Dustoff at Dawn

This is the photo I was looking for the other day when I discovered the picture of the pool....

OK, here's the thing. Lynda Van Devanter, who wrote a book about her Vietnam year, Home Before Morning, served in the 71st Evacuation Hospital at Pleiku in 1969 and 1970 (71st Evac photo link from Steve Streeper's site). I lived in the 71st complex for most of 1971, but worked elsewhere.

Shortly before my arrival, the facility was downgraded from a major field hospital to a relatively small detachment. (This chopper was part of that operation.) Since the medicos were using only a few of the buildings, the army repurposed several of the abandoned wards as barracks, and moved parts of the 43rd Signal Battalion into them. My unit, called Signal Support Detachment Pleiku, lived in what had been Wards 1 & 2; other Signal folks lived elsewhere in the complex.

Anyway, I spent a year in the place. Like many vets, I bought a good camera while I was overseas, and (of course) took pictures. Many of those have been posted to Flickr.

Fast forward to 2007. The Vietnam Veterans of America, an organization Van Devanter had helped establish, was publishing a magazine to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the dedication of The Wall. The issue included an excerpt from her book, and two of my Flickr photos were among the illustrations (here and here). I told about the experience on my blog.

Finally got around to reading Van's entire book last week. It's painful, and it's wonderful.