When I was in Vietnam, I was 23-24, very young, really, but old by draftee standards.
It was all so intense and huge. My conscienciousness was evolving against my need to conform and "succeed."
in can tho i stole back in th dark after curfew,
In Can Tho, where we went for short three day stays, flying in the Delta, I got to know the maintenance crew guys and went with them regularly to their dope den, a cinder block house in the midst of this neighborhood off the main drag, a series of alleyways, where elevated boards , like 6X1 inch boards were layed along a gutter. We'd walk to this house, the locals were sitting on their front stoops, oil lamps smoking away the bugs. We'd climb up a ladder and sit upstairs and smoke pot, opium, and once the guys asked me if I wanted a girl. The dope house lady, married with her husband there as well, and little kids, would come up and hang out occasionally for a few minutes to say howdy, speaking in Vietnamese of course, with a few key words in English. Anyhow this mama-san gave me to this young woman, maybe 20. She took me by the hand and brought me to this other big cinder block house in the midst of all these shacks. Her mother greeted us at the door. Mama-san said "alll night or short time?" I said, "short time." She got angry with me, saying all-night or notat all, so I said, ok all-night, gave her a wad of piasters. The girl, evidently her daughter, took me upstairs, told me to get into her bed, a big bed with
mos·qui·to netting around it. Then she brought in her little kids and settled them in on a matt on the floor, got into bed wiith me. I am embarrassed to say that I made it with her, then she held up the used rubber with the sperm inside and showed it to the kids and laughed. Then when she got back in bed, she became very cold and would not let me touch her. She said, "police are coming." I took that as a sign to leave, which I did directly, after leaving her the rest of my money, running back thru the alleyways, found the alleyway that led out to the main avenue, local gang "cowboys" yelling after me. When I got to the main drag, running up the street, saw a pair of headlights, meant a jeep, MP's, ducked, ran on back to the compound, brushed by the Vietnamse army guard and made it. Up the next morn after 4 hours sleep.
I got to witness how it was, very poor people in the third world. Probably her hubbie was in the army, away, or KIA. who knows?
I was saddened by the experience, and it was part of my changing. It was when I was a co-pilot, early in my tour. I stopped smoking pot when I was upgrading to ac, so it was probably a year later that I started my fight to get out of the air farce, in tanker school. For the next year, I was in the street marching.
