My father served in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam for 20 months. He spent 10 months working with the U.S. Marines in Dong Ha, a few miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and then another 10 months working to train Vietnamese locals in Go Cong Province about 2 hours south of what was then Saigon.
When my dad arrived in Vietnam a few days ago, the airport was in the same location as it was nearly 40 years ago but he arrived in a city that after the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, had now been renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Back then, there were only about 30 million people in Vietnam and one of the first things he noticed was how many more people there were. Today, Vietnam’s population is approaching 90 million people and it seems like most of them have motorbikes and most of them drive them at the exact same time. The weather is just as he remembered it and many of the smells he became familiar with are still here. To see just how much things have changed, we hired a car and drove down to Go Cong to see if anything remained from his time spent there.
Driving down the same road my dad used to navigate when he came into the city once a month brought back some memories and even though he recognized the turns, a once rough and unpaved road had now been sealed… although it was still pretty rough. Rivers that my dad once had to cross by boat were now spanned by bridges and in areas where only rice paddies existed, houses and shops have popped up everywhere. The area has been so built up in the last 40 years that my dad did not think he would recognize anything once we arrived in the provincial capital. However, once we did arrive, he was quick to point out the province chief’s house which to this day is still well maintained. This immediately initiated stories of my father’s encounters with the crafty, corrupt head of the province.
We continued down the road a bit further to Tang Hoa where the northern end of the Mekong Delta empties into the South China Sea and this again brought back memories.. this time about the enlisted men working with my dad getting Hepatitis from eating bad seafood there. After a few hours, we headed back to HCMC, but not before spotting an old schoolhouse that my dad actually helped to construct. A new building ha s since been erected behind the structure, but the old schoolhouse was still standing and appeared to still be in use. We managed to see a few more sights in the city including the Presidential Palace (now called the Reunification Palace) and the War Remnants Museum. Aside from pointing out what my dad referred to as factual errors about the war, we had a pretty good time and did enjoy a laugh or two about the propaganda printed on the pamphlets we received. I learned a lot during our day trips in and around HCMC and for my dad, seeing how much Vietnam has changed, yet in some ways has remained the same, has also been a good experience.
