Reunion

Tidbits galore from the reunion. Acronyms gone mad, stories that only seem absurd outside of their original context of a quiet but nasty flareup of the Cold War.

One acronym that seemed particularly odd was the one given to the Thais and Hmong who had to do one of the most dangerous jobs imaginable. They ran around on foot behind the very hot and hostile front lines, finding enemy positions and calling in airstrikes practically on top of themselves. If that was your job, you were called a "FAG". Forward Air Group.



The reunion itself:
Forty or fifty old soldiers getting back together in a hotel meeting room for three days, from about ten in the morning til a bit past midnight. Interesting process getting people used to the idea of a stranger wanting to hear their stories. Certainly a bit of an exclusive club of which I was not a member, but it went fairly well. This club is composed of everyone who were involved in the second Indochina war, but mostly the non-Vietnam parts. As it was explained to me, there are all kinds of Vietnam vet groups, but they snub the guys from the other areas a bit sometimes. Here, there were mostly guys from Laos and Cambodia. Air America pilots were the biggest group present, then a bunch of the Thai volunteers/mercenaries, lots of USAID and IVS guys, lots of kickers and flight techs, Filipinos who were brought in to train the Lao, and a few guys who were around in the Cambodia days, one of the Raven FACs, some intel guys, but it was hard to tell who did that. Not many US military guys; but as it was explained to me, their tours were shorter so they didn't get as close as the Air America guys and aid workers.

The group who put it together was the TLC (Thailand-Laos-Cambo"dia) Brotherhood, a group of vets who do humanitarian aid work in Thailand and Laos "In memory of our brothers who didn't come home".

Caught a bit of shit for admitting my voting record. Certainly an occasion where I agree with the statement that no good can ever come of talking politics. Which I ordinarily think is bullshit, but in this case I had a clear agenda and essential to said agenda was earning the trust of these guys so they'd tell me their stories. Being a journalist with a lefty voting record isn't usually helpful in a roomful of soldiers. It does vary though; in one little discussion there was a gentleman who made two remarks on the topic. The first was that, "I hope that the state of American civil discourse has not fallen so far that we can't buy each other drinks!", and also "I agreed with this guy in his first term, but he really lost me in his second term." Not a knee-jerk single-issue voter.


So many interesting stories, but I haven't transcribed the ten hours of tape yet.