Family Photos - Page One

Like many of her contemporaries, Son walked with a 30 kg pack through the Ho Chi Minh (or Truong Son), up and down mountains, up and down ... She lived in tunnels in Laos and was bombed repeatedly by our guys. Son was a lieutenant with the 472nd Brigade of the 559th Division at Savannakhet in central Laos.

Later, Son travelled by foot and truck though controlled areas of Quang Tri province to Bo Trach district in the province of Quang Binh where she lived for six months in 1975 for military clerical training. Returning to her family home Son Tay (in Ha Tay Province, 40 km from Hanoi), Son studied political history with the 587 Division. In June 1976, she was demobilised.

My this is my wife Son here in Canberra, in late 1993.

In the years since the war, Son was as a personnel manager with Public Service in Hanoi. After 14 years, Son (for some reason came to live with me in Australia - for which I am very, very thankful).

Son has a brother, now a high school principal, who also was in the People's Army during the War. Son also has one older and two younger sisters. Her mother, who was born in 1924, lives in Son Tay with Son's brother's family. Son's father, who died in 1983, fought with the Viet Minh against the French.

Son and I now live in Canberra but hope to split our time between Australia and Vietnam.

Me trying to look military at Firebase Schuller near An Khe Pass in Gia Lai Province towards the end of 1971. I was a puny Specialist 5 with the artillery doing ballistic meteorology. I was stationed with the 7th of the 15th Artillery at a place called Ham Rong (one of many places named after a "dragon's jaw") which is a monumental hill beside highway 14, 12 km south of Pleiku. That unit stood down at the end of 1971 and I moved first to Tuy Hoa and then to the First Cav in Bien Hoa where I worked with soldiers from the 18th ARVN Division.

This is me again with my University of Washington cap eating rice (stolen from an all too kind minority gentleman) in a gully in scrub near Chu Mom Ray in Kontum Province in April, 1995. Back home. This trip was thanks to Japanese Television Workshop, the People's Committee of Kontum and the wonderful minority inhabitants of that province.

Today many more people live in Kontum and Gia Lai provinces than in 1971. The immigrants are mostly ethnic Kinh, lowland Vietnamese more used to rice farming in deltas than to the varied ecology of mountain forests. In spite of this some forest remains in Northern Kontum province, though it is today heavily logged.

Australia Vietnam Science Technology Link
Vern Weitzel PO Box 4013 Ainslie, ACT 2602 Australia <vern@coombs.anu.edu.au>