Mr. Huang

Continuing on our motorcycle trip, we went deeper into a village to have a chat with the Chief. As usual, Young completely undersold this event. Mr. Huang served as a paratrooper in the Vietnam war, a Red Beret. He started by getting all of us involved in making a local drink: muddled mint, lemongrass, and lime in the glass, with a mixer of hand squeezed lime, 7Up, sugar, topped off lemon grass stalk with a crushed end. We did the work, he directed us, so the mood was quite festive... Until we understood who he was and we became quite somber as he shared his story. He had fond memories of his American counterparts who trained him in the 5th battalion in Airborne. The men had 4 cigarettes with each meal, and he would smoke with his fellow military partners. But he went on to describe the hardship of when the 'Americans left .' He spent 6 months in a re-education camp and knew of others who were kept 5-10 years. Bottom line, he shared his opinion that we never should have gotten involved, as this country has been dealing with internal conflict for centuries.Read more