I remember this show vividly. As I walked there, Westmoreland drove by and we exchanged salutes. I went to a dinner in his honor in the early 1980's? in Orange County, CA.
I posted the picture above in 2007, but found the video below fairly recently. Man, to be able to do it all over again, but the memories are gold.
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Bob Hope Show, Long Binh 1967
Brock:
ReplyDeleteI was also there at that Viet Nam Veterans Reunion in Los Angeles!!!
I couldn't afford to attend the dinner, but I remember being in the lobby of that hotel and speaking with the former president of the Republic of Viet Nam, Nguyen Cao Ky.
I marched with the 101st Airborne veterans in the parade.
Some small groups of veterans heard me perform my song about the POWs, called, "WEAR A RIBBON, BRIGHT AND RED", but I didn't perform on the main stage, so you might never have seen or heard me.
The group I had travelled with from Utah (there were five of us) attended a party for the 173d Airborne veterans and the New Zealand veterans.
At the reunion, we slept in a downtown parking lot in the van.
I wonder if we might have crossed paths?
If so, what serendipity!
Thank you.
John Robert Mallernee
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Gulfport, Mississippi 39507
Brock:
ReplyDeleteI saw the Bob Hope Christmas Show a couple of times, because I extended my tour twice.
When I first arrived in Viet Nam, I saw it on TELEVISION!
The show was in Long Binh, and I was sitting in the barracks at the Phu Lam signal Battalion, located in the suburbs of Saigon, near Ton Son Nhut and Cholon.
Later, when I went North, and then volunteered for the 101st Airborne, I saw the Bob Hope Christmas Show at Camp Eagle, near Hue and Phu Bai.
In fact, I think I may have seen it twice there.
I also saw the Miss America Show there, and had breakfast in the mess hall with Miss Oregon.
Neat, huh?
When watching TV in Saigon at midnight on New Year's Eve, 1969, I remember the AFVN newscaster, an Army specialist, reading his New Year's resolution to report the truth and not the false stories that MACV generals wanted reported.
You should have SEEN the reaction the next day!!!
He was immediately transferred to some post up North, and a lot of folks were concerned for his safety.
What a coincidence! As I remember, the dinner was $125?, but I bit the bullet since it would be a once in a life time deal. I wish I could have talked to Ky and you were fortunate, though he's flip flopped with his visit to Vietnam. For a man who stood alone at the Joint Chiefs of Staff Headquarters in Saigon calling for all to fight to the death, and to then do that, was repulsive.
ReplyDeleteI only saw the show at Long Binh in 1967, because I then extended for a total of eleven months to go to Saigon (I don't beieve he ever came there) in order to come back with five months left so I would get an early out to return to Saigon as a civilian.
The FSEE And My 45. Caliber Derringer
http://www.namsouth.com/viewtopic.php?t=30&highlight=cholon
Hooah and thanks to all those that went 'over there' to protect us 'over here'...
ReplyDeleteMay all those that are still missing and interned there rest in peace til we find them and bring them home properly.
Amen. Dixie and I are up around Bedford, Virginia for the Sam Davis Youth Camp. It's only about 1,000 feet, but everything is green and beautiful.
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