Name: Phong Nga
Gender: Male
Nationality: Vietnamese
Ethnicity: Viet
Appearance: Nga, 22 stands 5’7” tall and weighs 156 Lbs. He has short black hair and brown eyes. His nose is flattened against this face, flared in the nostrils and the young man has several small moles dotting his cheeks. His face is more round than any other shape. His physique is lean, but otherwise strong. He has no tattoos and only a small scar on his left leg bellow the shin.
Uniform: Nga wears the standard dark green Khaki uniform of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN). He prefers to wear the sleeves folded to just below the elbows. He wears the standard dark green-colored phenolic sun-helmet with mesh covering and tennis shoe-jungle boot, a cheap construction. His load bearing equipment (LBE) consisted of a tan canvas belt with a square aluminum buckle. Upon the buckle is a star, Nga personally painted red. Upon this belt is his canteen pouch, grenade pouches (with strap to go over opposite shoulder) and spare magazine pouch. Nga’s canteen is olive drab in color, of aluminum construction, a Chinese copy of a Japanese canteen. Nga used his trench knife to scrape some paint away and etch his name into the side of it. To complete his LBE, Nga wore the NVA “chest pouch” which resembles a shop apron drawn over his head, ending at the canvas belt. This chest pouch has three ammunition pouches and three smaller pouches for boxed cartridges. He also carries a Czechoslovakian ammunition bag, strapped across his shoulder to carry an additional five magazines. Upon his back, he carries the standard issue rucksack with a central compartment and three external pockets, based off a French design. In his ammunition pouches he carries eight 30-round magazines & 4 hand grenades. He possesses a ninth magazine which is inserted in the magazine well of his rifle.
In Ruck: -Sweatshirt
-one additional uniform
-olive drab boonie cap
-rain poncho (small fold up item)
Armaments: -AK-47 with 6H2 bayonet
-French manufactured trench knife
Specialization: Infantry
Personality: Nga is generally an easy-going son of a peasant fisherman. He views the army as a large cumbersome enterprise that is both thrilling and frightening. It is the largest grouping of people in one place he has experienced and is overwhelming. He is optimistic about the future and believes he will do well in the army. He is uncertain about killing and hopes the governments in Hanoi and Saigon can come to a mutual agreement without having to fight. His father and uncles fought against the Japanese and the French, but they are all gone now, right? Nga is obviously naïve.
History: Nga grew up in Ngoc Van, Nghệ An Province, a coastal fishing village where he learned to fish with his brothers on their father and uncle’s fishing boats. They fished the Tonkin Bay daily. It was his family’s way of life. He was destined to learn the trade.
He remembers Japanese soldiers marching through his village on occasion when he was a boy, but rarely did they stop for long periods of time. He remembers when the French soldiers returned after the war with Japan ended. They appeared pleasant, but he listened to the grumblings of the village elders about how they had worn out their welcome and needed to go back to France. He slowly adopted that attitude, it was time for them to leave. He really did not understand the why, but since father believed that, so did he. He fished the Bay with family members and lived a happy life.
The politics of the North and South of his country are irrelevant to Nga as long as his family is fed and their needs are taken care of. Which the government in Hanoi has been fairly good about. When he heard talk of Americans coming to Saigon to help them resist the North, he did not understand why. Nga does not understand why the Americans must get involved in what is strictly a Vietnamese matter. He perceives the Americans as hostile invaders, they are unwelcomed and need of being evicted, just as the French were before them.
He joined the Army for adventure and patriotism roughly two years ago. He would like to see his nation unified as one. This is a dream his father bore and his father’s father and so on back to a time when the Chinese were lords of Indochina.
Dung Mai is a sweet young flower of girl with beautiful hazel eyes, just turned 20 and the love of Nga’s life. He carries a photograph of her in his pack. He dreams of returning home to marry her, settling down and starting a family one day. For now, he marches off to the drums of war. He bears the rank of Binh nhất (Private First Class), rifleman in 1st squad, 1st Platoon, No. 4 Company of his regiment.
NPCs: Dung Mai, 20 – Phong Nga’s girlfriend. She waits for her fisherman turned soldier to return home from the war.
