Legacy of War Read online

  ©2019 Ed Marohn. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial

  uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of historical fiction imposed on actual places and events.

  The names of the characters are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblances to actual persons,

  living or dead are coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-54396-871-2 (print)

  ISBN: 978-1-54396-872-9 (ebook)

  Would the young men called to arms laugh and joke and exchange hearty platitudes in imitation of popular fiction, while they waited to be mutilated by the stupidity and arrogance of aged politicians?

  – The Summer of Katya by Trevanian

  Contents

  Vietnam, near Cam Ranh Bay, July 1970

  Charlotte, North Carolina, Thursday, December 12, 2002

  Charlotte, Friday, December 13, 2002

  Charlotte, Saturday, December 14, 2002

  Charlotte, Monday, December 16, 2002

  Charlotte, Tuesday, December 17, 2002

  Washington, DC, Thursday, December 19, 2002

  Alexandria, Thursday, December 19, 2002

  Alexandria, Friday, December 20, 2002

  Saigon, August 1969

  Alexandria, Saturday, December 21, 2002

  Alexandria, Evening, December 21, 2002

  Alexandria, Sunday, December 22, 2002

  Alexandria, Monday, December 23, 2002

  Alexandria, December 24, 2002

  Outer Banks, North Carolina, December 25, 2002

  Elizabeth City Coast Guard Air Station, Late Christmas Day

  Alexandria, December 26, 2002

  South East Asia, January 1, 2003

  Troyes, France, July 1976

  Noi Bai Airport, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, January 1, 2003

  Hanoi, January 1, 2003

  Outside of Hanoi, January 2, 2003

  Lang Da, northwest of Hanoi, January 2, 2003

  Hanoi, January 2, 2003

  Hanoi, January 3, 2003

  Da Nang, January 3, 2003

  Giang area, January 4, 2003

  Giang search sectors, January 5–12, 2003

  Hoi An, January 13, 2003

  My Son, January 13, 2003

  Hoi An, January 13, 2003

  My Son, January 14, 2003

  My Son, January 15, 2003

  Hoi An, January 15, 2003

  Hoi An, January 26, 2003

  Dai Loc, January 26, 2003

  My Son area, January 26, 2003

  My Son, January 27, 2003

  Laos, January 27, 2003

  Da Nang, January 28–31, 2003

  Hanoi, February 1, 2003

  Outside Hanoi, February 2, 2003

  Noi Bai Airport, May 1, 2003

  Vietnam, near Cam Ranh Bay, July 1970

  I almost killed him!

  “Stand down,” I ordered. The helicopter blades sliced through the thick humid air over war-weary Vietnam at three thousand feet; the trademark whopping sound of the Huey UH-1 oppressed my ear drums as I pulled my .45-caliber pistol from its black leather holster. Its safety off, I pointed it at CIA Agent Todd Ramsey. He hesitated, alarming me. Seconds passed. Then, with dejection, he released his hold on the POW, dropping the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) lieutenant onto the Huey’s vibrating floor. The POW slid himself over to his fellow countryman, a full NVA colonel. Both POWs stared at me, but the colonel’s eyes acted as if he recognized me. His lips mouthed something I didn’t understand.

  Unnerved, I returned my focus to the CIA agent who uttered an obscenity. The noise of the helicopter drowned out whatever he said. At that moment, the Huey UH-1 descended to fly nap-of-the-earth, trying to avoid being targeted by NVA machine guns in the thick jungle below. Ramsey stepped back from the open door through which he had attempted to toss the POW and sat back on his bench seat across from me, his supplicating hands free of any weapons, his .30-caliber carbine rifle at his feet. His distress seemed genuine, but I couldn’t be certain.

  He raised his head toward me, wearing a depressed look. “You fucked me over, Captain.”

  I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise—I should have sensed hate, but instead I recognized his fear.

  The Huey continued its flight to our destination, Cam Ranh Air Base. Vibrating, the helicopter agitated my thoughts. I hadn’t expected my last two days in Nam to embroil me in saving two unarmed POWs as I headed to catch the freedom bird to the US tomorrow. After more than 365 days, my tour in the war had ended.

  Suddenly, tracer rounds streaked toward our Huey. The pilot banked the helicopter sharply to the left, taking evasive action. The rounds flew by us. A foreboding came over me: being shot down, killed, on my last two days in-country. The common fear all short-timers had.

  As the pilot straightened the Huey’s flight path again, his voice came over my headset: “Are we OK back there?”

  “Roger,” I said as I glanced at Ramsey and then the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) officer seated next to him. The ARVN officer’s fearful eyes vacillated, unlike Ramsey, who had withdrawn into another place, ignoring the pilot’s violent evasive action. The ARVN officer’s face looked like a rat’s. Then I recognized him: Colonel Loan!

  Loan, the head of the Saigon Police, became my nemesis when I met him in Saigon some eleven months ago. He showed no recognition of me now in my dirty, sweat-and-blood-stained fatigues—I had just stood down my company after a month of combat with the NVA near the A Shau Valley. Loan was internationally famous during the Viet Cong’s Tet Offense in 1968, because a reporter photographed him shooting an unarmed Viet Cong on the streets of Saigon. The photo made worldwide headlines. This reprehensible killing by a pistol shot at point-blank range to the prisoner’s head received no inquiry from the corrupt South Vietnamese government, and once again justice had been perverted.

  And now I shared a helicopter with this immoral ARVN officer.

  I turned toward the deflated CIA agent as I yelled over the din in the helicopter, “I’m following the Geneva Convention.”

  He gave me a worried look before he turned away. I couldn’t tell if Ramsey’s sweat-stained jungle fatigues were the result of the hot humid heat or his nervousness. Probably both. But I thought I could smell his fear. He looked down at his feet while perspiration formed tiny rivulets on his cheeks.

  I relaxed my hold on my drawn .45-caliber pistol.

  The two NVA POWs, hands still bound behind their backs, now sat upright on the floor of the copter, with the colonel still studying me. Why?

  Suddenly the Huey’s skids smashed into the top branches of a banyan tree. The helicopter hovered and swayed in place, caught in the tree limbs. And just as abruptly, the tree catapulted the Huey forward. My stomach churned and bile crept into my mouth. We stared at each other, ashen-faced. No one wanted to die today.

  “Sorry, Captain. We’re good now. Raising our altitude,” the pilot spoke through my headset.

  I acknowledged him as I noticed the broken tree branch and its leaves clinging to the skid on my right side. Moments later it fluttered away, disappearing toward the ground.

  Keeping an eye on the CIA agent and the ARVN colonel, I spoke to the door gunne
r on my left, “Listen up.”

  The buck sergeant turned toward me. He looked nauseous.

  “Until we land, you’ll assist me in securing these two POWs. Understood?”

  The gunner nodded, swallowing several times, and unholstered his .45-caliber pistol. He looked toward the CIA agent and the ARVN colonel, their backs to the wall that separated the pilots in their cockpit.

  Again, the pilot’s voice came over my headset, “Captain, we’re descending into Cam Ranh. I’ve alerted the MPs.” I had kept my mic open for him to monitor the goings-on.

  “Roger that,” I said.

  When we touched down, the army MPs were waiting. They escorted the two NVA officers to a jeep. A CIA agent in clean, dark green jungle fatigues met Ramsey and Loan and guided them to another jeep. As the NVA colonel clambered into the MP jeep, he stared hard at Ramsey’s disappearing back. His eyes projected hatred that went beyond today’s event. I remember my last observation of Ramsey. He looked frightened, so much so that I shuddered slightly. I knew it wasn’t fear of me, since my pistol had been holstered. What then? Had it to do with the NVA colonel? This damn Vietnam War, its dark and murderous jungles had penetrated to the depths of all our souls. Ramsey’s fear seemed cancerous, infectious. His look of dread as he drove away forced unexplainable concern on me.

  Charlotte, North Carolina, Thursday, December 12, 2002

  “John . . . finished for the day?” a voice asked.

  Jerked from my reverie, I swiveled my chair from the large office window to face my associate, Dr. Sally Catton, standing in the open office doorway. I hadn’t heard the door open.

  “Sally! I’m sorry. Some recurring thoughts of the Vietnam War.”

  “Are you OK?” she asked.

  I nodded, tired from my flashbacks of Ramsey. “I think I’ll call it a day and come in early tomorrow,” I said, seeing the time. The clock pointed to almost seven.

  “Good. We have a full schedule, unusual for a Friday,” she said, scowling at me. Sally functioned as my barometer for honesty. The slight scar on her chin, a result of an abusive husband she divorced years ago, flared. It showed as her badge for toughness, driving her to get her PhD in psychology, with a specialty in marriage conflict counseling. Besides being a great associate, she became my friend. “And you have that VA referral, the Vietnam War PTSD patient, for a session late tomorrow.”

  “Yes, at four o’clock?”

  She nodded, then said, “I think you need to refer that patient. You shouldn’t be dealing with possible triggers to your own nightmares of the war.”

  “I’ll be OK, Sally. Really.”

  She shook her head, turned, and closed the door behind her. My mind retained the image of her petite five-foot-four body, a knee-length black wool skirt accenting her toned legs, and her long blonde hair cascading onto her shoulders.

  Her blue eyes, intriguing even behind her wire-frame glasses, seemed to affect me more and more. Since my wife died three years ago, I had not been with any woman. Certainly, my loneliness impacted me, and Sally was an attractive forty-five-year-old. Still, she worked with me, having earned her PhD years after me at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina. An office romance wouldn’t be correct, but why was I even thinking that way?

  I stared at the closed office door and reflected on how we were both damaged. Despite our demons, we strived to do good for others. Her destroyed and violent marriage molded her feelings and moods, as my depression from the death of my wife, compounded by my war nightmares about the deaths of the men I commanded in Nam, controlled me.

  My name is John Moore. I’m a psychologist, and even though I strive to help people with mental issues, I have avoided dealing with military vets—until now. Recently I have started reflecting back on the Vietnam War, some thirty years ago. War events keep popping into my head. I thought I had forgotten the killing fields and their ugliness. I served in that war as a US Army captain, an infantry company commander, fighting and killing the VC and NVA in the deadly jungles while leading my 110 soldiers. I wanted to ensure that, after completion of their tour, my troops returned safely to the States, affectionately known as “the World.” But I didn’t succeed. Some died. And I reflect often on the deaths of those young draftees, fighting by my side as AK-47 bullets whizzed over and into us, and as mortar shells exploded in our ranks.

  I entered the US Army as a second lieutenant, commissioned through the ROTC program upon graduation from college. Gung ho, dedicated, and idealistic, I had the intention of making the military my career. I believed I had found a noble profession—sworn to uphold the Constitution and defend the US from all enemies, foreign or domestic. But after my tour in Vietnam and the completion of my ten years owed to Uncle Sam, I could no longer stomach the ineptness and the politics of the colonels and generals running the army, merely ticket-punching their careers on the backs of soldiers who died needlessly. Command and leadership became buzzwords, meaningless tripe that sounded good. Young company grade officers like me lived and died with our men on the ancient soil of Nam, under the jungle canopies. Men died for each other. Not for god or the flag or patriotism, but for fellow comrades in arms. No other reality existed.

  Stifling my war depression for the moment, I tidied my desk and stood. My mind still clung to war memories as I exited the office building at 7:30 p.m., unusually late for me on a Thursday evening. I walked to my condo a few blocks away on North Tryon Street. My wife’s death deepened my sadness; we were married for thirty-one years, after meeting in college and becoming sweethearts. After Katy died from cancer, I moved to a ten-story condo building in uptown Charlotte from our fifteen-year-old suburban house in Providence Hills. I hoped the constant urban noise, the city’s vibrant hustle and bustle, and its game days at the Panthers’ stadium and the Charlotte Bobcats’ arena, would help me forget her death.

  After three years of solitary confinement in my condo’s rooms void of love and companionship, I still grappled with my anguish. My daily movements created echoes against the condo’s walls, like a bat living in an empty cave, reflecting my self-pity, my loneliness.

  Unlocking the door to my third-floor condo, I switched on the lights and stared at the functional two-bedroom apartment, bland with its beige walls and white baseboards. I cared little about decorating the place. No reason existed to do otherwise. A large Jacuzzi in the master bathroom alone stood out in the unexciting apartment. Basically, I relied on this place for sleeping, eating, and bathing. Only my clothes, books, PC, and a few other basic personal items moved with me to this furnished, modern condo. Even the kitchen came with dishes, utensils, pots, and pans.

  My bedroom continued the starkness—no wall decorations, little personalization other than Katy’s picture on the night table. She smiled at me from her framed photo, beaming and happy. Katy represented another life. Another time that was gone forever.

  Work became everything, and I spent over sixty hours a week there. My career became my religion, my philosophy, and my sanity.

  Not hungry, I prepared for bed.

  I looked at Katy. She was cuddled next to me in bed. We had just finished making love, and she looked at me while I stroked her back as she leaned over me. We were whispering silly things, intimate talk between two people who loved each other. It dawned on me that Katy was alive after all. I had been dreaming this terrible nightmare of her death for years. We were still together. I was so happy that all of that was a bad dream and began touching her long black hair strewn over my bare chest, looking into her black eyes! Why weren’t they green? Katy had green eyes and her hair should be blond!

  I jolted awake; my sleep shirt wet. What did this dream mean? I looked at the radio alarm clock and saw it was five in the morning: I decided to get up and get ready for work. Why all these crazy dreams?

  Charlotte, Friday,

  December 13, 2002

  “We murdered them . . .” Tom Reed sai
d.

  My hand froze; the pencil became deadweight as my notepad sagged onto my lap. I leaned toward my first Vietnam War client.

  The vet’s remarks had kick-started my own kaleidoscope of reflections of the war where fifty-eight thousand Americans died—some that I had commanded as a twenty-four-year-old army captain. The brutal firefights with the tough NVA were faded recollections, as were the names of those who died fighting beside me, permanently engraved on the black granite surface of the Vietnam War Memorial in DC. Nam still lived within me, like those jungle parasites that had invaded my body back then. Eventually the parasites had left, but the painful war memories had not.

  “I . . .” Reed started again. “Look, Dr. Moore . . .”

  Sweat formed on his forehead, and his right leg twitched. His lanky, six-foot frame sagged in the black leather club chair. A balding head bowed toward me. Seconds ticked before he slowly raised his head. His face, heavily lined from years of excessive drinking and drugs, formed the backdrop for his bloodshot eyes that searched the room, confused.

  The silence continued as the small desk clock controlled the therapy session. A pungent odor permeated the office as Reed’s deodorant continued to lose its battle; his underarm stains grew.

  I served in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970 and now years later that war still haunted me. From his VA file, I knew Reed had served in Nam as an eighteen-year-old draftee—a teenager.

  “I shot those villagers . . . their faces, their screams . . . but I was ordered.” He shuddered.

  The hum of rush hour traffic filtered in from the streets below, vehicles moving people on a Friday afternoon. The clock continued, pushing the minutes.

  “I wake up sweating from these nightmares.”

  “It was war. But to kill civilians . . .” I said and tried not to shake my head over what were probably war crimes.

  “We were told they were VC villagers,” he blurted.

  “How many did you kill?” I asked, thinking of the My Lai Massacre by an American infantry platoon and its cover up in 1968.