I was airborne over Cambodia when I was radioed to come back to base because I was going home the next day. It was an early DEROS and it meant I'd be home for Christmas. It also meant that - if I could land one more time - I had survived Vietnam.
Poignantly, my right seater that day would not survive the war, and he knew it. He had been a North Vietnamese captain in artillery, and had defected to our side. He abandoned his wife and child in Hanoi, and with the US now pulling out his days were numbered. I salute him for his dedication, his courage, and his invaluable help to me. He was my very best right-seater/translator. He would have been among the first to be executed after the fall.
There will be a cocktail tonight. And a tear for Truong.
Dam, that's quite the story, sorry your right hand man didn't make it, some give all in times of war, I'll have a drink for him.
Had my cocktail. Had my tear.
In a weird twist of fate, at a SHOT Show a while back, I was walking past some vendor's booth when I saw an obviously Vietnamese young man with the name Nguyen Truong on his badge. I commented that I had once known a man with that name.
He replied that it was an unusual name, and that he was named after his father, who had been an artillery captain in the war. I was utterly stunned. I just had to ask, and the young man said, yes, his father had disappeared and they never heard of him again.
(12-11-2021, 11:45 PM)RockyRaab2 Wrote: [ -> ]Had my cocktail. Had my tear.
In a weird twist of fate, at a SHOT Show a while back, I was walking past some vendor's booth when I saw an obviously Vietnamese young man with the name Nguyen Truong on his badge. I commented that I had once known a man with that name.
He replied that it was an unusual name, and that he was named after his father, who had been an artillery captain in the war. I was utterly stunned. I just had to ask, and the young man said, yes, his father had disappeared and they never heard of him again.
What a story. So much more i would like to know but respect the personal nature of the details..
My best friend in High School, Ret LT Col, Special Forces, was visiting me a couple weeks ago. He is trying so hard to get his Afgan translator and family out alive but is expecting an out come similar to yours.
There really are no more details. I never met either of them again, or heard from them. Truong and I flew many missions together, and he was really good at his job. Some of us even let him fly the plane a bit, which delighted him.
I saw the man who might have been his son only that one brief time. I gave him my card but he has never contacted me.