Bringing the boys home ....

U.S. Army photo

I stumbled this morning across a social media thread populated mostly by Vietnam veterans, families,  friends and those interested in the war in general. Someone had asked the question, "how did the remains of men killed in Vietnam reach home?" 

The answers reminded me that I landed in Vietnam some 49 years ago,  during these early days of December, and that the U.S. Army Mortuary on Tan Son Nhut --- viewed from battalion headquarters just across a fence --- was among the first and most lasting impressions I have of that place.

I am not a combat veteran and my memories of Vietnam are of another world when compared to those of men who are, but the many worlds of that complicated, absurd and deadly war always intersected, as they did on Tan Son Nhut.

I had graduated from my training program at Fort Holabird, Baltimore, some weeks earlier, enjoyed a time of temporary duty in Washington, D.C., and then spent Thanksgiving at home in Iowa before flying to Oakland, then Anchorage, then Tokyo and finally Bien Hoa.

Except on rare occasions, I never left Saigon after that and actually spent very little time at battalion headquarters, although it was necessary to go there perhaps once a month. And standing outside smoking, the view across the fence to the mortuary compound --- empty aluminum transport cases stacked and waiting, filled cases being loaded for transport to the flight line --- didn't change.

The remains of those killed in combat were gathered at collection points across the country, then transported to one of two U.S. Army mortuaries, one on Tan Son Nhut, the other at Da Nang. There, the bodies were sorted out, identified, embalmed, wrapped and placed in aluminum carrying cases.

These cases then were carried by air transport to Travis Air Force Base in California if the deceased lived west of the Mississippi; to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, if the deceased lived east. At those two locations, the remains were dressed, placed in caskets and shipped with a military escort to funeral homes in their hometowns. All very efficient --- and respectful.

A year later, I came home upright, departing as I'd arrived at Bin Hoa, and returned to Iowa somewhat disoriented and mildly confused --- conditions that persist.

It's become popular in these later days to thank veterans for their service --- and that's fine. But it's best to remember I think those who died, to work to ensure that programs to aid those damaged in that and later wars are fully funded and to live peacefully.