Category Archives: Viet Nam

Rule 5: Bang Tam

Posted on October 1, 2014 | Comments Off on Rule 5: Bang Tam

VNSingerBangTam

Taking a break from plus-size models, one of my favorite Vietnamese singers. The backup violins are’t bad either. With a competent stab at translating the lyrics of this love song.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Music, Viet Nam

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Obamalot golfs, Iraq burns

Posted on June 15, 2014 | 4 comments

But, hey, Joey Hairplugs is on the case. And if the second banana can’t solve the bungling, the Obamalots are already blaming Bush. The Iraqi “army,” meanwhile, is throwing down their American arms and beating feet in the face of 3,000 guys in pickup trucks.

There are a few things the Dems still could do, but…

“After more than five years, we’ve come to know we should expect no such leadership or strategic ambition from this President. Meantime, somebody needs to start thinking about evacuating U.S. personnel from our Embassy in Baghdad. Maybe the helicopter is already on the roof.”

There better be more than one: “If the embassy is evacuated, it will leave what is perhaps one of the most lavish and expensive diplomatic facilit[ies] in history in the hands of al-Qaeda.”

While our adolescent cretin of a president golfs the rest of us should go celebrate the D-Day anniversary again. It was, after all, the last war we won—almost 60 years ago. And, wouldn’t you know it, we’ve still got troops in Germany. The Pentagon finds the living much better there, no doubt.

UPDATE:  As always when things don’t go his way, Wormtongue and his cronies blame Bush. But, when it comes to the fall of Iraq, the Worm owns it.

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Posted in Iraq, Obamalot, The War, Troops, Viet Nam

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Waiting for Bowe

Posted on June 5, 2014 | 1 comment

Amid all the cacophony about the alleged deserter the White House traded five al Queda bosses to get back, we’ve yet to hear from the man himself: Army PFC (when he was captured) now Sergeant (promoted in captivity) Bowe Bergdahl.

Wormtongue’s latest controversy arises, in part, from his Rose Garden presser welcoming home Bowe with his, ahem, eccentric parents. But it’s also due to the left’s adoration of anti-war soldiers like Bergdahl and its persistent military blindspot: “…its failure to comprehend the centrality of honor to military culture.”

I’m reminded of Marine PFC Robert Garwood who was brought home from Vietnam under a cloud of disgrace. His parents never got near the Rose Garden. His explanation of how he was captured and why other POWs thought he was a collaborator wasn’t very persuasive but at least we got his version to weigh against the others.

A military court eventually acquitted Garwood of desertion while convicting him of “communicating with the enemy” and ordered him dishonorably discharged. He later collaborated with two authors in an interesting book on his case, which remains controversial, at least in the Marine Corps.

We’re still waiting to hear from Bowe, and we should because there’s bound to be another side, his side, to this whole deal. Whether it will change any minds remains to be seen, but for now his silence is deafening.

UPDATE:  Oops, turns out ol’ Bowe, whom Obamalot contends served honorably, converted to Islam and declared himself a jihadi. Wonderful. Does Wormtongue ever tell the truth about anything?

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Posted in Afghanistan, Blogosphere, The Culture, The War, Troops, Viet Nam

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In Remembrance

Posted on May 26, 2014 | 1 comment

These seven men of 60th Company, OC 504-68, were killed in Viet Nam.

We graduates of that 1968 class at Infantry Officers Candidate School, Fort Benning, Georgia, commemorate the seven each Memorial Day.

One graduate:  1LT Jacob Lee Kinser, a Huey helicopter pilot.

Two Tactical Officers:  CPT Reese Michael Patrick and 1LT Daniel Lynn Neiswender, both infantry commanders.

Four class drop-outs:  SP4 Robert Chase,  SP4 Reese Currenti Elia Jr., CPL Sherry Joe Hadley, and PFC Jeffrey Sanders Tigner, all infantry riflemen.

Rest in peace.

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Posted in Infantry OCS, Obituaries, Troops, Viet Nam

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Vietnam’s alleged new love for Americans

Posted on May 21, 2014 | 4 comments

J.D. contends that the latest wrinkle in the Vietnam-America relationship, as reported by the PowerLine blog isn’t really new at all.

“Most remarkable of all, my friend said that the Vietnamese people love Americans. They can’t stand the Chinese, but they love Americans…. the Vietnamese rioters reportedly spared factories that flew the American flag.”

Yes, well, as J.D. notes, some Vietnamese loved us during the war, too: “As long as we had something they wanted, mostly money.” The urbanites, mainly, as I recall. The peasants in the countryside, at least in my AO, were afraid of us and after close association we learned to be afraid of them, too.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Viet Nam

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Viet Nam in space

Posted on April 6, 2014 | Comments Off on Viet Nam in space

American-born Aliette de Bodard is half-French, half-Vietnamese and all writer. Her splendid On A Red Station, Drifting takes traditional Vietnamese ancestor-worship to a new high in a far-future, new-old, Dai Viet empire.

De Bodard’s writing, like the brocaded subject itself can be a little stilted at times, but when the characters live with docking star ships, brain implants, and artificial intelligence on a space station orbiting a red sun, their adventures are never boring.

If you like space opera and have any sort of acquaintance with Vietnamese language, cusine and culture, you shouldn’t miss this unique story. And it’s a good introduction to a young writer who, so far, has one other good offering about this 23-planet imperial dynasty and, hopefully, many more on the way.

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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space, Viet Nam

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MH370’s potential whereabouts

Posted on March 13, 2014 | 1 comment

MalaysiaFlightRange

Yes, I’m as caught up in the mystery as everyone else. And the Chinese sat image having been debunked, I’m onto the WSJ’s report that the plane may have flown on for about four hours after it vanished from radar between Malaysia and Viet Nam. Putting it (potentially) somewhere on the above map, pinched from a commenter at the Professional Pilots Rumor Network. If so, it and its 239 souls (including at least one Texan) may never be found

UPDATE:  Malaysian authorities are denying the WSJ report but so far as I can see have yet to be joined by Rolls Royce, makers of the jet’s engines whose transmitted mechanical data is the basis of the WSJ report.

MORE: And so the search is now expanded to the Indian Ocean, west of Indonesia. Apparently a sub has picked up a locater ping or a satellite seen a magnetic anomaly on the seabed, neither of which would be publicized. Only a find or lack of one.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obsessions, Science/Engineering, Viet Nam

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