Have any of you Vietnam era guys been back to Vietnam since the war?

[pinboy3niner]

2. I had great experiences going back to Vietnam three times in the '90s

That was more than 20 years after I got back from the war. I stayed with Vietnamese friends--in a nice home in the resort city of Vung Tau and in a hovel in the ethnic Chinese section of Saigon--and did some traveling from those bases, taking a van full of Vietnamese friends along.

Emotionally, I'd had my catharsis after suppressing my war expeience for a lot of years and I had done a lot of processing before my first trip back. Still, there were some extremely emotional moments. Sharing lunch with a group of former allies and enemies in laughter and tears...being told by a former NVA Colonel and his wife over tea in their home of their terror as they cowered in tunnels while being hit by B-52 strikes...being souvenired a hat by an ARVN Special Forces vet, a First Lt. who was left to fight for our SF camps through many battles after our A-Teams were extracted (a miracle he survived!).

For me, going back was a wonderful experience.