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At the end of the sixth day on our little walk in the park patrol, at the end of an exhausting day, we popped a red smoke for the helicopters to mark on, and went home...no, not home back to "the world," home to LZ Betty...
The next morning a Catholic Chaplain flew in to give a form of religious services, with comouflage ritual vestments, and using the hood of his jeep for a sacramental alter...
We also got our first hot meal in...well, too long, a real treat...even if we grunts did have to do KP duty and serve it ourselves...
But the best part was a 1/2 day pass to beautiful downtown Phan Thiet near LZ Betty, the bustling metropolis of the Coastal Lowlands on the south China Sea. This was the only time in my tour I would see any leave...
These are street scenes in the major part of the city of beautiful children...beautiful adults...
See the woman sleeping peacefully under the straw-cone hat below?
A most lovely, gentle and photogenic people....
Who could know hatred and killing is so close at hand...
Note the store windows below filled with black-market merchandise...
My most fervent wish for this new millennium is, Let there be peace on earth...and let it begin with me. Look at these peaceful people.
Let there be war no more, brother fighting against brother, with lives lost and lives ruined. There is no glory in war, no pomp, no ceremony, only heartache and hate for both sides. I do my part by sharing the devestating effects of an inhumane and senseless war, and plead...do not repeat our mistakes!
