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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.
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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.
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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.
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(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.
Remember: keep the lid on the worms, share your jerky, and stop by to say hi to Cookie and the Cowboy-Pirate crew
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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.
