QUOTE(Lurker @ Jan 11 2007, 07:48 AM)
QUOTE(My Le @ Jan 11 2007, 02:02 AM)
We're still in Saigon, not riding together to her hometown yet. Reason: the visa she's supposed to pick up at the consulate.........petition to see again the consulate building or even passing by (therefore, I hired a lawyer taking care this hassle for me for this time. The lawyer thing will be talked about later), let alone to see the people there.
(to be continued)
Your teasing us here now. Do you work as a news anchor? You do this teasing well.
(Sitting on the edge of my seat)
Thank you for your comment. It makes me feel great of myself. But I'm afraid I'm not that good. In general, just think of me as a US citizen through naturalization, an average one as anybody else. Then by nature I'm not good at speech, and English is still my second language; so no way could I be an anchor for the Vietnamese speaking audience, and as a result there will be evidently little chance for me to qualify for such a post in the English speaking community.
By the way, you remember in a post to reply to one of yours in which you wrote that you were a soldier, so I wrote in replying you then that I was a soldier too to show our similarity and closeness.
Now I like to say more about it. We were soldiers at different times for different countries, yours was recently in Iraq as you mentioned, and mine was long ago during the Vietnam War, you with the US Army and I with the ARVN, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (the army of the South Vietnam). It was for the US that you served. It was for the South of Vietnam before 1975 that did I.
Then just think of me as an average soldier because as a matter of fact, my achievement was not a lot, of which I was neither embarrassed nor proud.
The medals I was awarded during my 7 years of service were few. Ironically, one of the most noticeable that I like a lot due to its look was not by the national army unit in which I took part, but by a unit of the US, the First Air Cavalry. That was a Bronze Star that I got from an operation together with them in 1969 or so, during which I was a platoon leader of a Vietnamese paratrooper unit.
Then I was nominated for a Silver Star in one of the years that followed, in a solo operation, during which I was still a platoon leader but of another paratrooper unit, and my platoon got the chance to rescue some American fellows, exactly how many I cannot recall now, 2 or 4 of them, were seriously wounded. They were the crew members of the Chinook that had been shot down earlier by enemies’ anti-aircraft firepower when the helicopter was about to land on the ground to provide us, the ground force, with all kinds of supports and medivac. Their firepower from the 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun network from a lot of locations around us in the mountainous jungle that made up a web of fire bullets that reddened the sky became almost omnipotent in shooting down any plane at sight. Furthermore, it was so terribly abundant that it was at times used to shoot directly at us on the ground in an attempt to terrify us.
About the rescue, at a time when the battalion unit that my platoon was under command was almost overran by the enemies, and when we were ordered to stay inside the bunker, don’t get out so the kind of the specific artillery bullet, the kind that was designed to be used specifically in the last minute as the last resort every time a unit was about to be overran, the kind that before touching the ground exploded in the air into numerous deadly tiny pieces of metal right above us that finally sprung down into the body parts of the unsheltered victims below could be shot, was ordered to kill any moving enemies on the ground that at that time were already too close to us. Then we were commanded that after this artillery firing immediately we got to get out of bunkers to be ready to perform close combat with the enemies to destroy them to the max for the gaining back of the battlefield.
In a matter of seconds or footsteps my fellows and I reached the battalion headquarter bunker earlier than the enemies right after our artillery firing stopped. We had to shoot them from very close first, preventing them from coming closer and stopping them timely before they could do any harm to our fellows inside who were the wounded Chinook crew members and others who were not wounded; among the latter were the two, or maybe more, American fellows of the Advisory Board of the battalion, and one or two other Vietnamese officers who were staff members of the battalion headquarter. They got stuck in it; they had nowhere to go as outside around them the battlefield became a mess; it was mixed up of troops, theirs and ours.
We got to the headquarter bunker first because partly it just happened that we were so close to it and partly because what a fantastic job our artillery shooting of the special bullets did on the enemies as nobody could move under the fire of it. It stopped their further advancing to the bunker. Then they started advancing again when the shooting stopped, but we came first…
However, the Silver Star was finally awarded to another guy of another paratrooper unit. Still, I was so pleased and had no problem with it since rarely was it awarded, and if it was, it was for cases of extreme exception only and the rescue combat I had commanded was not.
Talking about military with you today, Lurker, I like to emphasize on what I like and also on what I used to be. It is action that I like, not all talk. I need to tell you that I was voluntary to be a combatant parachutist as the Vietnamese Airborne Division, the only paratrooper division of the whole ARVN didn’t take non-volunteers during the war in some sense was to prove that I could not be qualified for the job of just to sit and talk. By that I don’t mean that I disrespect the profession, but just that it is not for me.
Since the interview incident this time I have posted a lot on this forum, much more than usual although my English is still somehow marginal. That is because I have felt that I have to speak out since I was so oppressed to the extent of being abusive by the repeated requirement of nonsense by the bureaucrats for this time and others similar to that for the last petition. And I wish what I have written could be understood as that has been the message from an average guy all the way through since he was a soldier, not from a well-spoken anchor. Also I wish my message could be eloquent and constructive.
Eventually, justice has been made for this time by myself. However, I don’t think that is enough.
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Lurker: Anyway, I still have to give you some credit for the question whether I work as a new anchor. No, I don’t as said above. But in my family there is one guy who does. He has been doing it for many many years for the Voice of America (VOA) in D.C. Therefore, your guessing was somehow correct, genetically. Did you work for an Intelligence unit before when you were in the army? Hah hah hah...
).. It doenst matter I guess because she wants to stay there for New years and may show up late Feb or in March?! 
errr.. I'm not sure how to feel or think about that. Part of me understands she would want to spend time with her family.. but the other side of me is thinking: wtf... she had spent 26 years with her family.. I dont know. some of you guys understand if there were certain things your girl does that make you question... even though you know you shouldnt.. I hate that feeling..
this will be my first time back for Tet. I am so excited. Now I have the interview to worry about. Wish me luck.