Page 14A
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East Oregonian
Saturday, May 21, 2016
VIETNAM: Nichols remembers thinking ‘I don’t want to die naked’
Continued from 1A
Nichols.
One day at the Quang
Tri base in central Vietnam,
Nichols remembers standing
in line for the showers after
coming back from patrol.
He stepped into an outdoor
shower stall, his lak jacket,
helmet and weapon close
by. The shower came to an
abrupt halt as the base came
under attack.
“Rockets and mortars
started coming in,” Nichols
recalled. “The alarm sounded
over speakers. I remember
running to the perimeter and
thinking, ‘I don’t want to die
naked.’”
As he and another Marine
ran side-by-side, a rocket
exploded “10 meters behind
us.” Nichols, knocked out
for a short while, awoke
to see the other man dead,
only yards away. Later,
after medics had taken
the soldier away, Nichols
noticed a jagged and bloody
piece of shrapnel embedded
nearby. He removed the
chunk of metal and still has
it, a poignant reminder of
the brutality of war and the
randomness of who died and
who didn’t.
Other memories haunt
Nichols, too. He remembers
a boy riding a water buffalo
toward the perimeter of
Camp Carroll. Though
warned to turn around, the
boy kept on coming. An
oficer ordered Nichols and
other Marines that if the rider
came any farther, they were
to shoot him. He crossed the
perimeter and, in seconds,
the boy and the water buffalo
lay dead.
“Later, we learned he
was retarded,” Nichols said.
“He loved the chocolates the
Americans gave out. That’s
why he had come.”
The experiences kept
coming. More often than
not, Nichols admitted he
“was pretty damn scared” in
Vietnam.
This is tough stuff. Every
veteran has their own searing
memories. On the tour bus,
the veterans told their stories
over a microphone to the
others, usually just before
arriving at a destination
signiicant to the speaker.
Many of the stops brought
strong emotion.
The group hiked with one
Photo by Skip Nichols
Bill Stilwagen (blue shirt) tells vets about the Long Hung Catholic Church, a refuge for women and children
caught in a crossire between South and North Vietnamese troops after Americans pulled out of Dong Ha.
Photo by Skip Nichols
Photo by Skip Nichols
Paula Nichols shows off photos she took to children
gathered at the old Quang Tri Airield.
Workers hauling tree trimmings inside The Citadel in
the Imperial City at Hue, Vietnam.
of their members to the spot
where her father had died.
She carried photos, lowers,
medals, a letter he had
written to her shortly before
his death and a poem she had
penned in his honor. She read
the letter and the poem. The
veterans saluted as “Taps”
wafted from a recorder.
They accompanied a
fellow veteran to a village
where he had spent time.
He met a woman who he
gave medicine to when she
was a 15-year-old girl. She
rode up on a motorcycle,
and both of their faces lit up
with recognition. She invited
the American veteran to her
home.
In 1968, Nichols’ time in
Vietnam ended so abruptly
that he’d never said a
proper goodbye. The young
Marine was called home to
Texas when it appeared his
mother was dying from an
aneurysm. When his mom
recovered, he got ready to
return to the war. Waiting for
his light, however, he got
word his father had suffered
a stroke. Nichols never made
it back to Vietnam. Later,
he learned many of the men
in his unit had died in an
artillery attack.
“Honestly, I have always
felt guilty,” Nichols said.
leave Harney County during
their 41-day occupation of
the refuge to protest federal
land-use policies.
A recall election will be
held by June 28.
Earlier in the week,
Harney County citizens
voted decisively in this
week’s primary for candi-
dates who opposed the
armed occupation of the
refuge.
Harney County had more
candidates on the ballot than
in any primary election in
recent history, according
to Oregon Public Broad-
casting. In discussions about
federal lands, some candi-
dates echoed the rhetoric of
Ammon Bundy and other
occupation leaders.
But voters were clear they
preferred candidates who
opposed the occupation. For
the county judge seat, to be
vacated by Grasty, current
county commissioner Pete
Runnels got 53 percent
of the vote. That means
he’ll take ofice without a
November runoff.
For the county commis-
sioner race, two candidates
who also opposed the
occupation will face off
in November: political
newcomer Mark Owens,
who works in the hay and
farming industries, and
incumbent Dan Nichols,
who decided to run at the
last minute because he felt
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want him to face it alone.
Plus her husband didn’t like
to talk about Vietnam and
she needed to know more.
“It made me more
understanding,” Paula said.
“I found out more in two
weeks than in 46 years of
marriage.”
Nichols is glad she
insisted on coming.
“It made an important
connection for us,” he said.
Together, they visited
such places as the Highway
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JUDGE: Harney County had highest voter
participation in the state with 72 percent
Continued from 1A
“It still eats at me. Maybe
I could have made a
difference.”
Probably not, though, he
admitted. He likely would
have come home in a cofin
just as they had.
Nichols’ wife, Paula,
experienced her own
awakening during the
Vietnam tour. At irst, Skip
hadn’t wanted her to come
along to a place that had
caused him so much pain.
But she insisted. She didn’t
of Horror, the Tu Duc
Tombs, Hamburger Hill
and the Vinh Moc Tunnels,
a complex of passageways
dug by locals to evade
U.S. bombing. They took
a dragon boat cruise and
walked on China Beach.
Nichols said he loves
the country and the people,
despite Vietnam being the
site of so much violence.
During the trip, he felt
amazed by the people’s
warmth.
“They didn’t seem to
hold any animosity,” Nichols
said. “They were warm and
welcoming.”
“Everyone wanted to
talk,” Paula said. “We’d
draw a crowd. They wanted
to practice their English.”
Nichols said even though
he returned to Vietnam, he
realizes now that it wasn’t
possible to really go back.
The Vietnam he knew
doesn’t really exist anymore.
Take Da Nang, for example.
“I didn’t even recognize
it,” Nichols said. “I
had thought of it as my
18-year-old self, but it has
changed.”
Nichols remembered
two-story buildings, shacks
and Quonset huts near the
airport. He and Paula found
skyscrapers, golf courses,
luxury hotels, private
villas, resorts and even a
Dragon Bridge that breathes
ireworks and spouts water.
But, standing back on
that red Vietnamese soil,
he felt some of his demons
loosening their grip. Visiting
his own list of signiicant
places and those of others
brought some of Nichols’
murky memories into
focus. After seeing Camp
Carroll, Quang Tri and other
spots and talking to fellow
veterans, he can now ill in
some of the gaps.
“Before, I would try and
put the pieces together into
a giant puzzle where I didn’t
even know what the picture
was,” Nichols said. “This trip
allowed me to add my pieces
to others’.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
Harney County needed
consistency in leadership
after the occupation.
Harney County had the
highest voter participation
in the state, with 72 percent
of eligible voters submitting
ballots.
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