The day I became a US Marine

As you all know I was recruited recently to be in a war film as an actor. We weren’t told a lot about it at all, just to turn up to a central location, we’d be paid $110 for a day’s work and that there were about 25 of us needed. By ‘Us’ I mean white or black men aged between 19 and 34.

So I turned up, boarded a coach that was waiting at 6am for us and got chatting to some of the other people hired for the day. Everyone was pretty nice, chilled, a bit sleepy as it was an early start. We then got briefed on what we were doing as we set off leaving HCMC. The Vietnamese government had commissioned a film from one of the top SE Asian film studios to mark the 40th anniverary of the reunification of North and South Vietnam. Because of this, they needed 25 people to form a few squads of men acting out the role of the US marines in Bien Hoa. The film itself was to be called ‘The Red Road’ – The rough translation, anyway, and on the 30th april it would be shown across the largest TV stations throughout Vietnam! I was pretty excited that millions of people get to see me on TV 🙂

I managed to catch some sleep and woke up as we arrived. It was basically a clearing in the middle of a wooded/jungle area outside the city limits. We were issued our ‘kit’ including a real M-16. We realised a lot of the kit – webbing, backpacks and guns were actually authentic, which to be honest was a bit of an odd feeling.

What was stranger is that there we a number of mounds around the area with trenches behind them that were dug out very well and looked solid. I wondered how long this all took to make (The clearing, trenches, etc). When asked, one of the producers proudly tell me “oh hahaha no no, many years ago americans make it and run away, get shot by vietnamese, they attack.” Oh. Right. We were standing on the ruins of a base. Wow.

The huey and pilot

Anyway, no sooner as we had finished talking, two huey helicopters screamed in from somewhere and landed near us. Once all the dust had settled we were told to go over to them – One team in each.

My squad.

Inside the Huey – My M-16 and the minigun attached.

I never signed up for this. Holy shit, we get to go a helicopter. The scene was “Chopper lands in clearing, marines jump the hell out fast and run in single file off camera” – Sounds easy enough. Honestly though, Jumping in and out of a huey is actually harder than it looks with all the kit on. 7/8 people inside plus pilot, ‘gunner’ and co-pilot all running to get in within 10-15 seconds is pretty hard going. It took off fast, spun round and headed off. We only really had one take as the fuel for these things is fucking expensive, so we had to do it right. I should probably mention that there we no ‘windows’ as such, it goes straight outside into the sky. I should have probably mentioned I’m scared of heights, heh.

I should have probably mentioned, I am scared of heights. This is when it was circling round back to the woods/jungle.

As you can see from the video, It went pretty damn well for both teams. We landed, exited without a hitch and ran off camera.

We then were loaded onto a bus and moved maybe half a kilometer north, through the trees to another clearing, where a FULL GODDAMN MILITARY BASE HAD BEEN MADE.

The base at dusk – Probably the best picture of it before.. well.. read on.

There were 7 APC’s dotted around (Armored personnel carriers for those that have no idea- Troop transporters), a few watchtowers 4/5 tents set up around trenches and general.. military.. stuff just around. There was an artillery battery set up to the side and it was just very impressive all round to look at.

The APC detachment

The gun battery

We had a break for lunch, it was about then I realised how much I’d been sweating – I still had jeans under my trousers and a t-shirt on under my top. The prop company were funny about us wearing it straight off (probably to save money on cleaning it..) Still looked badass though.

Me, slightly sunburned and fully badass.

Anyway, we filmed more ‘generic base shots’ with us milling around, pointing, cleaning the guns (I took the opportunity to teach everyone how to actually cock the weapons and dry fire them ^^) and we had then another helicopter scene – This time the same thing but in reverse. Getting all our shit together then running into the huey for an emergency take-off. MORE AIRBORNE FUN.

Anyway. Night fell and we had to film the “patrolling the base / jungle in an APC” scene which was ace. I’d never been in one that actually moved before, so this was a new experience for me.

Me, in command of a large machine gun 🙂

This went on for a good few hours, and as we approached 10pm, the finale was being set up and talked about.

This involved the full scale NVA assault on the base, and we weren’t told very much except there would be a lot of pyrotechnics. All 7 APC’s lined up behind the base, and we had to run either side of them, to keep formation. I was hopeful the drivers knew what they were fucking doing as running 1 meter away from a fast moving APC with huge tracks is pretty inimidating, especially if you’re leading everyone else..

We practiced a few times and then on action, we ran. We prepared for the final take and usually the shout of “READY… ACTION!” let us know that filming had begun but this time.. “READY…. ** BOOM **”

There was a huge fucking explosion that made every sane person duck. Now I’ve seen pyrotechnics before but this was *huge* – You could feel it in your lungs. We ran like we’d never ran before as more and more huge fucking explosions went off. Bit of debris and sand went EVERYWHERE. Just as we were running out the base front door the watchtower – now with an added mannequin” exploded in a ball of flames, sending huge chunks of wood flying everywhere. Of course, I’d have loved to film this but sadly I only managed to spin round off camera and snap this.

The base, blown to hell. There was only a few bits left that weren’t on fire. Health and safety isn’t really a big thing here, incase you hadn’t realised.

As you can see.. there isn’t much base left at all. Everything else was blown to hell. I was covered in dirt, mud etc. We weren’t done filming yet.  We were then taken to the artillery battery and filmed loading and firing the things, repeatedly.

Anyway, about 1am we all piled back on the bus which took us back to HCMC. One of the best days I’ve had a since I got here. I met some utterly fantastic people, nearly got blown up, flew in a helicopter, twice and was in a moving APC. It was fantastic- I even got paid for it!

Tomorrow, I begin the trip up to Hanoi.

It’s 1,450 miles i’m gonna put my little bike through, and it’s going to be 20 days of riding and chilling out inbetween. Many guesthouses, probably a few mechanics, lots of coast and some beautiful views to come.

Hope you’re all well ❤

History is Written by the Victors – War and Reunification

It’s always been said that history is written by the victors, and today’s experience proves this more than I’ve ever seen.

This will probably be the last thing I post on the Vietnam / American conflict for a while, especially my last post leaned heavily that way too. Today I went to see the War Remnants Museum and a few days ago, the Reunification Palace.

As I previously mentioned, Vietnam was two separate countries; North Vietnam and South Vietnam. As the war raged on throughout the sixties and into the seventies, it became very apparent that South Vietnam along with their US allies were losing the fight against the North Vietnamese forces. Huge political pressures from home in the US made the administration slowly start removing troops from the region. Some of the strong US oppositon fell back on the strong hippy/anti-war movement at the time, and others on the the Lyndon Johnson adage of “We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves”

An american chinook used to transport heavy goods and troops.

Either way, from 1973 US forces were slowly pulled out of South Vietnam. By ’74 as Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford came to power and cut a lot of funding to South Vietnam and pulled even more troops back home. With only 20,000 US troops left in the country soon after this from the peak of 540,000, the North Vietnamese took this a sure sign to start their final offensive in early 1975.

As the bombardment of Saigon started to take place from NVLA (North Viet Liberation Army) forces, the South descended into chaos. The US forces began Operation Frequent Wind and began evacuation every South Viet Official, orphan, and american they could. This went on round the clock.

The reunification palace. called Norodom Palace (Where the South Viet president Nguyễn Văn Thiệu lived with family) – Similar to 10 downing street or the white house.

There was panic everywhere and a lot of NVLA slipped into Saigon undetected. On 8th April 1975 a South Vietnamese pilot revealed himself to be a traitor and actually an NVLA spy – He took off his jet from a nearby airfield and bombed the reunification palace, landing in a secret jungle airfield. This was the key moment that many countries realised the war was essentially unwinnable at this point. It was less about destruction and more about a “we’ve got you now” message.

The jet used to bomb the reunification palace

On 30th April 1975, NVLA troops entered the city of Saigon and smashed through the gates of the palace. This was the signal the war was over. Surrender was inevitable unless a last ditch stand was to happen. The US forces were all but pulled out as the NVLA raised the flag at the palace.

The first tank to smash through the gates of the palace

The infamous ‘Last chopper to leave Saigon’ was from the CIA building, downtown in the city. The NVLA poured across the city, capturing key installations and putting down the last resistance.

The infamous ‘Last Chopper out of Saigon’

And that was that.

Now, back to the title of the post. History is indeed written by the victors – Today I visited the War Remnants Museum. It covers the entirety of the war. Now I’d hate to say the place was one sided, but let’s just say the NVLA were still very bitter about the US forces helping the South Vietnamese. The whole museum sidestepped things like the Hanoi Hilton POW camp for allied forces and starkly commented on pictures of dead / dying / burned women and children of “Americans did this”

Dead people pictures

There was some deeply disturbing shit there – Especially when it came to Agent Orange. For those of you not in the know, Agent Orange was a type of herbicide used by the US forces to destroy the foliage / jungle the NVLA used to hide in. It caused enormous issues for Vietnam and birth defects for decades after. The museum had a whole floor dedicated to it, including dead children that were sat in formaldehyde .

Deformed child due to agent orange

Anyway, there were many captured US military bombs, guns and tanks for people to look out. The choice of language used in all of this was incredibly interesting – When the NLVA attacked or gained ground the word “Liberation” was used excessively, when the US forces did, they were always on “search and destroy” missions and there were pictures of destroyed villages and murdered civilians that followed.

There were as surprising amount of US families that had come along at the same time, and after 3 floors of the museum you can see it was starting to take it’s toll on them;

American tourists feeling slightly singled out

The museum then went to point out how it was obvious that they were to lose from the beginning and all they left in their wake was ordnance ordnance across the country which have killed 43,000 since the war ended and maimed over 60,000.

Mine and UXO

Ultimately history is written by the victors; anyone in Vietnam who is older than 50 knows this. The children now grow up in Ho Chi Minh City, but it’s still known as Saigon. There are the older folk here who still spit when you mention the name HCMC, and even more embittered are those who fled South Vietnam when the NVLA reunified the country. Let’s not forget here; some people didn’t want to be liberated. Those who still opposed them or were found to have been working with the US forces were punished severely. 6 years jail time for sympathisers and them and their family banned from education and university for the forseeable. The rules have only recently been relaxed on this.

Reunification Park

There is still a divide in culture between the north and the south here but it’s getting better. With each generation that passes, the more unified the country will actually be.