Vietnam Veterans recall their experiences with the kids of Vietnam while serving “In Country” during the war.
Most of the children were as cute as can be, but others downright dangerous. No matter what they will always be remembered as part of the experience of the Vietnam War.
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TRANSCRIPT – Transcript and Subtitles are generated automatically by YouTube and may contain errors.
good evening vietnam live from lz bunker
this is veterans live show i’m your host
ronnie embrass
i serve at 101st airborne division of
vietnam from december 67 to december 68.
and the children of vietnam we’re going
to talk about the children
we’re going to show you pictures about
the children and we’re going to have to
remember that the children are now
like 50 years old which is like insane
but in our heads you know in our hearts
they were always kids
okay we’re going to start a new segment
called rapid fire
we ask the club for a few questions and
we’ll read the answers
all right so what are your memories
about the local children while you’re in
the country
that’s a great picture there man look at
those kids all right
that is pickford because sorry keep that
go back to those pictures with those
kids
kids man kids with kids kids are kids
anyway look at all the kids in the
background too and that hooch on the
right
that’s uh that’s crazy
what a great picture smiles teeth
showing
laughter all right dennis pickford drove
through away
quite often in a gun truck the kids were
swarmers for handouts
of course used extreme caution until we
got to know them
kids trying to survive in a war zone
yeah not only in a war zone but in a
poverty stricken country you know that’s
made it twice ten times worse all right
thank you dennis for that
next harry pitt we had a kid that came
into camp
every day that we were in base camp
and one day the kid came in and told us
where a bunch of vc were hiding
just off our perimeter fire mission lol
yeah hopefully it worked out harry
hopefully the kid didn’t get retribution
okay next timothy patterson agi you
number 10
yeah you know once they got spoiled
it was hard to uh turn that around but
they probably suffered later okay thank
you tim joe rogers
the kids were smart if you gave them gi
tropical chocolate they would throw it
back at you
if you gave them real chocolate ah
yeah i remember i got some pictures of
kids uh
chasing stuff we threw off the trucks
okay thank you joe
wayne london the only interaction i had
was the 14 year old barber
from the local ville who we killed that
the night they tried to overrun our
compound
in the the d zone i understand that
because we killed our barber too in
ambush
and the colonel didn’t believe it
and this guy got shot up here came out
the back
and i i’m not bragging but i carried
that guy
about two miles back to base camp and
dropped him in front of the
battalion commander yeah he didn’t he
didn’t believe us
next thank you wayne dean high out in
the villa we did medcaps for the
villagers and
treat the kids for multitude of
illnesses and injuries they were good
kids and appreciated everything that tv
did
i agree kids are kids and they you know
they they need
affection and uh confirmation and
you know attention and kind of things
and they were just hungry for all that
very good dean thank you
hank mathis kids in town were rough out
the country more appreciative amen to
that
yeah yeah it’s like the big city at home
too
anything you want there all right thank
you hank
tonight we’re going to talk about the
kids in the way of pictures we’ll talk
about your photos
and some of my photos so let’s go to the
first
photo bill cromley
they certainly were resourceful i
remember the smiles on their faces
as they were young and unaware of the
war going
on right around them pictured by dave
cesada 1969. you’re right look at those
kids
how are you gonna beat that that’s crazy
okay thank you bill for that picture
terry williams my friends at base camp
the kids were happy even though they
had to endure a lot amen
look at barefooted smiley
uh that’s great man
thank you raymond a certi family tree
long been saigon in benoit 68 69 from
raymond a30 very good
raymond uh i wonder if that’s their
daddy over there these kids look a lot
older
with all the white shirts on going on
here okay
thank you raymond that’s some crazy tree
fernando hernandez my buddy bobby
ratliff
and i came across an orphanage that
cartoon
the small ones were oblivious to the war
we supply them with
sea rats see rations okay and
u.s blankets were confiscated from the
black market
yeah wow look how young these people are
now these kids i can’t believe it
they’re like
60 years old it’s like nuts 50 60 years
old
i mean what we got next here wayne funk
thank you wait the girls jumped on the
running board of my deuce and a half
they meant to that they want to get out
of town they want some
candy or stuff or uh cigarettes
okay what i got next question next
picture i’m sorry nick
okay that’s me and saigon when i got out
of the
hospital second time i had a cq duty
look at those boots could you imagine
this i had to shine my boots
and look at that little boy over there
sally selling italian bread
got the best stone bread back there he
just ran in the picture
it’s like crazy good for him
uh next picture uh i took this along
highway one
somewhere up north there to uh one kid
riding the water buffalo
and uh that’s a pretty good shot uh
these are country kids versus the city
kids all right next picture
this is at the wire up in uh lz
something or other i can’t tell you
exactly where and when
uh it was in january
though i think of 68 before the monsoon
hit
and the mamasans would come along with
selling everything for pot and whiskey
and
beer and soda and stuff at the wire at
the lz’s all right next picture
he has a kid out in the field again this
is off that
truck or a different truck but got the
water buffalo under control
and uh again this kid has to be uh
65 years old now he probably looks about
15.
next picture yeah
this is going from uh we arrived in bed
where we landed in benoit
and we had to drive to kuchi so we got
to go
south and then north around saigon like
and uh or just north of saigon but
we were throwing candy and stuff off the
truck so the kids would just
pushing each other out of the way you
know
whatever just to grab candy bars and
cigarettes and stuff like that
initially we thought it was like a lot
you know
yeah attention and stuff but after a
while you realize what was going on
next one thank you okay this is up in
i-corps in uh
monsoon season 68 during after tet
uh i don’t think she was vc because she
has black on but the kids are smoking
cigarettes
all right next we’re gonna go to q a
questions and answers
okay are you happy i’ve heard the kids
were resourceful and so many things
yeah they sort of came back at us after
a while i don’t know how they got the
stuff
on the black market obviously somehow
but i don’t know how
and uh but you had to be careful
uh one thing that was not good
was their cookies because after a while
we
in the field when you go through a
village hey gi you like cookies yeah
yeah yeah we’ve got cookies we also got
these little white worms
not good or other kind of uh diseases
because
water wasn’t uh purified
or sanitary and yet you don’t think of
that when you see a cookie
so bad results all right next one
what about the mountain yard kids that’s
a really good question
i never met i never saw any mountain
yards or
you know had to deal with them at all so
that’s a good question but yeah they
were
steadfast allies of us
and they uh hated the commies and they
did what they can but i think they got
pretty slaughtered at the end of the war
to tell you the truth okay we’re gonna
wrap it up thank you very much
for your support for the uh podcast
tonight
especially with those kids and again in
our kids they’re all 50 60 years old
easy
now so thank you very much we’ll see you
next week
god bless carry on and welcome home
