A Tale of the Vietnam War

Being an American solider means there are no questions asked. When you are instructed to fight in a war halfway across the world you do as you’re told.  But what happens when questions are asked, and people wonder why they are fighting? 

            Fighting in Vietnam is what Francisco Salvador Davis, known to everyone as Frank, dreamt of. Born in Nicaragua, Davis immigrated to the United States as a young boy. His family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, and his life in the states began. During his childhood Davis soaked in the magic and allure of war from movies. It didn’t take much for Davis to join the military, all it took was a $1 bet between him and his friends. When seeing the posters plastered all over of Uncle Sam wanting the men to fight, his friend told him he wouldn’t do it. But Davis didn’t back down from this, he waged a single dollar that he would go and sign up. After that Davis was putting pen to paper and signing his life to the United States Military.

            His time in the service began promptly after graduating high school, two days after to be exact. During the beginning of his time in the service Davis was assigned to places like Paris, where he was stationed for two years. After that he decided it was time to withdraw himself from the Army and go to college.

            In college Davis studied economics and finance. Once he graduated, he looked around for work but said that nothing excited him. He remembered his days in the service and longed for purpose like that again. At this point in his life, he was married and had a child. After talking it over with his wife, Christine Sandi Davis, he decided to enlist again.

Once he rejoined the Army he was stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado. Day to day life as a military man seemed like a waste, Davis said. He realized that he wanted nothing more than to use his time in the service where he felt called to, Vietnam.  Davis said that the war is what felt important to him, so he needed to find a way to get there. He called up his commander at Fort Carson to ask for reassignment to Vietnam, finally his commander agreed. And off he went, kissed his wife and child goodbye, and next thing he knew he was walking off the plane in Vietnam.

            Once they finally arrived, he was shuffled into a line to be processed into the country and assigned a position. Davis was assigned to Cam Ranh Bay. Only being told where his assignment was Davis was confused on how to get to this location. He asked around but was abruptly told that he needed to figure it out on his own. Davis grabbed his things and hopped from helicopter to plane until he reached his destination. For two months Davis was the commander of his unit and worked in the motor office. He didn’t like this; it still wasn’t what he was looking for. Davis wanted to be a part of the action, to be a part of what he, again, thought was important. 

            Davis made his dreams come true. He contacted his friend that was working in a division near Saigon. His friend was confused at first because the division was in an active war zone, but Davis said he needed to be there. Finally, he was reassigned and made it to the place he’d dreamt of being.

            In this division he was the supervisor overseeing medics. While he got to help the medics and learn different surgical techniques the job came with a cost. Since he oversaw these men, he also had to identify their bodies when they were killed. This was the downside to the war that Davis never imagined.

            Even with dealing with life and death Davis still found a time for his faith anywhere he could. Sometimes he couldn’t get back to the church, so the military priest would come to the soldiers. In the field, Davis said, the priest would hear confessions and hold mass for anyone who wanted to participate. The priest would give inspiring homilies about never losing sight of hope. This fueled Davis during his time there and gave him something to hold on to. Davis felt at peace with whatever life was going to throw at him in Vietnam. He said that if he died it was ok that he had no control over his life, but he had control over what he wanted to accomplish during his time there.

            While times in Vietnam were filled with hardship and death these soldiers still found ways to celebrate a simple fact, they were still alive. One night a friend of Davis’ came to him begging him to go to a Bob Hope concert in Saigon. Davis kept saying no because it was 60 miles from where they were, they would get in trouble or worse not make it back. The friend pushed on saying they had to go, and finally Davis budged, and on they went to the concert. They drove on long stretches of dirt roads and through villages until they got to the concert. Davis said they had to stand at the top of the venue because there were so many people crowded around to hear Bob Hope. Listening to the music, surrounded by thousands of people you could feel the melody of life granting hope to everyone in attendance. Davis said it was nights like these that he enjoyed the most.

            Having a good time with friends is what happened quite often over there, said veteran Winnard Young, Jr. Young was a Navy Officer from Lake Charles, Louisiana. He volunteered for the service in 1963. Young was assigned to Vietnam in 1965.

             Young talked about the need for relief. The madness of war, he described, would get to be too much. At one time he and a crew of men decided to dock on shore. The sun was out, scorching even, and the only thing to cure the dry heat was rum. The men were together, they were alive and they were celebrating what could so easily be taken away.

            In Vietnam their new year celebration is known as Tet.  Young was in Vietnam when this holiday occurred. He said that everyone was relaxed and felt like nothing bad was going to happen during the celebration. But the enemy had a different idea. Young said the enemy attacked all over the country. It took them a while to get a hold on the situation but once they did, everyone realized how fast things can go from good to bad. During these attacks, Young said, thousands of people died on both sides of the war.

While the men were living in limbo of life and death the women were at home tending to the things the men had left behind. Christine, wife of Davis, held down the fort while he was in Vietnam.

Christine and Frank met back during their college days at University of Louisiana in Lafayette. They met through mutual friends. Their love was slow since they started off as friends. But once they fell in love, they both were in it for the long haul, committed to one another, said Christine.

Being the strong, devoted military wife and mother is what Christine portrayed on the outside, but inside she was just longing for something, anything to tell her that Frank was coming home. Christine said that during this time the news reported only on Vietnam. Every night she would be captivated by the reporter’s words. She said she was glued to the television in hopes to catch just a small glimpse of her husband.

Being so far away from the one you love can be hard but the couple made it work by writing letters to each other. Christine said she put every detail of her daily life in her letters. She was descriptive in telling him how life was at home and raising their child, giving Davis something to look froward to when he came back from war. Frank professed just how much he loved Christine in his letters, she said. These letters helped them make it through this unbearable year.

Letters weren’t the only thing Christine received from Frank. One day while Davis was out on his way to another location he came upon a man on the side of the road. Out of curiosity, he said, he stopped to see what the man was doing. He quickly realized this man was making beautiful ceramic creations. Davis purchased two of the man’s ceramic items. He packed them up along with some dirty laundry and shipped them off to his wife at home.

When Christine received the crates she left them on the porch, she said, because she didn’t want to deal with his dirty laundry. Curiosity got the best of her, so eventually she opened the crate to find two ceramic elephants underneath all the laundry. She said they were magnificent, a beautiful jade green color that glistened. She held these gifts close to her heart as she waited for her husband to come home.

And just like that the war was soon to be over, but most of America was far from giving these soldiers a warm welcome home. Young said that when soldiers came home from wars in the past, they were welcomed home with open arms but that wasn’t the case for the soldiers of the Vietnam War. Since the critics were calling this war corrupt, people in America started to stray away from the idea that no questions should be asked.

Once Frank got home, he said he didn’t give his feelings about the war much thought. It wasn’t until years later he started to puzzle together how he felt. He was proud of what he did and was proud that he served his country, but he didn’t like the feeling he got when he thought about the Vietnam War. He eventually concluded that the Vietnam War, while he enjoyed his time there, didn’t accomplish anything, he said. He truly started to question why the United States ever got involved in Vietnam, he said, and still to this day he wonders.

Men were once paraded in on floats while hundreds of people cheered and thanked them for their service. When the Vietnam War soldiers were home, both Young and Frank said, if you were caught wearing your uniform you were spit upon and cursed at. Anti-war protest had broken out while the war was still going on but continued after the soldiers got home. These soldiers went from one war zone to another when coming back to an America that didn’t look like the one, they had left.