Stories about Gi being AWOl in Vietnam

[hochiminhtrail]

Hy

 

again another Vn war topic, wich is my favorit. I tried to gahter information of Gi s who went AWOl in vitenam "in country". i did ask the same question on an other forum, but i never got real respons, some of you might wonder why i m asking this.

 

I m interested in the human nature and the stories of Why a GI is going Awol in such a different culture then his. It must not have been an easy decision and it was probably very dangerous.

 

for the poeple who went to Asia, they will know that it s not really easy to blend in and dissapear.

 

so for me that reasons are why they went AWOL and for how long.

 

i think that in Frank Snepp book Decent Interval, he says that after the fall of Da Nang and the near collapse of Saigon you had hundreds of AWOL Gis repotrting back for duty just to be part of the evacuation.

 

In one book by a journalist ( i can recall the book) he say he saw 4 month after the fall of Saigon a white guy driving a cyclo.

 

in this thread i m not speaking about political turncoats who were supposly spoted fighting with the VC and NVa against their own troops.

but i m speaking about individiuals who went AWOL for drug reason or Love ?? or wahtever other personal reasons

 

If you guys have any infos to share thats would be great.

 

cheers

 

Alex

[BOB K. RKSS]

Most EM GI's went AWOL to live with their Vietnamese Girlfriends, & I suppose some went to escape/delay Courts Marshal, & some because they were fools hooked on Heroin; which sold for .50 cents a dose.

[hochiminhtrail]

well i gues it must still have been a very hostile enviroment, you probably the VC who must have known where they are and the south Vietnamese police, so they had to pay bribes and allways be on the lookout. Frankly i would not want to live in the shanty towns of Saigon, i have seen some and it s not really the place were i would like to be hiding from whatever i m on the run, i would prefer the Long Bihn jail ( just saying so i dont know how the living was in the Us jail in Vietnam).

 

were i used to live in Ho Chi Minh City it was a notoriuos place for Gis to buy drugs during the war, people showed me the families who were in the drug trade when the war went on, well i can tell you one thing they are absolutly scum.. still even now, the drug trade is over but this particular family is pure filth, just trying to squeeze you and living without remorse and if the drug dealing would have been as easy now as it was then then im sure they were still in.

I ll guess that AWOL soldiers were totaly fools, as you say to much heroin, but i think that their stories are very intersting, but unitil know i have not been able to find one personal account of a AWOL GI.

 

Cheers

 

Alex

 

Most EM GI's went AWOL to live with their Vietnamese Girlfriends, & I suppose some went to escape/delay Courts Marshal, & some because they were fools hooked on Heroin; which sold for .50 cents a dose.

[patchtrader864]

they had a place for these guys L.B.J

[Brig]

we have a belief in Iraq. if the tard wants to go AWOL in theater, let him. He'll run out of ammo shortly and we won't have to go through the trouble of court-martialing the bas$*%d once he runs across Akmed the RagHead and his weapon's dry

[hochiminhtrail]

well mayn avoided LBJ and lived in saigon, i have almost not see a note excpet in two books, but i really difenriate between AWOL and being a turncoat a deserter that joins the otherside, thats worth the death row.

 

Some foreign legionaires did that in Indochina, the germans who did that ended up in East Germany, they have been used by Vietminh propaganda, they fought with them against french troops, there was a very good documentary on TV last year about the German turncoats from the french foreign legion.

 

I doubt that theere is fool going AWOL in Iraq

 

we have a belief in Iraq. if the tard wants to go AWOL in theater, let him. He'll run out of ammo shortly and we won't have to go through the trouble of court-martialing the bas$*%d once he runs across Akmed the RagHead and his weapon's dry

[nguoi tien su]

Some french (miliraty and civilian) did it to and worked for the reds....

Some just had their businesses there and tried to secure it. It was possible up to certain time frames. Most of them had to pack things back to France in 1955/56 in the north and 1975 in the south.

 

NTS

[hochiminhtrail]

Hello NTS

 

do you recall the name of the french teacher who defected to the vietminh and later worked as an interogator in a POW camp in the north, i think his name is Boudarelle ??? i just cant remember, but he lived in north vietnam until the early 60s, he was later pardond and came back to France.

 

cheers

 

Alex

 

Some french (miliraty and civilian) did it to and worked for the reds....

Some just had their businesses there and tried to secure it. It was possible up to certain time frames. Most of them had to pack things back to France in 1955/56 in the north and 1975 in the south.

 

NTS

[patchtrader864]

what is the name of the book about a legion brigade made up of germans in vietnam ?.

[Brig]

well mayn avoided LBJ and lived in saigon, i have almost not see a note excpet in two books, but i really difenriate between AWOL and being a turncoat a deserter that joins the otherside, thats worth the death row.

 

Some foreign legionaires did that in Indochina, the germans who did that ended up in East Germany, they have been used by Vietminh propaganda, they fought with them against french troops, there was a very good documentary on TV last year about the German turncoats from the french foreign legion.

 

I doubt that theere is fool going AWOL in Iraq

 

we had a guy we stripped of everything but his PT gear for, err...disobedience....

 

we had to guard his hooch until they shipped him home in a connex box. Our Plt Sgt didn't understand why. If he was gonna flea, and run around literally the middle of nowhere in skimpy running shorts and no weapon, then let him

[gwb123]

what is the name of the book about a legion brigade made up of germans in vietnam ?.

 

 

I think you are referring to "The Devil's Guard".

 

Please see the discussion at the end of the thread

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...492&hl=crap

[hochiminhtrail]

Well i doubt that we are speaking of the same group of soldiers, you might have had hardcore die hards SS germans in the legion but you had also some deserters that just hated the french, some German deserters worked with local Viet minh groups, Ho Chi Minh adopted one German and gave him a vietnamese name i think Ho Chi Long, just cant recall the exact name, they served as tactics expert along with some japanese soldiers from WWII, the Germans were very much liked by the Vietnamese.

 

It s is trough that some Germans still lived in south Vietnam during the American war, some as civilians some as mercenaries,

 

but the ones who fought for the Commies were later repatriated to East Germany or maybe lived somewhere in the North( i think a deal was made that all german had to go back to east germany)

 

I have seen one German chief NCO in the foreign legion who was in Vietnam as a mercenarie during the Vietnam war, not really sure what SVN or US unit or outfit he served but i have seen a picture of him in camo uniform during the end of the Vietnam war. (cant recall the exact type of uniform this memory dates back to 1991)

 

What it also a vague guess is that the Communist regime kept french POW until long after the war as a bargening chip with the french Govt.

 

Cheers

 

Alex

 

 

I think you are referring to "The Devil's Guard".

 

Please see the discussion at the end of the thread

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...492&hl=crap

[Andrei]

Gents, the fantasy tales about the Indochina war should stop here.

Former SS and Wh soldiers of all nationalities did serve in the French Army and Legion during the wars in Indochina and Algeria.

But there was nothing such as all SS platoon in a company of Legion infantry, etc...

Most of these soldiers kept low profile but certainly did not shinola their pants and took off their "nazi" tatoos with a red hot spoon or knife because a tough little commie spanish hombre threatened them to cut their throat with his trusty navaja during their sleep.

I have never heard this kind of legend and he made me laugh. The usual fable being the jewish avenger who join the Legion to kill the former SS who have murdered his family back in Poland or Czechoslovakia. There is a book written by such an avenger, published in France, where else...

All these poppycock stories, fables, legends etc... belong to the communist/anti-fascist lore for decades and are still currently used for other wars and conflicts. Super French commie warrior serving with the PLO or FARC, killing ugly fascists etc...

 

About deserters :

- East Germany did send spies to join the Legion. What was the purpose of their mission ? I dont know. After the fall of the Wall, the Stasi building was pillaged and one file was stolen. It contained several passports, all bearing the same mugshot of an East German spy who was in the Legion, and a couple of notebooks written in both german and vietnamese.

- the most famous story of desertion is the hi-jacking of a plane by Legionnaires of the CERA.

 

I guess thas about it.

[hochiminhtrail]

hi Andrei

 

about the french teacher who joined the Vietminh i did read his biography he came back to france in the late 60s and was pardoned, but to say so the french servicemen who were under his guard in North vietnamese pow camp were not happy at all, unfortunatly i forgot his exact name, he later was a university proffessor i think.

 

have you seen on Arte ( French German television) the documentary about the German legionaires who destered the fernch foreign legion, their faith in east germany was not fun at all, they had to keep it secret that they served in Indochina, these German ex french soldiers were still being watched closely by the stasi, not all deserted because because of political convictions some because their were just scared, or after beeing captured and been politicaly endoctrinated.

 

It is total natural that mercenaries do desert their own rank, it happend all the time and i think it was nothing special in the foreign legion, even now you have some legionaires not showing up for duty anymore and going back to theyer home country.

 

But anyway the fact is you had a number of german working for the Viet minh, well i m sure not only germans.

 

German soldiers in the foreign legion never served as a group it s all mixed nationalities

 

i think that there is a lot that we dont know about deserters or turncoats, the same story about Bobby Garwood who came back from being a pow in north Vietnam in 1977 and this 4 years after the paece agreements.

 

Do you also recall the Gi s who deserted to north Korea during the vietnam war erea, who will have thought that after 35 years he could have left Nkorea and go and live in japan.

 

For sure there is no live POW or turncoat in Vitenam, just because it s not a closed society like in N Korea, and it would have embarrased both the Vietanese and US goverment to much if another Garwood would jumps out of the jungle.

 

What i do belive is that US POW in vietnam were secretly transfered to China or Russia especially the electronic specialist.

 

So desertion is nothing new, we had Germans fighting against other Germans on the Russian front, ex Wehrmacht soldiers who joined the Comitee of free Germany under Stalin.

 

Cheers

 

Alex

 

 

I dont belive the

 

Gents, the fantasy tales about the Indochina war should stop here.

Former SS and Wh soldiers of all nationalities did serve in the French Army and Legion during the wars in Indochina and Algeria.

But there was nothing such as all SS platoon in a company of Legion infantry, etc...

Most of these soldiers kept low profile but certainly did not shinola their pants and took off their "nazi" tatoos with a red hot spoon or knife because a tough little commie spanish hombre threatened them to cut their throat with his trusty navaja during their sleep.

I have never heard this kind of legend and he made me laugh. The usual fable being the jewish avenger who join the Legion to kill the former SS who have murdered his family back in Poland or Czechoslovakia. There is a book written by such an avenger, published in France, where else...

All these poppycock stories, fables, legends etc... belong to the communist/anti-fascist lore for decades and are still currently used for other wars and conflicts. Super French commie warrior serving with the PLO or FARC, killing ugly fascists etc...

 

About deserters :

- East Germany did send spies to join the Legion. What was the purpose of their mission ? I dont know. After the fall of the Wall, the Stasi building was pillaged and one file was stolen. It contained several passports, all bearing the same mugshot of an East German spy who was in the Legion, and a couple of notebooks written in both german and vietnamese.

- the most famous story of desertion is the hi-jacking of a plane by Legionnaires of the CERA.

 

I guess thas about it.

[shrapneldude]

I can't add much for facts, but if you want to read a very neat book about soldiers AWOL in Vietnam, it's called "Going After Cacciato" by Tim O'Brien. O'Brien was a vietnam draftee himself, and the book chronicles a young dumb private's story of wanting to leave vietnam, and walking fron Vietnam to Paris...and his squad, headed by an old busted-down LT track him all the way there. In the end, you find out...well, I'm not one to spoil a good book...

 

Total fantasy and garbage, but a great read. By the same author, and another great book on Vietnam on a more serious level -- agian, FICTON and FANTASY, not to be confused with the heroism of actual US Vietnam Vets, but still a good read, is "The things they Carried."

[LTGSANCHEZ]

Brig, Speaking of odern day AWOL... There was an LT who failed ranger school, never checked back into the Lieutenant Transition Office (2-11 HHC the most disorgaized HHC unit on fort benning)... Went home, job a civilian job, grew a beard and no one figured out he was missing for 13 months. All the while he was drawing a government paycheck. I thought I'd share.

[hochiminhtrail]

Hi everybody

 

please read this it s my favorite article about deserters in VN.

 

http://www.miafacts.org/aa.htm

 

 

His Credentials

 

Schlatter, Colonel, U. S. Army, Retired.

February 1986 - July 1990 Feb 86 - Dec 88: Chief, Analysis Branch, Defense Intelligence Agency Special Office for POW-MIA Affairs

Dec 88 - Jul 90: Chief, Defense Intelligence Agency Special Office for POW-MIA Affairs

July 1993 - March 1995: Deputy Director, Defense POW-MIA Office

[gwb123]

Excellent article and well worth the read. The comments about "Americans" suddenly showing up at the US Embassy when the evacuation was announced at the end of the war is very interesting.

[hochiminhtrail]

Yes and the story of 2 Us AWOL soldiers who stayed after 75 in Saigon and that were kicked out by the Vietnamese in 76 and handed to the red cross.

 

As he says the Vc were very suspect of foreigners living in Nam just after the change of regime and kicked out most of them who who were not legitimat to stay there, well i guess that 2 AWOL Gis are very suspect individuals indeed in the eyes of the new regime, the vietnamese must have thought they were Cia operatives as they were extremly paranoid, i recall french visitors who came to vietnam in the mid 80 s and they said that you were folloewd everywhere no contact could have been made with locals, as soon as you asked something some VC debriefed the person you just asked, well a little bit like North Korea i think.

 

but it s really difficult at least for me to understand how someone could abandon a life style like in our western civilisation and go native, this is why i opened this thread, because living like a vietnamese is not so easy, believe me , same thing for the Korean deserters who are more Turncoats then deserters, but even that, living all your life in north korea, is not a easy choice.

 

i probably repeat myself here but in a book of an Austarlian journalist he recalls seeing a amercican cyclo driver just after the fall of saigon ( couple of month after), the job as a cyclo driver is the lowest job you can have in Vietnamese society. It really makes you wounder how people can adapt to certain things.

 

Cheers

 

Alex

 

a

Excellent article and well worth the read. The comments about "Americans" suddenly showing up at the US Embassy when the evacuation was announced at the end of the war is very interesting.