Vietnam vet ready for a different mission
By Rob Amen
VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
In 1972, Dave Christopher was eager to leave Vietnam. In 2004, he's eager to go back -- again.
Christopher, of Tarentum, who owns a salon along East 10th Street, volunteered with Global Humanitarian Expeditions for 16 days last month, helping a team of dentists and their assistants care for needy families in the Da Nang area.
A free clinic provided examinations of 1,140 children plus dental care worth $160,000. Christopher served as an assistant and kept patients' charts.
That's far different from three decades ago, when he was an 18-year-old repair parts serviceman in the Army's 92nd Assault Helicopter Company.
In addition to volunteering with the dental team, Christopher traveled to an office housing a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, which searches for American veterans' remains.
As he recounted the mission of the two agencies, he spoke with passion for their work and his desire to return to a country some veterans would rather forget.
"I had a little apprehension about going, (worrying about) how people would treat you," Christopher said. "They were absolutely fantastic. ... I'm definitely going back. To me, it's like a community."
"If you're looking for a trip to brighten your soul," he wrote in an e-mail to a friend, "it's there."
The POW/MIA Accounting Command conducts missions like archaeology digs, combing the area where remains are believed to be located. Although he was unable to see an active dig, Christopher said Deputy Cmdr. Maj. Jay Rutter in Hanoi told of an October mission that uncovered the remains of five American soldiers.
Christopher said bomb craters still dot Vietnam's landscape, and women still carry loads of fruit and goods in baskets attached to the ends of long poles resting on their shoulders.
Despite its communist government, Vietnam shows signs of Americanization, Christopher said. Children are eager to practice their English, and Internet cafes are abundant.
"They don't think about the war at all," he said. "They don't look back. It's not in their culture. They look forward."
©2004 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.