JerrysJourneys

Final Post, 03-18-2017 Today marked the end of my journey to Vietnam.  A final day of touring was culminated by a visit to the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace.  The war officially ended on April 30, 1975 when North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the Palace and President Thieu surrendered the South to the North.  Thus the longest war ended.  Our history books record this war as the Vietnam War.  The Vietnam history calls this war the American War.  It is considered a victory for Vietnam and a defeat for the United States.  Videos shown at the Cu Chi Tunnels museum call the American troops...the American Dirty Dog Bastards.  The Presidents' residence is now called the Unification Palace.  The gate has been restored and A VNAF(Vietnamese Air Force) Huey is parked in the rear and is on display along with a Russian tank and a Chinese tank.  Many of the original artifacts are on display. I leave here with mixed emotions about my visit.  I am glad that I was able to share this visi...

Day 11,   March 16, 2017 This trip has run very smoothly...until.. we arrived at the Tan Son Nhat Airport in Saigon.  We were all just breezing through customs until two of our group presented their passports for entry.  This is a communist country and travelers coming here are required to have a visa prior to entry.  I think you can guess what happened next.  No visa, you can't come in.  You can imagine the dilemma that presented itself.  So at 1:30 am, they were trying to get a visa.  We  had a long day yesterday and we were going to have a long day today.  We waited for two hours.  Limited progress. Finally our bus took us to the hotel.  We finally got to bed around 4:00 am.  Our day was scheduled to start around 0800.  We pushed it back to 0930.  Our hotel was the Pullman, a 5 star, very nice. We headed for the Mekong Delta on this day's adventure.  Our destination was My Tho,.. a provincial capital.  While Saigon has shown a vast improvement since my last visit, the rest o...

Memories  Day 11,  March 16, 2017 This is not a chronicle of the activities, I just thought I would share my personal reflections of returning to Vietnam after 48 years. I began my career with the Alabama State Troopers when I became a State Trooper Cadet on October 10, 1966.  Two weeks after my 18th birthday.  I went on military leave from the Department and entered the U.S. Army to attend flight school to become a helicopter pilot.  Nine months later,  upon graduation from flight school, I was enroute to Vietnam.  I arrived in the Delta and was assigned to the 121st Assault Helicopter Company based in Soc Trang.  The famed Soc Trang Tigers. I was twenty years old.  I did not realize it at the time, but I had embarked on a journey that would shape my future. Major John Cloud, Chief of the Alabama Highway Patrol, corresponded with me, to check on my well being.  He would send me pictures of helicopters and told me as soon as I could return to the State Troopers, they would buy me a hel...

Lego Land Giraffe We began our last day in China by saying goodbye to the Giraffe and drove to the downtown area of Shanghai.  Our first tour was a tour of a local silk factory.  Our host gave us a very good lesson about the history of lace making in China.  It was very interesting.  Then it was like Disney World.  They funneled you into their silk store and assigned a salesperson to you whose sole purpose was to make sure you did not leave the store without purchasing some Chinese silk that cannot be purchased any where else on this earth.  As impressed as I was with the silk presentation, I must admit I was very relieved when Linda joined me outside, with empty hands, and no silk bed sets.  Mary Ann did not make a purchase either.  Jerry Hankins and I both felt we had dodged a bullet. We then drove down to the Bund.  This is a beautiful river walkway through downtown Shanghai.  We walked along about 2 miles and then went to the Shanghai Museum.  This is the most famous museum in Shan...

Day 09 March 13, 2017 Our cruise ship docked overnight in the city of Chongquing. This city served as the provisional capitol of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945 or what we know as World War II. The captain and officers of the Gold 8 at our farewell dinner This is the largest city in the world, with a population of 33,000,000 people, a city I am pretty sure you have never heard of. After we left the ship, we took a driving tour through the city. Our tour guide gave us a detailed presentation of the history of Chongquing. Her name was Windy. To put the size of this city in terms you can easily understand, Windy said that if you were on one side of the city, it would take you 6 to 7 hours to drive to the other side of the city, depending on traffic, of course. Taking our luggage off the ship. Chongquing in the background. The tallest building in China, over 2,000 feet. Consider the tallest building in the US is less than 1,00' (t...

Day 08 March 13, 2017 We awoke this morning around 5:30 am on Monday morning. I checked my watch and saw that Auburn and LSU were just starting game 3 of their week end softball series. Auburn had won the first game and LSU the second game. This game was for the series win. I turned on the computer and the first voice I heard was our friend, Mike Cooper. Mike was inspiring the Auburn fans to support the Tigers vocally. Auburn was ahead 2 to 0 at that time. I sent Mike a text and told him we were on a river cruise ship, somewhere in China, on the Yangtze River. His voice was heard world wide. I must admit it made me a little homesick. After an exciting game, Auburn won in the 7 th inning. I called Mike after the game was over and told him we enjoyed hearing his voice. He said “where are you? Wetumpka? I said, no. We are in China. He was talking to Coach Meyers at the time and put Coach Meyers on the phone. We had a nice talk and are looking forward to being at the game for the next...