4/8/2024
While things are getting better a lot of things are still a trainwreck on my end.
While my cat has responded to the thyroid medication, she can’t take it as a pill which is the prime reason for all of her side effects (including being vomity as all hell)
So the mighty 15 year old furball is going to be getting a topical gel in her ears, and is on anti-nausea medication and a reduced dose of the pills until she can get on the gel.
That’s one thing that’s getting better…on the other hand, the day after I posted my message about things going on pause, an elderly family member banged themselves up in a fall and is still recovering.
So we are still in wait and see mode over here. When we know more, you’ll know more. 🙁
Good job describing the intel subculture and how it works in this particular setting. Like everything else, that culture and their status quo is getting quite a shakeup from recent events.
When things become unsettled like that, the reaction is often to hold even more tightly to tradition; known rules and people become commodities, even if they’re ostensibly enemies. The status-challengers can find themselves facing literally everyone else if they aren’t careful.
He was a part of records/payroll there (which means records/payroll for the US Army for damn near all of Vietnam), and back then Vung Tau was the big R&R center for South Vietnam. He described it to me as the ‘French Riviera of Vietnam’.
And it wasn’t just the R&R center for the US. Everybody came through there at one time or another for the same purpose, you had the Aussies, Korean Tiger Squads the NVA and Viet Cong)
Everybody was very careful to keep any trouble from happening inside Vung Tau. Hell, my Father had a group of Vietnamese come out of the jungle at one of the beaches he was at armed with AK’s, and they just walked right on through ignoring everybody, including the US soldiers there on the sand.
Outside though, all kinds of crazy things would happen. And there was a lot of Op work going on. Hell, my Dad told me about one time about 20 miles outside of town one of the local platoons finding dead Caucasians (not US, either) in fatigues with Russian manufactured AK’s. The smart money was on them being Soviet military advisors.
Heh, my Dad got to Vung Tau just in time to experience the very first mortar attack they ever had there. The month he left, was the 2nd mortar attack they ever had there 😉
My wife and I go to to Sai Gon to visit her family every March and every time, we pile the whole family in a bus and head for Vung Tau for a day at the beach. The tourist industry is big time now and the place is starting to look a bit like Ft. Lauderdale in the 1960’s
When things become unsettled like that, the reaction is often to hold even more tightly to tradition; known rules and people become commodities, even if they’re ostensibly enemies. The status-challengers can find themselves facing literally everyone else if they aren’t careful.
He was a part of records/payroll there (which means records/payroll for the US Army for damn near all of Vietnam), and back then Vung Tau was the big R&R center for South Vietnam. He described it to me as the ‘French Riviera of Vietnam’.
And it wasn’t just the R&R center for the US. Everybody came through there at one time or another for the same purpose, you had the Aussies, Korean Tiger Squads the NVA and Viet Cong)
Everybody was very careful to keep any trouble from happening inside Vung Tau. Hell, my Father had a group of Vietnamese come out of the jungle at one of the beaches he was at armed with AK’s, and they just walked right on through ignoring everybody, including the US soldiers there on the sand.
Outside though, all kinds of crazy things would happen. And there was a lot of Op work going on. Hell, my Dad told me about one time about 20 miles outside of town one of the local platoons finding dead Caucasians (not US, either) in fatigues with Russian manufactured AK’s. The smart money was on them being Soviet military advisors.
Heh, my Dad got to Vung Tau just in time to experience the very first mortar attack they ever had there. The month he left, was the 2nd mortar attack they ever had there 😉
Really? I know the base is pretty much gone now…last I heard it serves as a small airport to service a number of off shore oil rigs.