A Small World ? Sometimes,,,,,
Tra Vinh Orphanage, Vietnam 1997
Last Tuesday I was in the crowd of parents as their children trained in the art of Jiu-Jitsu, this was at the Valente Brothers Self-Defense headquarters in North Miami Beach. I looked over to see the young Sensei who instructs the youth classes, motion me over to the glass partition door that separates the parents from the training mat.
“Yes Sensei, can I help you?
“John, see that old man sitting on the bench with all that Marine Corps gear on? Do you think he is the real deal or poser?”
You see this young Sensei is in the process of finishing his college degree and considering enlisting at Marine Corps Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia". His older brother is a Marine, so here lies the source for his unusual question.
“Sensei, I’ll walk over to him and start a conversation and I’ll get back to you later with the answer to your question.”
I walked over to the old man and gave the standard Marine to Marine greeting, “Semper Fi”.
The old man smiled and returned the greeting, “Semper Fi, young man,”
I sat down next to him and asked him if he had family in the children’s class. He said yes and that he was with his grandson. He told me that he and his grandson shared the same birthday and his grandson asked him if he could come and watch his Jiu-Jitsu class. The grandfather is visiting from another city and only down here for the birthday.
I asked the old man questions about his job in the Marines that only someone who was actually a Marine could answer. The old man was a 19 year old Marine stationed south of Saigon in 1968. The old man was an electronic repairman specializing in the PRC-25 field radio and the PRC-77 with the KY-38 Crypto attached to it. I knew then that this old man was the real deal, as I too was an electronic repairman specializing in the KW-26 Crypto machine in 1980.
I then told the old man that I was 14 years old when the Vietnam war ended, too young to serve. I told him that I had been to Vietnam on three occasions, 1998, 2004 and 2015. I told him about a conversation that I had with a Vietnamese national who was my tour guide in the summer of 2004. I had asked the tour guide why the Vietnamese people treat Americans so nice today, considering the war and the blood shed on both sides. The tour guide gave me three reasons, the 3rd and last reason I will mention in this post.
The tour guide said, “ The day the Americans left Saigon, Vietnam was devasted. We all wondered what would happen to us as a country now, the Russians, who backed our country militarily during the war, simply left us. Within months the Americans reached out to us with financial aid and even sent groups of people to our country to pick up the bombs that you dropped on us that had not exploded. We will never forget how our enemy America reached out their hand to help us.”
The old man then replied with this,,,,,,,,,,
“ I feel good now hearing this, as we always tried to help the locals as much as we could. My unit helped to build “2” orphanages in the jungle south of Saigon, as there were so many children that became orphaned during the war.”
This statement from the old man hit me hard, he new nothing about me other than that I was a Marine Crypto tech just like he was in 1968. He knows nothing about my family.
One of the orphanages that the old man built in the jungle south of Saigon was a three building compound shaped in the form of the letter “C” if you looked at it from the air. I know the history of my son’s orphanage in Tra Vinh Province.
The old man’s face became serious and after a moment of silence, I pointed out to the mat where his grandson was training. I said “ Do you see that young Asian man with the purple belt on, the one teaching your grandson Jiu-Jitsu and teaching him how to deal with bullies?”
The old man said, “Yes I see him.”
“ That young man is my son, he is Vietnamese. In 1997, I pulled him out of the orphanage that you and your company built in 1968. He was 3 1/2 months old at the time. You guys did good.”
As the old man stared at the young Asian man on the mat, the children’s class ended. I said, “I’ll leave you now to enjoy your grandson.”
I walked across the room and stood alone trying to understand these last 20 minutes of my life. I looked over at the stairwell leading to the garage and saw a young 19 year old Marine hesitate to look my way and smile as he led his grandson home.
Oh BTW,,,
If any Marine Motor-T Guys are reading this post, do you recognize that truck in front of my son’s orphanage? They took pretty good care of it didn’t they ;)
