Bien Hoa Travel Guide

 Nemorino Says:  --The village school was right behind the small pagoda and just next door to the house where Major Giam, the District Chief, used to live. The schoolyard was full of children in 1964 (second photo). Thirty years later there seemed to be fewer children (third photo) and a... 

 Nemorino Says:  --The children in Tan Ba, as everywhere in Vietnam, were always very friendly and entertaining.After school was over for the day they were usually free to run around as they pleased, except that some of the older children had to carry their younger siblings around and look... 

 Nemorino Says:  --Another industrious person in our neighborhood was this young lady who earned money during the dry season by carrying water up from the river, not only for us but also for other people on our street.Rumor had it that her brother was a member of the local Viet Cong group... 

 Nemorino Says:  --Most of the Americans had the fixed idea that the Vietnamese were lazy, lacked initiative, etc., but our next door neighbor was living proof that this was not true.In his thatched house he had a café where I often went to meet the local people and practice my few words of... 

 Nemorino Says:  --One day the old man told our Major C. through an ARVN interpreter that in all his seventy-eight years he had never been up in a helicopter. So a few days after Christmas we talked one of the American pilots into taking him up for a ride, sort of as a small gesture of... 

 Nemorino Says:  --At the time it was a novel idea to help the local population in hopes that they would support the South Vietnamese government and not the Viet Cong.Major Giam thought this was a good idea and worked very energetically to put it into practice, but he once told me they... 

 Nemorino Says:  --This was the commander of those fearless combat policemen who always seemed to be somewhere else when any sort of attack was going on.Since the Police Chief also spoke French, I was asked to convince him that when a trip flare went off his men were supposed to shoot at it.... 

 Nemorino Says:  --Though Major Giam did not want or need any advice from the likes of our Major C., he did want our help in getting supplies and equipment that he needed to fix the roads, build a dispensary and generally convince the local population that the South Vietnamese government was... 

 Nemorino Says:  --So we moved in to the nicest house in the village, despite the protests of the old man who owned it. He was seventy-eight years old and was a marvelous gardener. His front yard was a cement patio surrounded by huge flower pots containing various carefully tended flowers... 

 Nemorino Says:  --A day or two after my arrival, Major Giam informed us (through me as his interpreter) that he wanted us to move into a different house. It was located at the highest point in the village, just slightly higher than the rest, but one of the basics of military tactics was... 

 Nemorino Says:  --Over the Christmas holidays in 1964 our whole advisory team went to Saigon (later re-named Ho Chi Minh City, but at that time it was still Saigon) and had dinner together at a restaurant. Our medic also brought his Chinese girlfriend along.Some other things happened in... 

 Nemorino Says:  --After we got to know him a bit, Major Giam told us a few things about his life and career. Unlike most ARVN officers, he was a Buddhist and a native of South Vietnam, not a Catholic who had relocated from the North when the country was divided in 1954.As a child he first... 

 Nemorino Says:  --In his house the old man had a poster showing the Three Saints of Cao Dai signing a covenant between God and humanity. I was happy to see that the poster was still there in 1995.The French words on the poster mean: God and Humanity, Love and Justice. And I assume the... 

 Nemorino Says:  --The people who lived in the house in 1995 were all descendents of the old couple I had known thirty years before. After they showed me the new addition they had built onto the back of the house they took me down to the river to show me the other big improvement, a set of... 

 Nemorino Says:  --This was my desk at the front left corner of the house in Tan Ba. Note the ever-present weapon leaned up against the wall on the right.The lamp was attached to a battery, since we had no electricity. The little globe was one I had bought in Saigon, with the names of all... 

 Nemorino Says:  --Sergeant J., our medic, was a big jovial man with masses of combat experience and staunchly right-wing opinions. He and I got along very well, even though we disagreed about more or less everything.When he was eighteen he joined the army and trained as an infantry medic.... 

 Nemorino Says:  --I didn't get much to eat that first evening because it was my first try at eating with chopsticks and because I spent the whole time interpreting French-English and English-French.Major Giam was delighted that he could speak French again and was no longer dependant on the... 

 Nemorino Says:  --Major Giam's first priority in the next few weeks was to get the bridge re-built. Our Major C. was helpful in getting him the materials he needed, so the work went quickly, and before long the road was re-opened. GPS 10°59'0.48" North; 106°46'5.31" EastThirty years later I...