Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: Vietnam Veteran Things

...and the Central Highlands of Vietnam in the background. Pleiku, RVN, 1970 or 1971. Jim Lovins photograph

A montegnard rice farmer goes about his business. Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971.

Our maids, going home after a day of cleaning up after us. Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. I imagine these covered walks in the hospital complex were constructed to protect the patients as they were moved between the buildings. By the time we moved it, that purpose had become pretty much irrelevant....

Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. Another Jim Lovins photograph. Not sure who the GI is.

71st Evacuation Hospital, Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. Steve Streeper says these weeds weren't there when he lived at the hospital--just a few months before I arrived. Clearly they'd pretty much taken over by the time I got there. Ward 1--our barracks--is plainly visible on the hill to the left, and Ward 2 a bit less clearly on the right. The quonset huts were latrines.

Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. Jim Lovins photograph, considerably touched up. Looks a lot like the original was a terrific photograph. Even now I've got mixed feelings about hiring local women for a few cents a day to do our chores. While I'm certain that they welcomed the income, there was something about the situation that didn't sit right with me. All the same, I helped pay for them, and depended on them to keep things in order.

Another Jim Lovins photograph; Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. I have this feeling that if I were better with my graphics tools I could turn this into something quite remarkable. Beyond me, I'm afraid....

Jim Lovins photograph; Pleiku, RVN, 1971. Jim & I both came back with photographs from what appears to be the same party. Obviously related to this photo , and at the location shown in this one .

A closer view of a quonset hut I showed you a year ago tomorrow. Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971.

Jim Lovins photograph; Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. This building housed Republic of Korea troops and was just outside Pleiku's central MACV compound. It was roughly half-way between our "home" in the hospital complex and our "office" in MACV. The damage was done by a 122 mm rocket. Every couple weeks the VC would fire missiles at us. While the rockets certainly weren't harmless--people died in this incident--they were far more scary than they were dangerous. Typically, we'd be ducking nine rockets in a day: Three in the early morning, three more around noon, and three before supper. They'd set up the rockets on the outskirts of the city--near the whorehouses, I'm told--and retreat into the town before the Hueys could respond. The intended target was usually the local military headquarters (II Corps). Since our Commcenter was on the line defined by the launch site and the target, we had more than a few close calls. But by the second rocket in each set, we'd be in the bunker, wearing tin pots & flack jackets.

Sunset at Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971.