Deep Roots Family Tree Blog

A soldier in the family

“We don’t talk about Vietnam.” A phrase that I’ve said for as long as I can remember. I had grown up knowing that my dad had been drafted into the Vietnam war and had fought in it. I knew he was angry his entire life for having to do something he did not want to do. It wasn’t until he passed away almost 2 years ago that I really got a sense of what he did while in Vietnam and how that affected him after he got back home.

After he died, my mom found some army paperwork, a package of pictures, clearly taken in Vietnam, his service medals and his uniform jacket. None of which we knew existed. As far as we knew, he kept nothing. Because we don’t talk about Vietnam.

Through some of his paperwork, I was able to find out that he was at the Fire Support Base 4-11. According to my mom, dad had been deployed for about a year and a half. I believe he was deployed twice. On a website honoring those who were sent to Fire Base 4-11, they have daily staff logs detailing everything that happened that day. I verified dates and double checked my work several times, but I was able to confirm that my dad was there when those logs were written. I then realized that I could read day by day, hour per hour, what my dad experienced end endured.

I continue to research his time in Vietnam, absorbing every drop of information I can. We didn’t talk about Vietnam, but knowing what I know and what I continue to learn keeps me close to my dad. I look forward to a longer post about my dad at some point, but I’m not ready for that yet.

Miss you, dad. Every day.