry of news about the annual holiday honoring those who served in the conflict in Vietnam. Many of my shipmates were in it, debriefing the mostly Aviation personnel who were shot down while flying over the denied air space in North Vietnam. Those are emotional stories of getting them haircuts, decent showers, new uniforms, and preparation to return to The World, which is what most folks called rational life back home, away from the other life in War.

The montage image above includes includes images of the POWs, the USS Midway flight deck during the evacuation ops from Saigon in 1975 as the tanks of the North rolled in, and some images from a 1995 Congressional trip The Chairman arranged at the request of everyone’s favorite Congressman, Bill Richardson (D-NM) to try to find the MIAs from that war (and normalize relations with Vietnam). It was a memorable experience, with a glimpse included of the delegation looking at what once was “Saigon” and currently “Ho Chi Minh City.” And the Chairman posing at the gates to what had been the US Embassy, and later headquarters of the SRV Oil monopoly.

There are some great stories about how the war affected all who were of draft age at the time. it was a foreign war that determined how they lived, when and how they went to school for deferment purposes, other military service options that minimized the chance of carrying a rifle in the field and a general attitude about the unique relation of citizen, government and falling dominoes.

One of those “moments in life” came later, when The Chairman was escorting Mr. Richardson on that trip to Vietnam, Burma and North Korea. The goal in Vietnam was normalization of relations. After meeting the SRV leadership in Hanoi, there was an official meeting with the mayor of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and his staff.

The Congressman didn’t feel like speaking that morning and pointed at Mr. Socotra to give a brief address of ‘congratulations’ to the Mayor and City Council on the anniversary of the fall- or “liberation-” of the city to the brothers and sisters of the North.

Mr. Socotra was not prepared to speak in advance and had to do the best impromptu job he could manage while feeling really…awkward. Earlier in the trip, in Hanoi, he had a chance to visit the monument in Hanoi that was erected to commemorate the place where Senator John McCain landed after his A-4 jet was shot down…

– Vic
Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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