27 Nov 2023
Dear All,
Reading Tex's chronicle of his Vietnam experience (and the subsequent journey he took) and reflecting on the stories so poignantly shared on the Casual Conversation, both the exhilarating and the mundane, I thought back to my own experience, a bit different than most.
I did two Vietnam tours, the first as a newly minted Ensign, fresh out of NROTC, on a Destroyer providing gunfire support, etc. from September 1969 to March 1970 and the second in-country as a Naval advisor for all of 1971 (wish I'd known you were there, Sandy, a mini-reunion would have been welcomed!). Good fortune graced me - my job was part of the Navy's support of the Vietnamese Navy (VNN) as we US forces withdrew. Rather than focusing on getting us out, our role was to enable the VNN to take over. For many reasons, that was a fat dream - a noble cause but it was too late; we'd already poisoned the well with both allies and enemies to have any chance of a negotiated end to that decade long conflict. While futile in the grand scheme, my opportunity to be a part of "Vietnamization" was both rewarding and constructive.
Now the good fortune: I was the US Naval Advisory Group's official Fishing and Agriculture Advisor. My role was to join my counterpart, a VNN Lieutenant, too (I was spot promoted to O-3 upon arrival to match his rank), in developing fishing and agriculture projects at the 54 VNN bases around the country. I traveled from Cua Viet (on the DMZ) to An Thoi (on Phu Quoc Island south of the Mekong Delta, and most places in between, working with my 16 USN enlisted folks who actually knew something about fishing and growing stuff (my biology major somehow led the detailer to believe I was the man for the job... and, in that I would not therefore be assigned to a Riverine Assault Group, I went along with the ruse).
I was completely unprepared for the job - unlike Sandy, I had no Vietnamese language training (although I did take lessons once in country), no intercultural orientation, and, obviously, no pretense of preparation for the technicalities of my role. What I did have, though, as Sandy described, was a curiosity and willingness to be open to the "new and unfamiliar," which led me to find living and working in Vietnam, with Vietnamese, a wonderfully enriching experience. Yes, it helped that I was never shot at (I controlled where I traveled, based on avoiding the latest upsurge in VC/NVA activity), and on the positive side, I was able to engage with the local culture.
My tour in Vietnam definitely changed me, but not in the ways we hear so much about. for Vietnam veterans:
1. I met my wife (of 51 years so far) on a plane returning to VN from my R&R in Sydney (she was a Pan Am stewardess)
2. Enjoying the "training" aspect of my work (actually, my guys' work), and following my wife's lead (she left Pan Am to become an ESL teacher), I became a teacher.
3. Using what I had learned about leadership, I evolved into an administrator, first as a principal and for most of my career, school superintendent
4. Prompted by how interesting I found living in a different culture, I joined the Peace Corps (one of the few Vietnam Veterans to go that route!) and spent two years teaching in Botswana.
5... and then continued that cultural exploration with a career as superintendent of American International Schools all over the place (Greece, Israel, Bangladesh, Hungary, Brazil, Nepal, Austria).
So, while I totally understand and empathize with my colleagues who were in harm's way during their tour, for me, it was a very positive and direction-finding experience.
Unfortunately, there seems to be not much interest in the kind of work I was involved with - witness our cultural-blind stumbling in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bowing to the host culture just is not the American way. Curiously, I wrote to Ken Burns when he was developing his Vietnam series suggesting he at least mention the kind of work I did (my section also had a "pigs and chickens" program, dependent housing project, and veterans (Vietnamese) support endeavors). Sadly, the reply was "not interested."
In any event, I wanted to shine a tiny ray of light on a very different perspective of, as the Vietnamese call it, the "American War."
Rick Detwiler