Have you gone back to the place where you fought in a war?

Click on images to expand

• Upper Left: John with graduating student
• Lower Left: John with wife in Binh Duong Province about 30 minutes from Bearcat
• Upper Right: John with English language students at hospital
• Lower Right: John and wife with friend

One of my great pleasures in maintaining this website has been to learn of and share the stories of others who served in Vietnam.

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By John Paul Spickelmier, Jr Captain
At Bearcat I was Company Commander of the Signal company in Bearcat belonging to Sig Bn hqs in Vung tau for six months from July 1969 to January 1970. I had voluntarily extended my duty in Vietnam after having served as Combat Motion Picture Team Leader the previous 12 months in various interesting locations throughout the country, to include Dong Tam.
​     As a preteen, my mother used to hide her homemade chocolate chip cookies. I always found them. So too in Bearcat I was really adept at finding and confiscating the Mary Janes in the company area in Bearcat. I never made a fuss, just released contents of clear plastic bags to the breezes flowing through the company parade ground as my fine leader and man of good humor First Sergeant "Curly"Hays stood by. One bag I located in a hollowed out hard cover book by the name "Ordeal by Fire" ho ho ho! Sense of humor there.

 There were ladies to be seen in the area I was told. I did manage to marry with a Vietnamese lady when stationed at Bearcat. Next assignment was STRATCOM, Okinawa where I determined a long marriage was not to be. But hearkening back to Bearcat, my Company Clerk and command driver wrote me that the garden my wife had planted in front lawn of Company HQ was being well taken care of by the Company members.
     In the year 1999, my newer wife, also Vietnamese, and I motorcycled to Bearcat from Saigon. Coming through Long Thanh going toward Vung Thau, just outside the town, the Rubber Plantation in which our company compound in Bearcat was located appeared on the left in the distance. I recognized the outline of that rubber plantation immediately. We turned onto the dirt road from the highway and headed for the edge of the rubber plantation and the area our Signal Company had existed 30 years before. We rode slowly entering the shade of the tall rubber trees. We could discern still the lowered rain gutted outline of berms from long ago. All wood of buildings was gone. A lone middle aged woman sat on the front porch of her small home within the forest of rubber trees. She was only person in view within the deep forest. It was an eerie feeling.
​     Since then we have traveled 6 times by bus and car to Vung Thau on that same Long Thanh highway. We always look to the left to view that same corner of the Bearcat location from years ago.
     Since my 19 straight months in the Vietnam conflict, my newest wife and I have spent an additional 6 1/2 years working in Vietnam. US Embassy, University instructor, primary staff of newly opening International Hospital near Saigon in Binh Duong Province. What I have found in North Vietnam and South Vietnam is that Vietnamese people are not only not Communist, but are just good folks. There are cultural issues to be reckoned with in order to become even more competitive in international markets, but the country appears stable with not a whole lot of grumbling by citizens. Capitalism forces are strong and are being hugely successful. The country is quite safe on personal security and poverty is greatly decreased. Vietnam is in a good place with exception of constant aggression from China, especially regarding Vietnam's territorial waters, fishing grounds, underwater oil fields, land border disputes/mini aggression such as extending southward country borders/ surreptitiously moving border markers southward. At some point we the USA may end up defending Vietnam, our former foe, against additional military incursions by the Chinese aggressive assertive behemoth.
​Bearcat, our remembrances, We were in Bangkok about 8 years ago. We were visiting the Royal Thai Military Nurses Academy. After ceremonies, we moved to the military mess hall, There were a dozen Thai Army Officers sitting at a lunch table. I separated from the Thai military nurses and my current wife. I strode over to the elongated lunch table at which the male Thai Army Officers were seated. I introduced myself as former Company Commander of US Army unit stationed at Bearcat July 69 to Jan 1970. Then I extolled the virtues of the Thai military volunteer unit and men who had provided my unit security for those 6 months and I thanked them all for the good job accomplished by those Thais in a very difficult environment. When I was finished, they all clapped. I departed. The General nurse had watched. On the way down the steps leaving the building, she offered me a job as English Instructor at the military university. But I had a job and had to decline.
     All reflected back to Bearcat! I hope you enjoyed my brief reflections back in time to when I was a bit younger than I am today at 80 years of age. My father, a veteran of USA undeclared anti Japan war in China (1932), World War 2, and Korea was not inclined to share his terrors in mortal combat, though his photos do tell the story sufficiently for my education and expectations.