Now I'm watching a lot of this "Vietnam in HD" because it's a lot of raw footage. This really was the first war where we had a lot of it.

I still recommend "About Face" as a really nitty-gritty combat memoir though. Hackworth retired with a fuckton of purple hearts and silver stars.

I really liked how they had actors recreate the veteran's voiceovers. It was a really nice touch!

Some of these stories, I've heard. I had an uncle in Hue City and he participated in the relief of Khe Sanh (he was a pig gunner.) But this documentary really fills the gaps.

(Ironically, later, I would make the acquaintance of a Korean war-era mustang that was part of the Siege of Khe Sanh as well; he filled in some blanks on that, describing the supply situation. One of my father's bosses, a former USAF C-123 pilot, talked about what he saw bringing the supplies in. But war stories tend to be somewhat fragmented; unless you have a bunch of guys all there together, you get a story with lots of holes in it. That's why military historians bring groups of combat troops together to interview them together.)

But a lot of the stories are the scary shit that happens by sheer accident; that's how the Forrestal burned and that's how this one guy that was in the 101st related to me his worst nightmare -- not shit he saw in combat, but when mishandled rockets blew a man up on base when they were rearming choppers.

Source: I did a bit of work for a professor while I was in college, interviewing veterans. I got a lot of pretty rugged first-hand stories that way. A lot of these guys wanted to talk to people that weren't going to judge, and they found it easier to talk to a younger guy than someone their own generation, because their own generation, they often felt, judged them harshly.

Yo, yo.

It's me, TomeBinder.

First of all, massive apologies for my sudden absence. Let me give you guys a quick explanation of events.

Basically, my girl took um, took offence to the amount of time I spent on here, and we had a row over it. Well, I say row, she just got mad and I just backed down.

Long story short, I signed out and at the time said "Okay, I wont go on there for a few days." Of course, I had every intention of saying something to you guys, but I forgot my password so I couldn't get back in. Yup, totally forgot it... along with the password for the email account I had dedicated to it. I know, I know. I was gonna make a new account, like this one, but didn't want to risk being caught in the act at the time lol, incase I pushed her over the edge!

Anyways, I'm back - kinda - things have calmed down at home, and she's apologised for flying off the handle at me. It wasn't really her fault or her overreacting... I mean I was on here like 4-6 hours a night sometimes lol. I think she just ended up getting frustrated with it, which is fair. In any case, I've managed to argue the case that this is my hobby, and whilst I can reduce the time I spend on here, I'm not about to stop doing it. She's okay'd that, so yeah, good to go.

Can't come back right away, still playing the good fiancé. Obviously, given the nature of things, this means my RPs will be have to go in hiatus until my return, or be killed here and now. In any case, if I was to resume them, I'd have to make new threads for this account... which I have written down the password for.

I will return in days, hopefully. If you guys can chill until then, I should be good to go.

@BinderOfTomes No problem! I can wait!

I've been there with my husband, good luck & just ease back in. Make time for just you two without the computer. Good luck, I'm sure we can do some dialogue between characters to kill time or whatever Sarge decides to do.

I can wait, just lemme know when it's "Game on" again.

I'm down to wait for a bit. The only unique bit I had was to get them to the river, and hopefully get them in contact with friendlies of some sort (firebase, those ARVN cats you brought up in your last post, etc.)

A brief hiatus won't hurt things. I have homework to attack anyway, if everyone else is cool with that.

Kinda bummed to see that we're going on hiatus though, things were bopping along. But hey, life takes priority. ;)

True story. I mean, I can get them out to the river? It might give us each a chance for one or two more posts.

I don't see why not, from the posts it seemed like it would take a while to gather the company and go after the Americans. During that time, I can imagine our guys could make it down to the river. We all know that rivers are so very safe and totally not a place where ambushes and danger could lurk.

So what's our status?@RoadRash@BinderOfTomes

Yeah, I'm wondering about that too.

Bump

Still here.

Ditto.

I would love to see this continue. I am willing to lend whatever help is needed to put that together.

I'm sorry I've been gone; I've been working my way through a 15-20 page short story for my Creative Writing class, as well as my other finals.

I'm getting towards the end; I feel terrible about all of this, but eh...16 hours can be brutal on free time.

Education first man.

*pokes*