Vietnam Relics
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There are a few old relics I have saved from my time in Vietnam.
Some are interesting and I am just going to review them some.
The poem discusses some of the relics that I have kept here,
And omits the other stuff that I did leave in country over there.
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Vietnam Relics
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The biggest relic I brought home from the arm pit of the earth,
Weighed in about 200 pounds and had a whole lot of worth.
I pampered it for years and it grew to about 300 pounds you see,
Yep, you guessed, the first old relic I did bring home was me.
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On the left is the 200 pound solider in 1970. On the right is the 300 pound relic in 2015.
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On the trip over to Vietnam, I wore my summer khaki uniform,
At the time I went over, I was still a Spec Four rank in fine form.
It was cold in the States, but it was warm where I was going.
I still have those khakis, but they shrunk a lot without me knowing.
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The actual khaki uniform that I wore on the trip to Vietnam on New Years eve 1969..
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When I got in country, I went to Pleiku in the central highlands,
I was assigned to the Air Section with 8 choppers on hand.
I wore nomex fire resistant fatigues to fly in over jungles and towns.
Yes, I still have a set of the nomex fatigues just hanging around.
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One set of fire resistant nomex fatigues that I actually wore in Vietnam in 1970. This may be the set I was wearing in the first picture above.
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They issued me jungle boots when I got there to wear on my feet,
They had leather bottoms and canvas tops and were very neat.
They kept our feet cool, but I still got a bad case of jungle rot.
I wonder if the nasty fungal bacteria still lives in them or not.
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My old jungle boots from 1970 still look pretty good..
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When we drove to take trash to the dump, locals were there,
They made sandals out of old tires and tubes for 50 cents a pair,
Actually they worked quite well and I bought several pair to wear,
I wore out several pairs and and brought some home from there.
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I wore a pair of these old tire and tube sandals each time I took a shower in Vietnam..
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There was a local shop on Artillery Hill that sold Zippo lighters,
They would engrave them with sayings for macho army fighters.
I bought two when I was there and still have both of them here.
I guess the Zippo lifetime guarantee was good as gold or near.
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The other side of this Zippo has my name and a map of Vietnam with major cities on it. The Zippo still works after 45 years.
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We wore some patches on our fatigue sleeves that were cool.
We all wore the First Field Force Vietnam patch in our unit pool.
There were some that were dreamed up just for fun about our jobs,
We displayed them with very much pride making our hearts throb.
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On the left is the camo patch for First Field Force Vietnam. The two on the right were local patches made up by the Air Section for our group only.
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I kept a diary while I was there to record activities and my thoughts.
Everyday was different and I wrote down what the day brought.
We drank a lot of beer, so sometimes my writing was very bad,
So the example below was on a day when not much beer was had.
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A page for March 23, 1970, from the diary I kept in Vietnam. The number (292) at the bottom right hand side of the page was how many days I had left in country
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Before I left Vietnam, I bought three sets of fine china so great.
You paid no tax or shipping if ordered from APO Vietnam per crate.
I got a set for my Mom, my sister, and me at a very low price,
We have used our fine china set for 45 years and it’s still nice.
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The spruce design fine china as it sits today in our china cabinet that I purchased in 1970 from Vietnam. A very good investment for sure.
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I also ordered a set of Fisher XP 15 B stereo speakers there,
And shipped them home for a very low cost not found anywhere.
They had 90 pound woofers and the sound just made me rave.
They are still in use in the big system in my basement man cave.
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One of the set of Fisher XP 15 B stereo speakers I ordered before I left Vietnam. They sound just as good today as the day I took them out of the box.
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On the plane to home from Vietnam. I wore my dress greens,
Now Spec Five Rank in my Unit called First Field Force it seems.
I was very happy and proud to have served in the Vietnam Conflict.
But the Americans at the airport wanted on me harm to inflict.
The dress greens I wore back from Vietnam with the First Field Force patch that still hang in my closet today.
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By Bill
Thanks for reading Vietnam Relics,
Bill