https://youtu.be/avaSdC0QOUM

07122016

slept in late, and it was glorious, ordering yet more uninspiring room service. we ordered the continental breakfast, but given how late it was in the morning i think they split the difference between the breakfast and the cheese and fruit plate, because we had minimal fruit, cheese, but still the yogurt and pastries that come with the continental.

i then went to the veterans meetup. There were two gentlemen already sitting when i arrived, and a third showed up shortly after me. all three of them had served in vietnam, one drafted into the army, one got the draft card, but joined the navy as a Seabee officer, and another got his draft card but joined the air force as a commo/electronics guy,

this was really interesting, the Seabee said this was the first time he had been to Vietnam since he was carried out. He lost one leg at the knee, and use of the other leg, and had both hips replaced due to 5 rounds of 12.7mm (the commbloc version of the .50cal). he also had all kinds of other health issues from being a combat engineer and dealing with Agent Orange all the time.

The army draftee had taken shrapnel to the appendix while crawling out of the treeline to recover his sergeant that had been mauled by another mortar round.

The air force guy was trained as an aircraft control/radar operator, and was sent to a mobile radar unit. his job was tracking the NVA and Chinese MiGs, and he took some mortar shrapnel to the leg.

This little chat was really interesting, hearing about their time in the service, their time since, over the next few weeks i will surely chat with them some more and get their feelings on coming back here 50 years later, and how veterans are treated nowadays, and explore the similarities between the political climate of the post vietnam and late OIF/OEF of today.

After that Laura and I met back up and got some food, and really just wandered around wasting away the hours.

We hit up one of the happy hours, buy one drink get the second at $2. And then went back to our cabin to sleep.