1D APPROACHING VIETNAM

The last leg of our flight to Vietnam was quiet; the soldiers either sleeping or writing letters to their loved ones. This all changed as we approached the Vietnamese coast. Someone yelled out that they could see Vietnam, and immediately everyone got up and strained to get a glimpse. I was lucky enough to occupy a window seat, and my first thought was how green Vietnam looked from 30,000 feet.
My next thought was, “Where are the cities?” All I could see was jungle.
As we began our descent, the thousands of bomb craters that had marred the landscape showed themselves. Mixed among them were hundreds of wildfires caused by the never-ending thunderstorms.
The lower we descended, the more my thoughts drifted from walks on the beach back home…to wondering if the plane would get shot down. As we were landing, the beauty of the countryside was overwhelming; I could not get over the various shades of green in the local flora. My adrenaline reached its peak during landing, when we passed over a dozen bomb craters at the “beginning” of the runway.
I realized then that I had indeed entered a war zone, and that death could take me at any moment. The adventure begins –