Still limited in my ability to get around and mostly stuck sitting bolt upright, trying not to move my upper body too much, I've been thinking a lot about my time in Guam and my life in the Navy. I suppose recalling those tropical days in Guam is at least partially an escape from the terrible winter weather we have been having. Blizzard after blizzard. Our stocks of hay to feed the cattle -- they need to eat a lot more in weather like this to keep warm -- are running low and there's very little to be had for sale: everybody needs it, and the prices are rising with demand: in some cases, there are bidding wars for it. So if the price of your T-bone goes up this summer, don't be surprised.
The men are working overtime trucking the hay out to the range lands, rescuing and tending to frozen cow brutes. We've already lost some. It's all a lot of brutal hard work in raging wind, blowing snow piling into drifts blocking roads and gates and freezing cold. In some places slides block the roads, so out come the front loaders, dozers, excavators, power shovels and dump trucks. Man against nature, a fight for survival. It really is. And I can't even help warm the guys up with some good hot grub and gallons of strong coffee when they can make it back to the cookhouse. Rats.
So here I sit dreaming of Guam and thinking what a good life I had in the Navy and how glad I was to serve. I heard recently that one of the Afghani women I helped train in handling severe wounds, especially head wounds, has been hanged by the Taliban. She was pregnant at the time.
Sigh. This world....
Well, here's a little video tour of Guam and the Navy facilities.
And here is one of my favorite enlistment ads for the Navy, a part of the controversial "a force for good" campaign. I don't know why it was controversial. I think it's true. I guess it wasn't blood-and-guts, we-blow-stuff-up-real-good macho enough. Phooey!
By the way, the man behind the campaign was Admiral Huan Nguyen. You probably have never heard of him but you almost certainly have seen a photo intimately connected with him. It's the picture of the instant a Viet Cong is executed by pistol shot to the temple by a South Vietnamese policeman. Yeah, that one. Well, the man executed, Van Lem Nguyen, had just hours previously murdered the admiral's entire family. He broke into their house with a squad of Viet Cong and tortured and murdered then nine-year-old Huan's father, mother, his five brothers, his sister and his grandmother. Huan himself was shot three times, including in the head and left for dead. His mother lived for two hours after the attack and Huan stayed by her side trying to stop the bleeding from her cut throat until she died. Why did the Viet Cong do this? Huan's father was a ranking officer in the ARVN. Reason enough.
When Saigon fell in 1975, Huan was evacuated to Camp Asan, Guam, now Asan Beach Park. In an interview upon his retirement from the Navy as a flag officer last summer, Huan said, “The images that I remember vividly when I
arrived at Camp Asan were of American sailors and Marines toiling in the
hot sun, setting up tents and chow hall, distributing water and hot
food, helping and caring for the people with dignity and respect. I
thought to myself how lucky I am to be in a place like America. Those
sailors inspired me to later serve in the United States Navy.” Which he did, having a long and distinguished career. I think this one-minute ad, if you can call it an ad; it seems so much more than that to me, expresses his feelings for "America's Navy" very well.
