Love and War

It was a sad moving day for Colonel Paul Tyler, US Army retired. After the loss of his beloved wife, Katherine, to breast cancer, he had decided to sell their large five-bedroom house in Tilden, Indiana and move to a two-bedroom condo in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. As they were clearing out the house his grandkids, Pam and Jimmy, hauled his old army footlocker from the basement. When they opened it they found a lot of his US Army memorabilia, scrapbooks and photos from his many assignments during his long career in the US Army. His thirteen-year-old granddaughter, Pam, found a large bundle of old letters and cards, wrapped with a pretty pink ribbon and tied with a pretty red bow and asked.

“Grandpa, do you have any idea where all of these letters came from? I wonder why you and grandma saved them. Do you know who they’re from?”

“Well, Pam, they’re letters that your grandmother and I wrote back and forth during our life together. Some of them go all the way back to when I first met her and we dated in Vietnam. Your grandmother saved all of the letters that I wrote her, especially the ones that I wrote to her from Vietnam and later during my tour in South Korea. I also saved a lot of the letters she wrote to me. One day I found them and gave them to her to safeguard. She wrapped that ribbon and put that bow on my letters to her.”

“Grandpa, you met grandma in Vietnam; was she a nurse or something over there?”

“Well,” and he began to tell them some of his and Katherine Stewart’s early adventures, leaving out many of the more intimate details that weren’t suitable for a young teenage girl or her fifteen-year-old brother.

It had been a quick encounter. A brief meeting between a young American Army lieutenant and a young American Red Cross worker in Saigon. They had shared an afternoon, had a brief lunch at a Vietnamese street restaurant and a shared evening at the ‘club’ in the Batchelor’s Officers Quarters (BOQ) with Paul’s friend Gayle.

Her name was Cathy; she was a farm girl from Nebraska far away from home. Cathy stood about 5’2”, a couple of inches shorter than Second Lieutenant Paul Tyler. She had beautiful shoulder-length hair that she liked to put up in a pony tail. Cathy had a captivating smile and an alluring personality that almost instantly grabbed his attention.

Second Lieutenant Paul Tyler was a young, ‘dashing’, twenty-year old officer, at least in Cathy’s eyes. They were the same age, and she felt comfortable with him. She was impressed with his politeness as well as a gentleness that he demonstrated. He didn’t seem to be one of the ‘sexual predators” that her mother had warned her about when she had cautioned her to be careful and ‘protect her virtue’ far away from home. He didn’t seem to demonstrate the brashness that she expected from an army officer serving in Vietnam. He just seemed to be a nice guy. He was funny and self-deprecating, yet a bit shy and unassuming. She was ‘interested’!

Lieutenant Paul Tyler was a mid-westerner, like Cathy. He was born and raised in Indiana and was a practicing Roman Catholic. He was assigned to a three-man Military Assistance Command (MACV) team in the Mekong Delta as the Intelligence Officer. Tyler was on his way back to his team at Ap Bac; his flight had been delayed for a day due to the changing monsoonal season, and he returned to the MACV Visiting Officers Quarters (VOQ) to obtain quarters for another evening.

When Paul was checking into the VOQ he encountered an old friend, an Army WAC Captain that he had met during his training in Maryland. He hadn’t seen Captain Gayle Murphy in months, and he was surprised that she was in Vietnam. When they had graduated she had told him that she was being assigned to an intelligence position in the Pentagon; seeing her in Vietnam was a bit of a shock. As one of the senior female officers assigned to MACV headquarters, Captain Gayle Murphy had been tasked with settling a new girl, Cathy Stewart, into quarters; she introduced the two of them.

It had been Gayle who suggested that Paul take Cathy to lunch and ‘entertain’ her for the afternoon. She planned on taking the two of them to dinner that evening. Initially they were going to an Italian restaurant that she had discovered in Saigon, but in the end they enjoyed dinner and an evening at the Officers Mess in her residence at the Massachusetts BOQ. Prior to leaving them together she advised him to be careful, Cathy was rather ‘fragile’ and was questioning her decision to come to Vietnam on a Red Cross contract. It was so different here than in her small home town outside of Omaha. She was already beginning to show signs of homesickness and some regret for the decision she had made.

Little did Gayle know what she had started!

After Cathy was settled into her temporary quarters at the VOQ, Paul escorted her to a small Vietnamese street café that he had found earlier that morning. They enjoyed a bowl of Vietnamese soup called Pho and afterwards some shopping in a couple of the local stores. They were like two young tourists in the big city of Saigon. Cathy was timidly discovering the wonders of the city and learning the ins and outs of shopping in Vietnam. Paul was her ‘teacher’ and they had an enjoyable day together.

He took Cathy to the Main Post Exchange in Chợ Lớn and explained how to use her ration card and described to her how she had to be cautious in the streets with her purchases. He told her how the ever-present Vietnamese ‘cowboys’ would try to race around shoppers, riding on their mopeds, and steal their purchases.

When they returned to their quarters before the traditional noon “Pot Time” period they promised each other to meet in the lobby about 4:30 and await Captain Murphy’s return; ready to go out on the town.

That evening Paul escorted Gayle and Cathy to the Officers Club in the Massachusetts BOQ. They had a nice dinner and then a couple of drinks. As they sat there enjoying each other’s company Cathy became emotional as she started to open up about why she had opted to come to Vietnam in a civilian capacity. As she started to tell her story of losing her fiancé, Cathy began to tear up and abruptly excused herself and went back to Gayle’s room. Gayle followed her.

When Gayle returned, she confided in Paul that Cathy had recently lost her fiancé, a young Marine, who had been killed in the northern part of Vietnam. Seeing all of these soldiers and over hearing some of their war stories had struck a nerve and brought about her emotional response.

“Paul, it wasn’t anything that you said or did, in fact you were acting as a perfect gentleman. She’ll be rejoining us once she regains her composure.”

 A few minutes later, a composed Cathy Stewart rejoined them. She was apologetic for being a ‘drama queen’. The rest of the evening was wonderful. They had a few drinks and talked of home and work and danced to the juke box. As they danced together both could feel the heat of their developing relationship. As the evening progressed, they danced every slow song and each time they held each other tighter. She didn’t resist Paul’s hands as they began their welcomed exploration.

Paul was falling in love with this little girl from Nebraska and Gayle could see that Cathy was also showing signs of infatuation with this young officer. She wondered what was beginning to develop.

The following morning Gayle drove Paul and Cathy through the chaotic streets of Saigon to Tân Sơn Nhựt Air Force Base for his flight back to his team. As he was preparing to depart Cathy gave him a long and endearing kiss. She pressed a piece of paper into his hand with her address and told him that she expected letters, and lots of them, from him, and a visit anytime that he had the opportunity to be with her in Saigon. A beaming Gayle realized that their initial infatuations were real and that a relationship was developing between her two young charges.

When Paul returned to his team he wrote letters to Cathy almost every day.

At first there was a degree of frustration because he hadn’t received a letter from her in three weeks. His first thought was that this beautiful young woman had found a new boyfriend from one of the many single guys living in her BOQ in Saigon. His boss, Captain West, had warned him that he really didn’t stand a chance of developing a lasting romantic relationship with a ‘round-eyed’ American girl.

“LT there’s about a ZERO chance of you dating an American woman over here! In Saigon there’s probably a 3,000 to 1 ratio of single men to single American women. You’re a lowly second lieutenant, a field trooper at that, and she’s surrounded by thousands of senior officers who are just looking for a ‘piece of young tail’. They all outrank you and they’re readily available. You, on the other hand, can get to Saigon once a month if you’re lucky. So don’t count on anything. She hasn’t sent you a letter or a card since you’ve been back here. I wouldn’t get your hopes up kid; it’s probably over before it began!”

About two or three times a week the ‘swing ship’, the resupply helicopter, would arrive at the landing pad and drop off mail and supplies that were sent down from the province headquarters. Paul would usually drive their Jeep down the dusty road to the helo-pad and pick up the boxes and the bright orange mailbag. He’d bring their deliveries back to the team house where he and Sarge would sort them and put things away.

The team had a routine, and that was that the Captain would sort the mail. Captain West would traditionally take the mail into the backroom and organize it and then pass it out to the team. This particular day Captain West was in the backroom, asleep; he had been on radio watch the night before and had decided to take a much needed nap.

Since the Captain was sleeping Sarge decided that he’d break out the mail. As usual it contained some official business from province headquarters directed to Captain West, and a copy of ‘The Monson Examiner’, a local weekly hometown Maine newspaper. Monthly, Captain West would get a large brown envelope that was addressed to him. Everyone knew that it was his monthly copy of Playboy magazine; it was in today’s mail. After he was finished reading the magazine he’d share it with the rest of the team especially the centerfold for the month.

What Paul found out later during his assignment was that one of Captain West’s best intelligence assets worked for that copy of Playboy magazine. He would provide him excellent intelligence about what was happening in the tram tree forest. His agent would report Việt Cộng movements and the operations of an extortion ring along the small canal there. However, he would only provide West with information if the centerfold was still attached inside the magazine.

This day Sarge began doing the sorting. He pulled everything that was in the orange mail bag out onto the table and sorted it into three piles. As he was doing his sorting he looked at Paul and said, “aha Lieutenant I’ve got a letter from my kids. My wife always has the kids sit down and write a small note to me and tell me what they’re doing in school and what’s happening in their lives while I’m over here in Vietnam. Sometimes they even send me a picture. My wife then takes their notes and puts them into her big letter that she writes me every other day.

If you look at the envelope you’ll also see that there’s a number on the backside of it. During my first tour here in Vietnam my wife and I settled on that as an idea to make sure that my letters were in the right order when she opened them. Mail is really screwed up over here. Sometimes I’ll get 3 or 4 letters at a time. So, this way I know which one to open first. I’ve noticed that you’re doing the same thing when you write to that young woman, Cathy, in Saigon.

Well LT It looks like you’ve got a couple of letters in the pile today as well.”

“Yeah Sarge it looks like I’ve got one for my little sister, Paula; she’s about the only one in the family that seems to write me. My mom and dad aren’t very good about sending me letters. My mom’s not really happy about me being in the army; the last time I was home she asked me when I was going to get out of the army and get a real job; she wasn’t very happy with my response. You gotta remember she wanted me to be a Catholic priest. When I dropped out of the seminary, she wasn’t very happy. My dad is just not someone who writes letters; that’s not his thing. My little brother “Squirt” doesn’t even really understand what I’m doing over here. My dad has him convinced that I have a big desk in an office near Saigon because he’s afraid that if “Squirt” knows what I’m really doing that he’ll be terrified. All the news networks show horrible scenes of our guys getting killed or wounded. They don’t say anything good about what we’re doing here, and “Squirt” is terrified that something bad is going to happen to me. There’s a big age difference between myself and my siblings.”

“Well it looks like you’re in luck today you have another letter and it’s from Saigon. Good luck LT. I just hope it’s not a ‘Dear John’ letter.”

“Sarge what’s a ‘dear John’ letter?”

“Well LT, A lot of times guys who are stationed in Vietnam will receive letters from their girlfriends or sometimes even their wives back in the states telling them that the romance is over. They want a divorce, or they found a new boyfriend and they announce a split. When I was on my last team up in II Corps one of my lieutenants received a ‘dear John’ letter from his wife. She had hired a lawyer to sue him for divorce. He found out that she’d emptied their bank accounts. She’d run away with another guy and was having his kid. The lieutenant was devastated. He went down to Saigon and saw the Judge Advocate General and had the divorce proceedings stopped until he could come home. But he knew that his marriage was over. Other guys got letters from girlfriends who said they just couldn’t wait any longer for their soldier to get back from Vietnam. So these ‘dear John’ letters can be devastating to some of our guys over here. Let’s hope you’re one of the lucky ones and she says that she’s still interested in you.”

“Thanks Sarge I’m hoping that it’s a good letter as well.”

With some trepidation and excitement Paul sat down on the bench and tore the letter open; he began to read:

NO 1.

Dear Paul,

I did like you said and numbered my letter to you so that you can keep them straight and open them in the order that they’re written.

Gayle went back to Washington D.C. a couple of days ago on a TDY trip, but she anticipated being back in Saigon in a couple of weeks. I’ve been kinda lonely being here by myself.

But I’ve been able to really get into my job.

I really feel lucky. I think that I’ve really been able to help a lot of families with members serving over here.

Do you have any idea when you’ll get back to Saigon? I hate to say this but I’m sorta missing you, well really, I’m missing you a lot. I hope that you feel the same. You probably already have some cute Vietnamese girlfriend out there, but I don’t think so after getting your last letter. Please try to get back to see me as often as you can. I know that it’s difficult for you, but please try. I’ll be anxiously waiting for your call. My friend Pam says that she can get you a room in the Massachusetts BOQ where I’m living now, so you won’t have to stay at the VOQ. Well, I’d better close for now. Hugs and Kisses,

Your ‘Donut Dolly’,

Cathy

After hearing about Paul’s letter from Cathy, Captain West decided that he’d better get Paul back to Saigon as soon as possible to see this woman. However, he ordered the Lieutenant to bring back pictures of this girl just to make sure that he was really in a relationship and that she just wasn’t a figment of his overactive imagination.

“And while you’re there Lieutenant you make sure that you stop at the PX and pick up a bottle of Woodford Reserve Bourbon for me, and you’d better stop at the cigar shop and pick up some good Cuban cigars for Sarge. I’ll give you a letter, so you don’t have to use your ration card because I know you’re too young to buy liquor. While you’re at it, pick up a bottle of good wine for that little girl and her friends. Make sure it’s a good one to really impress them!

Get your bags packed, the swing ship will be back here tomorrow morning; they’ll take you into Saigon. And since you’re going there to see a woman, get into the supply cabinet and pull out some tetracycline pills for you and some condoms; you don’t want to get her pregnant. And use those condoms, I don’t want you coming back with the clap!”

Almost immediately Paul got on the radio and contacted Staff Sergeant Sammy Smalls, the senior administrative non-commissioned officer at the Team-85 headquarters. Paul gave him Cathy’s number and asked him to contact her office in Saigon and let her know that he’d be in town tomorrow around noontime.

The following morning, about 10:00 a.m., the ‘swing ship’ stopped by the team house and dropped off mail and supplies. Paul boarded the “Saigon Express” and in under an hour he landed at Tân Sơn Nhựt AFB in Saigon. He caught the shuttle and went over to MACV Headquarters and located the Red Cross Emergency Notification Center where Cathy worked. Paul walked into the airconditioned office and asked if he could see Cathy Stewart.

“You must be Lieutenant Tyler,” stated the older woman at the front desk. “I’m Cathy’s boss, Nora Carmichael, she’s at lunch but she’ll be back shortly. So, you’re the young man that she has become infatuated with. Please take good care of her; she’s been badly hurt; I wouldn’t want to see her suffer anymore. I believe that your friend, Miss Gayle, has explained to you why Cathy’s here. Also, Miss Gayle speaks highly of you and thinks that you’re trustworthy! So please, Lieutenant, take good care of her.

Here she is I’ll leave you two young people to yourselves.

Cathy take as much time as you need for this young man’s visit, we’ll see you back here when he has to return to his team.”

That weekend was wonderful. He and Cathy had a marvelous time together. One evening they went to a dance club with Nurse Major Pam Casey and her date. Afterwards they returned to the BOQ and went down to Pam’s room for a nightcap. When Pam came back out of her bathroom, she was scantily clad, donning a ‘peekaboo’ sleep outfit, and engaging her date in some heavy foreplay. Giving them some privacy Cathy and Paul excused themselves and went back to her room.

Cathy and Paul began engaging in some serious necking and petting when they went into Cathy’s quarters. Things started to get out of hand as the two young people were losing control of their passionate urges.

“Paul, you have to understand; I’m a virgin. I’ve never been with a man. Please respect that, I’ve promised myself that I won’t engage in sex until I’m married. I’m a staunch Catholic; that’s the way I was raised. Please respect that. If you can’t then you’ll have to leave right now.”

“Cathy, I’m in love with you and I’ll respect your wishes. You guide me and tell me what’s appropriate, what we can and can’t do. I was raised as a Catholic as well and I’m versed in what the church says is sin; I know that sex outside of marriage is a mortal sin; but we can have a lot of fun together without the final act until we’re married.”

“Was that a ‘proposal’?” asked Cathy with a glint of humor.

“Well, it is if you want it to be,” Paul playfully remarked.

With that understanding they had a wonderful time together. They would pet, fondle, and make out, but always respecting the bond of love and respect that they were developing for one another.

They had a wonderful time that weekend. They travelled all over Saigon and visited monuments and parks in that once beautiful city. One afternoon they visited a Buddhist monastery that was surrounded by large elephant statues. They ate at Vietnamese restaurants and enjoyed walking along the waterfront of the Saigon River. Paul made the mandatory trip to the PX where he picked up some things that the team needed. He found Captain West’s special bourbon and located a small tobacco store the sold fine Cuban cigars for Sergeant Bennett.

Cathy helped him pick out some cards for his little sister, Paula. They had pretty birds and panda bears and other kinds of exotic animals; just the right selection for a little girl. Paul also picked up some pretty cards with romantic sayings and pictures that he could use when he was writing to Cathy. She told him that she liked the cards but that she preferred the letters that he was sending her.

They went swimming at the MACV swimming pool. Each night when they returned they would find themselves in one of their rooms falling even more deeply in love with one another. Their passionate embraces and their loving touches were carefully orchestrated to ensure that they didn’t go too far.

On Monday morning Paul and Cathy went back to her office. Paul gave her a long and endearing kiss, something that was noticed and commented on by most of the women working there; “get a room,” was a recurring comment from her giggling coworkers. He told Cathy that he’d write daily, and he expected letters from her as well. Paul continued back to the airfield where he caught a flight back to his team. He had had a wonderful weekend. He had some really nice pictures of Cathy that he could proudly display when he returned to his team.

Upon his return, Paul was assigned his first solo mission; advising a Vietnamese captain who was going to conduct an operation within a few days. They were going to slip up a small stream and try to capture some Việt Cộng tax collectors. Captain West had decided to ask the US Navy for some additional support for this operation. The next morning Captain West and Paul got in the Kenner Ski Barge and headed down the canal to coordinate the operation at the Navy Base. As they headed down the canal his Captain ordered:

“Lieutenant sit over here next to me! So how did it go in Saigon?”

“Well Sir it went great, we had a wonderful time; I really like this girl. I think this could be a serious relationship.”

“Did you get into her pants?” he gruffly asked.

“Well, Sir, a ‘gentleman’ doesn’t tell, but Sir, we’re not at that level of involvement in our relationship yet.”

“OK LT, I need to know if you’ve got your head on straight. This upcoming mission is important, and you must be able to concentrate on it completely, not dreaming of some little girl in Saigon. I’ve seen a lot of good men get killed over here because when they should have been thinking about their job they were daydreaming about their wives or girlfriends. So where’s your head Lieutenant; is it on the mission or on that girl in Saigon?

“Sir, Cathy‘s in Saigon and I’m here. I’ve got a job to do. Right now, my entire focus is on accomplishing my first solo mission. I won’t let you down Sir.”

“Well Tyler I hope that you’re telling me the truth. These missions are always dangerous; we never know exactly what’s going to happen; remember we’re only advising the Vietnamese and we’re not in charge. You need to understand that you’re not in command; that Vietnamese captain is the man who is leading this operation and not you. You’re there to advise him and provide him with material support if needed. Other than that you need to let him sink or swim on his own; do you understand?”

“Yes Sir I do, in fact the captain really didn’t seem to want me to go along in the first place. I understand my place and I understand our mission.”

The following morning, they initiated the mission from Ap Bac. The plan was actually simple. The Vietnamese were going to load eight men in the adviser’s boat and sneak up a small stream to where the tax collectors were supposed to be operating. The plan was to go up the stream all the way to a small canal junction. That’s where they expected to find the Việt Cộng.

 Paul had been warned by his intelligence counterpart, the S-2, to avoid getting out of the boat. The area that they were going into was heavily mined and booby-trapped; the chances of getting people killed or injured was very high. They were fine as long as they stayed along the creek.

They quietly headed up the small stream. Tram trees and dense undergrowth surrounded them on all sides. As they quietly navigated up the stream it narrowed, and the vegetation closed in on them from all sides. Grass grew into the water and Bennett was worried that they might foul their propellers with the long flowing stems. The water became clearer the farther that they went up stream, away from the constant roiling of the mud by the larger motorized sampans along the main canal. Colorful water birds, cranes, and ducks took off ahead of them as they quietly moved further up the small creek.

The air became heavier the farther up the stream they went as the vegetation continued to close in on them. The tram trees blocked whatever small amount of breeze that nature could afford them. The mosquitoes became thicker and at one point a visible swarm began following their progress up the creek. The hot and sticky air made them perspire intensely and Paul consumed his third or fourth beer to keep from dehydrating. Slowly, they continued their upstream progress. They could see small clearings along the shore where the tram tree cutters had logged, and the jungle hadn’t yet recovered from the scars of the loggers.

A small school of colorful fish ran ahead of their boat as they continued their upstream journey. Suddenly the fish made an abrupt turn and raced back from where they had originally come. It was as if they sensed danger ahead and wanted to flee the area and avoid any confrontation with their human adversaries.

As they stealthily approached their target area, they could hear some serious yelling and screaming in the distance; people objecting to the Việt Cộng collecting taxes from these poor, hardworking foresters.

Suddenly the Vietnamese captain changed the plan without consulting Lieutenant Tyler. He had four of his men get out of the boat in an attempt to flank the Việt Cộng.

Paul tried to object but the captain ordered his men ashore anyway. Within a matter of a few minutes there was a loud explosion. One of their men was instantly killed when he stepped on a mine. Two were seriously wounded; one man escaped without a serious injury. The mission was blown, the Việt Cộng escaped. Paul was slightly wounded by a piece of shrapnel or flying debris from the explosion. It was a very minor cut in his scalp, but he bled profusely.

Paul was evacuated to the Navy Base where a naval corpsman checked out his wound and released him after ascertaining the seriousness of his injuries.

Paul and Sergeant Bennett returned to the team house at Ap Bac and reported the incident.

Over the next few weeks Paul wrote to Cathy every day. His lengthy love letters would get out once or twice a week and each time that a helicopter arrived he eagerly looked for another wonderful letter from her. Occasionally Captain West would order Paul to take a few days off and go back to Saigon and visit his girlfriend.

Each of these brief visits strengthen the love that the two young people had for one another. Their romantic interludes were becoming well-choreographed. He would come in from the field and the first thing that they did when they got to his room was to shower together, she in her bikini, scrubbing all of the Delta mud pressed into his pores from bathing in the muddy waters of the canal, carefully avoiding the final act that they were both beginning to crave so desperately.

After the big change of command ceremony at Ap Bac the new Vietnamese Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel Tua, told Captain West that he should give Paul an opportunity to go to Saigon to see his girlfriend. He was going to begin a number of large scale operations, and he indicated that that would be the last opportunity that he would be able to have to visit her in quite a long time. It could be eight or more weeks before he could get back to Saigon.

When Paul arrived in Saigon he went immediately to the American Red Cross office and found himself in Mrs. Carmichael’s office waiting for Cathy. She was on a very difficult assignment, trying to locate a soldier who was deep in the field who needed to go home immediately to comfort his father and his family. The soldier’s mother had died; he was being sent home on an emergency leave.

“Paul,” asked Mrs. Carmichael, “how are you and Cathy doing? She seems to be very sad when you’re not here. I can tell you that she really loves your letters, she reads them to all of us, well at least parts of them,” she laughed, “when she gets them. I know that mail is very slow arriving here, but I can tell you that whatever you’re writing to her about she seems to enjoy it. When you are coming here she is so bright it’s like somebody turned on another switch for her. Paul, I think she’s deeply in love with you. Please be careful young man I think the worst thing that could happen is for you to get hurt or killed. After the loss of her fiancée over a year ago I think it would be devastating to her. So please be careful son, we want you back here safe and sound.”

“Thanks ma’am I would get here every weekend if I could but the way it sounds it’s going to be a long spell before I get back to Saigon. I can’t tell you much about it, but we’re going to be in the field for an extended period of time. Our new district chief is an aggressive officer, and he intends to stop Việt Cộng infiltration in our area. So I’m going to be spending a lot of time in the field. I probably won’t be able to get back to see Cathy for a while.”

“Paul just be careful; we’ll all be praying for you. Send her as many letters as you can, and we’ll pray that that battalion of ‘guardian angels’ that you always brag about is watching over you.”

The weekend was wonderful. Once she found out that he was going to be gone for such a long time Cathy panicked for a few minutes. She was worried that he would be hurt, or worse.

Taking her aside, Gayle explained to Cathy that this danger was a part of his job, and she thought that Paul was very good at his profession. She reminded Cathy that he had an excellent and experienced Sergeant who would be watching out for him. She explained that Paul was a professional soldier, and the danger he was exposed to was a part of the life he had chosen. It was a part of their lives that soldiers accepted because it was a part of the job. She told Cathy that she needed to give Paul all of the love that she possibly could, she needed to let him know what he was fighting for and what he had to come home to when his mission was over. It was that knowledge that would help keep him alive.

That night after going to dinner with Gayle they returned to the BOQ and settled into the bar for a night cap before retiring to their rooms. That night Cathy came to him wearing a sheer negligee and offered herself to him completely. Paul refused her offer. He told her that they had already agreed to save that final expression of their love for marriage; he would not take that joy and excitement from her. Tyler told her how much he loved her, but they had made that promise to one another when they met; he was going to keep that promise and respect her virginity! They laid there on the bed and petted and kissed and eventually fell asleep together wrapped in each other’s arms. They awoke to a knock on the door as Gayle tried to summons them to breakfast.

They had a wonderful time together before Paul had to leave. When Gayle asked him how he and Cathy were doing he explained to her what had happened the night before. Gayle clarified that she had talked to Cathy, and she was the one who had recommended that perhaps she needed to take their relationship to the next level. When Paul told her that he had refused her offer to make love to her because of their original commitment, Gayle told him that she was about ready to cry. With all the men she had been around, especially in Vietnam, she had never found one who would have declined Cathy’s wonderful and meaningful offer.

Paul went back to his team and for the next two months he spent most of his time in the field on patrols, on ambushes, or navigating the small canals and streams in their district. Around each bend they worried about a new ambush. They were putting intense pressure on the Việt Cộng and as a result they were winning their small part of the war. Colonel Tua was relentless in his attacks. His soldiers were finding success for the first time in many years. Even his Popular Force units that had primarily been village guards found themselves gaining combat experience.

Colonel Tua was making a big difference. Infiltration through his district had almost ceased. The Việt Cộng had to move there infiltration routes over 35 miles further through Cambodia before they could begin entering Vietnam. Tax collection was down significantly, and the Việt Cộng political infrastructure was being slowly dismantled in the villages.

For Paul and the members of his team the operational tempo was extremely difficult. On each operation two Americans had to be together in the field; with a three man team that left one person to man the radio. To make matters worse, Captain West was gone for about two weeks on an R&R leave to Australia leaving Paul in charge. West took a couple of extra days in Saigon before catching his flight to Sydney and then a couple of days in Saigon after he got back. This put a lot of additional pressure on Paul and Sergeant Bennett. Paul arranged for a couple of Navy petty officers to spend time with them to man the radio while they were in the field during Captain West’s absence.

Paul and Sarge would gear up by four in the afternoon and by dusk they would be in an ambush position at some location. They would remain in ambush throughout the night and usually return by 8 or 9:00 the next morning. At that point they would try to grab a little bit of sleep before gearing up for the next mission. But they also had to do routine training duties, and they often didn’t get more than an hour or so of rest.

Paul did his best to keep up his daily correspondence with Cathy. He was receiving two or three letters at a time from her; he tried to answer them as best he could. His biggest concern was not telling her what they were really doing. He was afraid that she would be terrified if she found out how many combat missions he had been on since he had seen her last. In every one of her letters she pleaded with him to be careful and not get hurt.

When Captain West returned from his R&R in Australia the three team members drove into Saigon so that Sergeant Bennett could take off to Hawaii to see his wife on R&R. While they were there Paul introduced Captain West to his friend Gayle and to Cathy.

Their stay in Saigon was a wonderful break. West and Gayle got along wonderfully. The two couples shared time together and time alone. Through the thin walls of the BOQ they could hear the soft moans of couples engaged in lovemaking.

They departed for Ap Bac a few days later. Jim West was enamored with Gayle Murphy, and he now understood the deep relationship that had developed between his subordinate and his little girl, Cathy, in Saigon. As they departed Cathy gave Paul a huge hug and deep kiss and told him to write often and please, please, please be careful.

For the next few weeks things settled down in the district. Colonel Tua realized that his men as well as his advisors were exhausted. The Việt Cộng operations in the district had dwindled to nearly nothing as a result of Colonel Tua’s constant activity. The VC were getting the hint that they were no longer welcome in Kien Bing District!

With things quieting down the constant patrolling, ambushes and operational tempo slowed. The team was able to get some rest as well as perform some much-needed maintenance on their equipment. Captain West told Paul that sometime the following week that if things were quiet he could take off a couple of days and see Cathy.

One morning Paul and their helper Mister Hai went down to the pier to perform some routine maintenance on their boat engines. It was a simple task of inspecting and balancing the propellers of the twin Johnson 40hp outboard motors.

What should have been a routine task turned into a near disaster. Due to a miscommunications Mr. Hai used the wrong lever and lurched the boat forward. Paul was thrown out of the boat and into the barbed wire along the canal. Mr. Hai yelled for help and jumped into the muddy water to keep Paul from drowning, while Sergeant Bennet and Captain West struggled to cut Paul out of the razor wire along the shore.

When they got him to the team house he was bleeding from a number of places where the wire had cut deeply through his uniform. However the most disturbing part of his ordeal was that he had lost feeling in his lower limbs. Sarge called for the Navy corpsman at the Naval Support Base of Tuyen Ming and within a matter of ten minutes the corpsman was on site evaluating his injuries.

They were able to stop the bleeding, none of it was severe. However the back injury was serious; the corpsman called for a MEDVAC helicopter to evacuate Paul to Third Field Hospital in Saigon. Mr. John Paul Vann, the senior civilian in the entire Mekong Delta region, was nearby and landed in his chopper to take Paul to the hospital. Within an hour Paul was in the hospital and sedated as they evaluated the extent of his injuries. It was determined that he had a serious fracture of his sacrum and that the resultant swelling was pinching the nerves to his legs and feet.

Captain West notified the Province Senior Advisor at Moc Hoa of the incident and then contacted the team’s Admin Sergeant and had him contact Captain Murphy in Saigon. Sergeant Smalls explained Paul’s situation and told her that Paul was currently at Third Field Hospital in Saigon. When she hung up the phone Gayle raced to the hospital and got an update from one of the senior nurses that lived at her BOQ. Paul was sedated and they were still waiting for results from the neurologist.

Gayle met with Mrs. Carmichael; they decided that they should wait to tell Cathy about the accident until they knew more about his condition and he was coherent.

When they finally told Cathy about Paul’s situation she panicked and raced to the hospital. She was furious that they hadn’t told her immediately about what had happened. She burst into tears when she saw Paul laying there. Cathy was unconsolable. After some sharp words she raced out of the hospital and two days later she resigned her position and went back to Nebraska, leaving Paul with one last letter.

Dear Paul,

      I’m so sorry; I’m a real jerk I know. You’re the most wonderful man that I’ve ever known, and I’m so sorry that I abandoned you when you probably needed me most. But I can’t continue on this way. Seeing you there in that hospital bed, knowing the pain that you were going through, I just couldn’t bear it. I pray that you have a full recovery and that you can return to Jim and Bob and your beloved team as soon as possible.

Seeing you there I realized that I could never be an Army wife. I couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from you for long periods of time, knowing that you were putting your life on the line and that I might never see you again. I need a man who will be with me and not one who will have to put his Country, his team, or his mission ahead of me. I so respect you for your ability to try to balance being with me and being a soldier, but Paul, I don’t know if I can ever be that woman in your life. You have a screwy profession, all of that Duty, Honor and Country and dedication to your Mission and your men first. How could I ever compete with that?

I hope that you have a wonderful life and that you will find a woman who will share your gentleness and your love of your profession. Please be careful and be safe.

Always,

Cathy Stewart

“So, Grandpa this girl left you in the hospital? You must have really loved her; how did it make you feel?” asked Pam.

“Well Pam what could I do, she was gone, and I still had time left on my tour in Vietnam. When they released me from the hospital and physical therapy, I went back to Ap Bac and completed my assignment. I extended for an additional six-month tour and moved up to the Province Team at Moc Hoa as the Senior Intelligence Advisor. When I got ‘kicked out’ of Vietnam I ended up going to college in Nebraska and I met this wonderful woman, your grandmother, just before I graduated. We dated and I eventually married her.”

“Well, what ever happened to this girl Cathy? Did you ever hear from her or see her again?” asked Pam.

“Well Pam the girl I met while I was in college was the same woman, Katherine Stewart, that I’d met in Saigon those many months before. Unbeknownst to me when she came home, she went to the University that I was attending to complete her education; we bumped into one another one afternoon when I was leaving the library and we shared a cup of coffee in the Student Union. We dated for a few months, and we both discovered that we’d never really fallen out of love with one another. When we graduated that spring we got married and we were together until her death a while ago. It was a wonderful life, and she was a wonderful woman.”

Jimmy chimed in, “Grandpa, you got kicked out of Vietnam? What did you do? Were you in trouble or something?”

“Jimmy, that’s another story for another day!” he said with a laugh.

“Grandpa”, interrupted Pam, ”Can I read some of the letters that you and grandma wrote?”

“Maybe when you are a little older, dear.” Maybe when you are a LOT older he laughed to himself.

NOTE TO MY READERS: If you’ve enjoyed this short story and want to read “the rest of the story” please read my book, “The Advisor, Kien Bing, South Vietnam, 1969-1970, A Novel”

About the Author – Peter Taylor is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel. He served three combat tours in Vietnam between 1969 and 1973. He enlisted in 1968 and after Infantry Basic and Advanced Infantry Training, he attended Engineer Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Military Intelligence Branch of the U.S. Army.

After his commissioning he attended the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course at Fort Holabird, Maryland. He was sent to the Jungle Warfare School in Panama prior to his initial assignment to Vietnam.

Taylor is a graduate of the University of Nebraska, Omaha. He earned a master’s degree in Management from the Florida Institute of Technology. Taylor attended numerous schools in the U.S. Army and graduated from the US Army Command and General Staff College, the National Defense University, and the U.S. Army War College.

Taylor retired from the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1994. He is married to his wife of over 50 years and has three grown children and young grandchildren. After his retirement from the U.S. Army, he taught Junior ROTC at the high school level for seventeen years. He currently resides in West Virginia. The military stories in his short stories and novels are based upon events that took place during his tours in Vietnam.

If you’re enjoying these blogs please drop me a comment or if you have any questions that I might answer, again submit a comment on the comment pages. I’m always glad to hear from you.

Again, please take a look at all of my books that I have listed. They can be purchased from Amazon.com with the click of a button directly from my website, www.ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com.  Until next Friday, Have a good week.

The Advisor Series:

• “The Senior Army Instructor” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0GSXJ2ZHC)
• “The Advisor, Kien Bing, South Vietnam, 1969-1970. A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B09L4X5NQ3)
• “The Province Senior Intelligence Advisor, Kien Song Province 1970-1971; A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0BHL2XCX5)
• “The Hardchargers,” Vietnam 1972-1973; A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0C7SPR1JY)
• “The Tuscarora Trail” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0D3QY2GM6)

Check out my website for other books that I’ve written or edited.

Website: ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com

Website: ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com