Very eerie...

I've mentioned it several times, both in my blog, and in various conversations I've had since being in Vietnam, but a relative of mine, Alan Brudno, fought in the Vietnam War and was eventually captured by the North Vietnamese Army and imprisoned in Hoa Lo Prison, better known as the "Hanoi Hilton." In 1973 - 8 years later - he was released from prison, only to commit suicide four months later.

This is a hard enough story to reflect upon, just at face value alone. War is scary, suicide is scary, and suicide caused by the atrocities of war is just plain wrong.

Where am I going with this?, you might be wondering. Today I went on a "field trip" with the girls from K2B English. First we went to Huong Pagoda and then we stopped at Dong Loc Junction, an incredibly important historical site from the Vietnam War period.

To give a brief summary of information I've gotten from Google, Dong Loc Junction was the intersection between two very crucial roads that were used to transport supplies and soldiers from North Vietnam to South Vietnam. It faced heavy bombings by the US Air Force as a way to stop weapons and supplies from being transported to the south. The remarkable thing about this junction, though, is that it was guarded by 10 teenage girls who volunteered for the Viet Cong. Their main job was to keep the road usable. If it was bombed, their job was to level out the craters. If it was blocked, their job was to move any obstacles out of the way of supply trucks. Eventually, one fatal bomb struck, and all ten girls were killed. They have been turned into martyrs for a nationalist cause, as well as a face for all of the female resistance fighters who were overshadowed by men.

But still... where am I going with this?

On 18 Oct 1965, one of the 68th TFS' missions was tasked against a bridge near Ha Tinh, abouth 35 miles south of Vinh. Captain Thomas E. Collins, pilot, and 1st Lt Edward A. Brudno, copilot, were flying F-4C tail number 64-0730. As Collins rolled in for weapons delivery, his aircraft was hit by antiaircraft fire and became uncontrollable. Collins and Brudno ejected successfully, were immediately captured, and spent the next 88 months in various North Vietnamese prisons. Both men were released with the first group of returning POWs on 12 Feb 1973. What happened afterwards is adequately described in the two articles above.

(http://www.virtualwall.org/db/BrudnoEA01a.htm for more information)

Did you read the part about 1st Lieutenant Brudno delivering weapons (read: dropping bombs) and being shot down over Ha Tinh, most likely right over the area of Dong Loc Junction where I was standing today, most likely in hopes of decimating the supply route? Yeah, because I did...

While I was at Dong Loc Junction today, I felt such an immense wave of emotions: hatred towards the US Government for carrying on such a pointless war, respect for these 10 seventeen-year-old girls who volunteered to do their part for their country, frustration and pity for all the lives lost on both sides of the conflict, pride at being part of a dual-government initiative to rebuild relations between America and Vietnam.

But now, add to those emotions a sense of puzzlement at the Universe: why did I get this Fulbright grant to Vietnam? why did I get placed in Ha Tinh of all locations? why have I befriended the Marines who are stationed in Hanoi, causing me to reassess my career goals and redirect my attention towards PTSD-treatment in veterans and away from BPD in teenage girls? why did I take this field trip and end up at Dong Loc Junction? why did I tell my dad about this site, instigating his own Internet research and digging up this interesting coincidence? why was Alan Brudno's plane shot down over the place where I ended up living 46 years later?

As frustrated as I feel with my life in Vietnam on an almost constant basis, it's moments like this when I am 100% humbled by the historic importance of my presence here and reminded that the Universe is a lot bigger than myself and my trivial problems of broken electric hot plates or classes that reschedule without alerting me to the change.

Now with this newly-obtained knowledge, I'd like to return to Dong Loc and breathe in the air where so many important events occurred, and where so many lives changed in just split seconds. Maybe returning to Dong Loc and standing on that solid ground where planes crashed, teenage girls died, and families were torn apart will help me to feel closer to this part of my own family history that, up until recently, I've known very little about.

In any case, this is a weird, spooky coincidence that requires a lot more digging...