One of the memories that my Lolo will tell, especially when he meets another veteran, them giving a handshake and pulling into a hug, comparing hats.
My daughter raised that flag on this ship, it’s not the one I was on though he shares.
I am lucky, the only flashback I get is a memory, it feels like I am experiencing it all over again. We were in port and there was a commotion just on the other side of the fence outside. All of a sudden there was a man with a gun. His eyes were darting around, wide and terrified. My heart was beating quickly in my chest.
He was a Viet Cong soldier, fighting with the army in the south. I don’t think he meant to come to the Navy ship, I think he got lost, he might of been on some kind of drug the way he looked around searching for meaning that wasn’t there.
I rose my hands and yelled ‘Filoctong!’ the only word I knew in Vietnamese to tell the soldier that I was Filipino. He quickly ran away and I stood there breathing heavy, relieved that my life lasted beyond that point.
~ I tried to look up how to say Filipino in Vietnamese and “Filoctong” is not what was said, but that is how my Lolo always tells the story.
War leaves gaping impacts on nations and in society. I feel like I am only beginning to grasp the effect the Vietnam war had on the people and culture of Vietnam and America, let alone the rest of the history and countries that were involved. It is interesting to think that it is because of the Vietnam war that my Lolo and Lola met although it wasn’t in the circumstances that we have been learning about in class this week about American service men taking advantage of Vietnamese women.