Judy Hamilton
October 30th, 2010, 07:26 PM
I think I did well on this journey back to the country where my life was forever
changed.
I was deep in thought when landing in Ton Son Nhut
as we deplaned under a covered carpeted ramp and caught our luggage on a
modern carousel in a sterile clean air conditioned airport. The flight to Hue Phu Bai was uneventful;
totally opposite the last time i flew into Hue in 69' when I would hop on a
C-130 at Tuy Hoa then mesh with the AirForce nurses doing In-Country "puddle
jump" Air-Evac.
I did not do the TOUR like many veterans who return to Vietnam,The decision to
not tour the Chu Chi tunnels and to not try and trek to Hamburger Hill
(our Highlands clinic is close to Hamburger Hill) offered a measure of control
and helped repress my anxiety.
Actually I was doing well until the last day of clinic, in the afternoon, when
Joe (a beautiful Nam Vet) rushed up to my interpreter asking how to say, "his
ghost will not rest" This flurry of activity took place outside where the
patients were waiting to be examined. Translating GHOST into Vietnamese caught
my attention. A young man brought a dog tag to the clinic. It was a fake. The
tag is posted on my site in the Clinic album. Fake or genuine, a small rectangle
piece of tin blew my cover.
I was still seeing patients, however I felt myself drawing back, while wiping
tears away with the back of my hand I began humming, "I need Thee Oh! I need
Thee, every hour I need Thee!" an old prayer/song that rises up in me when I
feel angst. The dog tag sluiced open wounds in need of healing. Our sons
sent to war died in the thick jungles surrounding A Loui. May God rest their
souls. Through my interpreter, I asked if I could hug a patient, a 90 year old
Montangyard lady. I enveloped her with my impulsive wrap-around-Okie-Texas hug. The
willful old soul didn't know what hit her, she did not know that
hugging and rocking a 90 year old Montangyard lady brought a healing balm to
a gray haired Army nurse.
The final trip down the mountain began on a paved Ho-Chi-Mihn Trail, ending in
a mudslide that rerouted the vans and made for a most interesting ride to DaNang.
I brought a rose with me from San Diego, I bought
it at Michael's, just to place it on the HCM Trail. I also slipped a couple of
mud stained rocks from the Trail in my pocket. I thought of each of you guys
my Nam Veteran friends that returned to the World with your own heart issues,
were it possible, I would have brought back for each of you a bit of that historic
trail.
Judy
changed.
I was deep in thought when landing in Ton Son Nhut
as we deplaned under a covered carpeted ramp and caught our luggage on a
modern carousel in a sterile clean air conditioned airport. The flight to Hue Phu Bai was uneventful;
totally opposite the last time i flew into Hue in 69' when I would hop on a
C-130 at Tuy Hoa then mesh with the AirForce nurses doing In-Country "puddle
jump" Air-Evac.
I did not do the TOUR like many veterans who return to Vietnam,The decision to
not tour the Chu Chi tunnels and to not try and trek to Hamburger Hill
(our Highlands clinic is close to Hamburger Hill) offered a measure of control
and helped repress my anxiety.
Actually I was doing well until the last day of clinic, in the afternoon, when
Joe (a beautiful Nam Vet) rushed up to my interpreter asking how to say, "his
ghost will not rest" This flurry of activity took place outside where the
patients were waiting to be examined. Translating GHOST into Vietnamese caught
my attention. A young man brought a dog tag to the clinic. It was a fake. The
tag is posted on my site in the Clinic album. Fake or genuine, a small rectangle
piece of tin blew my cover.
I was still seeing patients, however I felt myself drawing back, while wiping
tears away with the back of my hand I began humming, "I need Thee Oh! I need
Thee, every hour I need Thee!" an old prayer/song that rises up in me when I
feel angst. The dog tag sluiced open wounds in need of healing. Our sons
sent to war died in the thick jungles surrounding A Loui. May God rest their
souls. Through my interpreter, I asked if I could hug a patient, a 90 year old
Montangyard lady. I enveloped her with my impulsive wrap-around-Okie-Texas hug. The
willful old soul didn't know what hit her, she did not know that
hugging and rocking a 90 year old Montangyard lady brought a healing balm to
a gray haired Army nurse.
The final trip down the mountain began on a paved Ho-Chi-Mihn Trail, ending in
a mudslide that rerouted the vans and made for a most interesting ride to DaNang.
I brought a rose with me from San Diego, I bought
it at Michael's, just to place it on the HCM Trail. I also slipped a couple of
mud stained rocks from the Trail in my pocket. I thought of each of you guys
my Nam Veteran friends that returned to the World with your own heart issues,
were it possible, I would have brought back for each of you a bit of that historic
trail.
Judy