Right after photographing this, a middle-aged man asked me, "Are you a vet?" He was very obviously drunk.
"No," I simply said, though I should have said, "No, but I was in 'Nam!"
If I remember correctly, he was no more than 55, but I couldn't gauge, right then and there, if he could have been a Vietnam vet. In which case, it may not be wise to shout "'Nam" at him.
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1 comment:
I'm almost 57 and, I believe, missed 'Nam by a little more than a year. So if you gauged his age correctly he almost certainly wasn't there. Nixon, I believe (this can all be looked up, of course--but I'm lazy), suspended the draft in '73, though obviously the fighting continued. That year I was actually in Milano with my parents, my father working for Honeywell/Bull, playing soccer and attending an international school and generally having the time of my life .. and gave serious thought to not getting back on the plane for the States when my father's work stint was over. But ultimately decided I could never do that because I couldn't have lived with the knowledge of someone going in my place (though this logic certainly didn't deter others!). Keep up the good writing, Linh. I'm awful busy but read your stuff when I can.
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