A Navy Man Reconnects / USS Surfbird ADG-383

"Though we only spent a relatively short time together in the Navy, that common experience continues to be the catalyst for maintaining long term friendships."

In writing the book, I referred primarily to my Navy experience on PBR’s in Vietnam. However, prior to going to Vietnam, I had served as Operations Officer on a ship, USS Surfbird ADG-383, which was home-ported in Japan. 

In writing about my R & R trip back to Japan, I mentioned this ship (p. 172) and this week, out-of-the blue, got an email from an old, fellow sailor, Bruce Stevens. To be honest, I can’t remember a lot of the names of men I served with on that ship. However, he had signed his email: “BM 3, 67-70.” That meant he had been Boatswains Mate 3rd class in 1967-1970.

When I responded to his email, I asked him if we had served together, and he sent me a wonderful letter naming various people we had both served with on that ship. He has maintained his friendship with them over many years. Bruce said that he had read the book and “enjoyed it very much.” But, of course, our correspondence dealt primarily with our old comradeship on the USS Surfbird.

One of the benefits of writing a book comes when it helps resurrect old friends and old memories. This reconnecting also is indicative of Navy men. Though we only spent a relatively short time together in the Navy, that common experience continues to be the catalyst for maintaining long term friendships. I am sure the same thing goes on today for those who serve on ships in the Navy.

Rolly Kidder

>> See the real Surfbird: Calidris Virgata

French "Dinossaut" Riverine Craft

For those who served on the Mang Thit River, 1969, these were the type of boats that were operated by the South Vietnamese Vinh Long Battalion. Captain Bob Olson, who died during this operation, and Mike Paluda both operated as Army advisors with this outfit. The boats were reliable but slow and made a lot of noise. The Vinh Long Battalion was associated with the PBR effort here to open the Mang Thit to commercial activity. The VC had closed the waterway, primarily by taxing boat traffic, and the U.S./Vietnamese effort here was successful in reopening the river to commercial traffic.  This note below is repeated from Mike Harris, of the Mobile Riverine Force Association.

Rolly Kidder

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Hello Everyone, 

First, allow me to pleasure of wishing you all a very good 2015! 

Rich Lorman (T-152-6 — 7/68 to 6/69) sent me the query on this photo:

Here's a photo of a totally new version of Riverine craft I hadn't seen before: 

It is actually an altered version of the old French Dinossaut (STCAN/FOM) craft. The bow has been cut off as you will see below. Probably due to damage. These are like the one that I spotted sanded in on the shore in Northern Laos in the mid-90’s (see below). I just found this model on the Internet. There were two sizes. 8 meter and 11 meter: http://fieldsoffireonline.freeforums.org/stcan-fom-boats-t1873.html 

Here’s an image that I found on the Internet years ago. I believe that it is in Ed Marolda’s “By Sea, Land and Air”. I seem to recall that LT. Meyerkord received the Navy Cross Medal earlier in the 60’s as a Naval Advisor on these boats. 

This is the one in Northern Laos. I wish that I could have initiated a salvage of the craft, but it would not fly in communist Laos. FYI, the boat in the background was very unique. It had a 4 cylinder car engine and very little keel. We were given motorcycle helmets and looked like we were on a Shuttle launch the way our facial skin pushed back due to the speed of the boat. They slid around bends so the driver had to really know the boat. 

Here is a nice article I just found on the Dinossaut boats. Click on any underlined craft and scroll through photos of all of the different boats. We all saw many of these craft still in operation when we were there. Interestingly several of them had 20 MM weapons as well: http://indochine54.free.fr/cefeo/dinassau.html 

Here’s an old video of a “French Commando Raid”. Looks pretty staged though: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/indo-china-french-commando-raid 

Warm Regards, 

Mike Harris

A Merry Christmas from Our House to Yours

Christmas is a great time around our home, and we hope it also is for you.

Two years after returning from Vietnam, I married Jane Dawson and ever since we have celebrated what we call the “Dawson Christmas.” It is held a few days before Christmas so that all of the Dawson’s can drive in from places like Rochester and Cleveland. This past Sunday we had about 35 of us together at our home here on Chautauqua Lake. When Santa came, the place erupted with all of the grandkids cheering his arrival! If you play this short video, you will get a sense of what it was like.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Rolly Kidder

New Revisions now in effect for Backtracking in Brown Water

As I stated in the Acknowledgements chapter of my book, book-writing can take on a “complexity of its own.”

There were two factual changes that I needed to make to the book and several grammatical improvements that make it better. Our editor, Ruth Fairbank Chiama, helped me in getting this done. She also sent me a copy of some comments made by Charles Krauthammer in his book Things That Matter.  Many of his chapters were adaptations of prior newspaper articles. When he put them into book form he made some changes, minor in nature but focused on “allowing me to exercise my petty punctuational prejudices, most importantly, my war on commas.  They are a pestilence and must be stopped.”  But, he assured the reader that “they change no meaning…. It stands on the day it was first published: imperfect, unimproved and unapologetically mine.”

That, in essence, describes these most recent changes to Backtracking in Brown Water.  If you have already read the book, you need not purchase another copy.  But, for those first-time readers or potential readers, I think this “tweaking” makes the book better and, at least, puts the author’s mind at ease that it better passes muster from a grammatical and punctuational point-of-view.  If you haven’t yet read the book, now would be a good time to purchase it!

Rolland Kidder

Return to the Mekong Delta

This map traces my journey back to South Vietnam which inspired Backtracking in Brown Water

Natural Gas Advocacy

In addition to my interest in veteran’s affairs as witnessed in Backtracking in Brown Water, I have for many years been involved in the energy business and specifically in natural gas as an energy source.  My son, Bart, co-author of this blog, has suggested that some of our readers might be interested in my views as they relate to current policy in the State of New York which has shut-down the natural gas drilling business. 

Because of my concerns about what I view as a short-sighted energy policy, I have written a few articles advocating on behalf of natural gas as a clean-burning resource which should be developed in our state.  The following article is one of a series that were sent to daily newspapers across New York State.

Who Will Supply New York with Natural Gas?

Today, new technologies for unlocking natural gas have revolutionized the industry.   A half-century old process called hydraulic fracturing combined with a relatively new ability to drill horizontally in shale formations has made America more energy independent than it has been in fifty years.  The Marcellus Shale, conveniently located here in the Northeast, has become one of the biggest international energy stories emerging in the past five years.

Yet, New York has decided to “opt-out” of participating in this economic opportunity.    That does not mean that our state does not like to consume natural gas.   According to statistics published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2012 New York consumed 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.   Statewide, 29% went to heat homes, and 40% was consumed to make electricity.  

So what has New York decided to do about it?   We have decided to say “No” to this new technology.  The State has essentially shut down the natural gas producing industry through a “moratorium”, a decision to not issue permits for the production of shale gas within the boundaries of New York State.

This produces a conundrum for those of us who live in this state.  We need natural gas.   We expect it to be delivered to our doorsteps, to our apartments, to our businesses… and especially to our plants that produce electricity.   We like the clean-burning, environmental benefits of natural gas, but we apparently don’t want the inconvenience of producing it. 

Where do we want to get our energy?  Do we want to go back to importing more oil from the Middle East?  Do we want to become an energy-starved country like Japan which needs to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from other countries?   We do want to be known as the most environmentally enlightened state in the Union.   We say we are for renewable energy, yet are unwilling to support production of the natural gas required to back it up and insure its reliability on the electric grid.    In short, New Yorkers seem to have an attitude that “we can have our cake and eat it to.”  Let someone else worry about our natural gas supplies.

The most recent statistics from EIA indicate that about 34% of the natural gas being consumed in the country today is coming from shale formations.  This energy cannot be produced without these modern technologies which, in essence, release the gas that is trapped in the rock. Though we New Yorkers are sitting on billions of cubic feet of shale gas, we are unwilling to produce it.

Albany needs to “change its tune.”  Our State should be a producer, not just a consumer of this clean-burning energy. During this year’s cold winter, even the most ardent opponents of natural gas in New York were being kept warm by it.  The fact that over a third of the energy heating our homes was coming from shale gas reservoirs in neighboring states seems to be over-looked.  Where would we be without it?  Who, in the future, will supply the natural gas that we need?  Shouldn’t New Yorkers be a part of the solution?

Book Signing at Chautauqua Institution this Weekend!

Rolland Kidder, author of Backtracking in Brown Water,  will be signing books at the Chautauqua Institution Bookstore on

Sunday, July 20^th from 12pm - 2pm 

Chautauqua Institution was founded in 1874 and is located on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in upstate New York.  Originally founded as an educational retreat center for the Methodist Church, the Institution has become one of the premier summer cultural centers in the United States.  Over a 9 week season it offers programing in theater, opera, lectureships and music.   It also hosts a Symphony Orchestra which regularly performs twice a week.   The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Club is one of the oldest book clubs in America.  Its a beautiful setting with many things to see and do.

Gate passes to the Institution are free on Sundays.  The Chautauqua Bookstore is located on Bestor Plaza at the center of the Chautauqua grounds.  The public is invited to the book signing, we'd love to see you there!

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Endorsement from a Non-military Voice

Two weeks ago I received a wonderful letter from an old friend about the book.  She is an author herself, had purchased the book primarily out of wanting to support a friend, and had set in on a shelf.   When she started to read it, she wrote that “she couldn’t put it down.”  

I have received many letters of support from those who have served in military, but thought that her comments were especially poignant as being one of the many who were affected by the Vietnam War while not being directly engaged in it.  With her permission, I have copied her letter for inclusion on this blog:

Dear Rolly: 

Just had to let you know that I’ve had your latest book for some time but had postponed reading it.  I didn’t really think it would interest me but wanted to support you. 

Instead, I couldn’t put it down! I was glad to learn so many details about your experience in Vietnam, both 40 years ago and more recently.  That was where so many of my classmates found themselves.  My high school love, President of the 1960 Class of Kenmore West, totally disappointed me when he chose West Point over Princeton.  Shortly thereafter, I opted out of our lengthy relationship—a lifelong neighbor committed neighbor committed suicide upon his return stateside.  As you know, it was a time of disillusionment for all of us. 

However, I thoroughly enjoyed your book and your informative, yet personal, writing style.  I found it a page-turner, to be honest. 

You’ve done a great service to your Navy buddies and their families, to be sure.  And, I hope you have a great sense of satisfaction for completing this daunting project. 

The book was quite an eye-opener and I appreciate your taking all of us readers  backtracking with you! 

Sincere congratulations, 

Kathy Crocker

A Book Review from the U.K.

Those who have read the book have seen a photograph of Thu Trung Van, myself, and Gordon Johnston on the Vinh Te Canal. (p.221)

Gordon is an old friend from the U.K. and accompanied Thu and I on our trip back to the Mekong Delta in 2010.  Though not an American, Gordon was moved by the history of the trip and the opportunity he had of comparing Vietnam today to the war years of 1969 and 1970.  Here is what he recently wrote:

“Hello Rolando,

Just to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed your book.  For me it brought back memories of our interesting trip to Vietnam.  I can appreciate that for you the experience must have been much more intense. 

Congratulations on a successful project! 

Gordon”

His comments caused me to reflect that though we often refer to books that we like as having “enjoyed” them, it is difficult to “enjoy” this book in the conventional meaning of that term.  There are a lot of sad stories in it, which can make enjoyment difficult.  

In response to his email, I said that one of my hopes in writing the book was that the reader better understand and appreciate what the 1960’s and 70’s were like living in the United States during the Vietnam War.  If I could convey accurately and with some passion the lives and deaths of some friends I knew, along with an analysis of the war I experienced as an observer and participant, then I would view the writing as worthwhile and meaningful.  

In other words, if those who read the book “enjoy” it in the sense of developing a better understanding of what the Vietnam War was all about and what it was like for those who participated in it or were affected by it… that would fulfill my expectations and hopes were in writing it.

Rolland Kidder / author

Jamestown Naval Reserve Chiefs' and Officers' Mess

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  On May 31, 2014, I was privileged to address the annual dinner of this organization.  Forty years ago, after returning from active duty in Vietnam, I drilled at the Jamestown Naval Reserve Center.  In those days, we required to stay involved in the reserves for about three years upon conclusion of our active duty commitment.

Though this Reserve Center has been closed now for over ten years, those who became friends during the days it was open, continue to meet annually through what is called the “Chiefs’ and Officers’ Mess.”   Last Saturday night I spoke to the group about the book Backtracking in Brown Water.

I received a wonderful reception and also renewed some old friendships.  It has always amazed me how common experiences serving in the military live on in organizations like this.  It is a tribute to a camaraderie which develops and which is not easily explained unless you were a part of it.

Rolland Kidder

Gaspe' Quebec / Canadian Connection

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Eldon Tozer’s niece, Sandra Thompson, sent this “Letter to the Editor” to the The Gaspe’ Spec, and I thought that it would be of interest to those have read the book or who knew Eldon Tozer during his life.   The letter was published on March 5, 2014.   The newspaper’s office is located in New Carlisle, Quebec.

Letter to the Editor:

My uncle Eldon Tozer of Cullen’s Brook served in the U.S. Navy from 1956 until November 1969. On November 20^th, 1969 he was killed while serving on a River Patrol Boat in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.  A funeral service was held in Bonaventure with internment in the Riverside Cemetery in Cullen’s Brook.

Four years ago, Rolland Kidder from Ashville, New York USA contacted my mother Frances Tozer.  He told her that he would like to make a trip to Cullen’s Brook to visit Eldon’s grave and to interview her.

He wanted to write a book about his trip back to Vietnam—and about Eldon and two other men who lost their lives in Vietnam.  He also interviewed two of Eldon’s daughters who live in Michigan.  It was a very emotional time for everyone.

The book—“Backtracking in Brown Water,”  by Rolland E. Kidder is available in hardcover and paperback editions at Amazon.com.  Mr. Kidder journeyed back to the rivers and canals of South Vietnam.  He recounts life aboard Patrol Boats in the heart of the Mekong Delta and interviewed the families of three of his friends lost in the fighting back in 1969.

Mr. Kidder was appointed to the American Battle Monuments Commission by both President Bill Clinton and President Obama, and was a member of the original World War II Memorial Site and Design Committee.

Mr. Kidder is a Navy Vietnam War Veteran who served as a Patrol Boat Officer with River Division 535 in 1969-70. 

We feel very honoured to have Mr. Kidder visit our area and include our loved one in his book.  Eldon’s memory will live on.

A blog was created about the book.  It can be found on the internet at: http://rollandkidder.blogspot.com.”

Sandra Thompson

Flatlands, New Brunswick

WWII Memorial 10th Anniversary Celebration

It was a fabulous event on a gorgeous day in Washington, DC!

Below is a photo of the Members of the American Battle Monuments Commission’s World War II Memorial Site and Design Committee at the Memorial’s construction site in 2001, and again today (May 24, 2014) at the 10th anniversary celebration.  This is the first time the group has been together in a long while, and it was a very special moment.   

From left to right: 

Frank Moore, Dr. Helen Fagin, Ambassador Haydn Williams, Friedrich St. Florian (memorial designer), Rolland E. Kidder, Brigadier General Pat Foote, USA (Ret.).

Book Review : David Daly

An Insightful Chronicle of Mekong Delta Operations

By 

David Daly

This review is from Amazon: Backtracking in Brown Water: Retracing Life on Mekong Delta River Patrols 
(Kindle Edition)

 

What happens when Rolland Kidder (a former N.Y. state farm boy, theological seminary graduate, U.S. Naval Patrol Boat River (PBR) officer, N.Y. State Assemblyman, oil and gas executive ) writes about the lives and deaths of three of his military friends? I believe the result is a story told with the insight of a “weathered thinker.” We learn how young military leaders take care of their troops. We, also, find the long term impact of the deaths on the families. The daily Mekong Delta events reinforce the author’s observation that “war is no way to solve our problems.” Kidder’s story provides meaning and honor to the fallen men’s lives and deaths. I found the book rewarding and insightful. This book has the substance and perspective of a caring historian.

I Was Just There Last Night

Submitted by Bill Sayers, 9th ID 3rd/60th 

This story came to me anonymously via e-mail, the author, a fellow Vietnam Veteran. After reading his story, I felt compelled to share this with you. If you didn't participate in the Vietnam War, this will give you some insight into how our minds work. He writes: A couple of years ago someone asked me if I still thought about Vietnam. I nearly laughed in their face. How do you stop thinking about it? Every day for the past forty years, I wake up with it- I go to bed with it. This was my response:

"Yeah, I think about it. I can't stop thinking about it. I never will. But, I've also learned to live with it. I'm comfortable with the memories. I've learned to stop trying to forget and learned to embrace it. It just doesn't scare me anymore."

A lot of my "brothers" haven't been so lucky. For them the memories are too painful, their sense of loss too great. My sister told me of a friend she has whose husband was in the Nam. She asks this guy when he was there. Here's what he said, "Just last night." It took my sister a while to figure out what he was talking about. Just Last Night. Yeah, I was in the Nam. When? Just last night, before I went to sleep, on my way to work this morning, and over my lunch hour. Yeah, I was there

My sister says I'm not the same brother who went to Vietnam. My wife says I won't let people get close to me, not even her. They are probably both right. Ask a vet about making friends in Nam. It was risky. Why? Because we were in the business of death, and death was with us all the time. It wasn't the death of, "If I die before I wake." This was the real thing. The kind boys scream for their mothers. The kind that lingers in your mind and becomes more real each time you cheat it. You don't want to make a lot of friends when the possibility of dying is that real, that close. When you do, friends become a liability.

A guy named Bob Flanigan was my friend. Bob Flanigan is dead. I put him in a body bag one sunny day, April 29, 1969. We'd been talking, only a few minutes before he was shot, about what we were going to do when we got back to the world. Now, this was a guy who had come in country the same time as me. A guy who was loveable and generous. He had blue eyes and sandy blond hair. When he talked, it was with a soft drawl. I loved this guy like the brother I never had. But, I screwed up. I got too close to him. I broke one of the unwritten rules of war.  DON'T GET CLOSE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO DIE. You hear vets use the term "buddy" when they refer to a guy they spent the war with. "Me and this buddy of mine."

Friend sounds too intimate, doesn't it? "Friend" calls up images of being close. If he's a friend, then you are going to be hurt if he dies, and war hurts enough without adding to the pain. Get close; get hurt. It's as simple as that. In war you learn to keep people at that distance my wife talks about. You become good at it, that forty years after the war, you still do it without thinking. You won't allow yourself to be vulnerable again.

My wife knows two people who can get into the soft spots inside me-my daughters. I know it bothers her that they can do this. It's not that I don't love my wife. I do. She's put up with a lot from me. She'll tell you that when she signed for better or worse, she had no idea there was going to be so much of the latter. But with my daughters it's different. My girls are mine. They'll always be my kids. Not marriage, not distance, not even death can change that. They are something on this earth that can never be taken away from me. I belong to them. Nothing can change that. I can have an ex-wife; but my girls can never have an ex-father. There's the difference. I can still see the faces, though they all seem to have the same eyes. When I think of us, I always see a line of "dirty grunts" sitting on a paddy dike. We're caught in the first gray silver between darkness and light. That first moment when we know we've survived another night, and the business of staying alive for one more day is about to begin. There was so much hope in that brief space of time. It's what we used to pray for. "One more day, God. One more day."

And I can hear our conversations as if they'd only just been spoken I still hear the way we sounded. The hard cynical jokes, our morbid senses of humor. We were scared to death of dying, and tried our best not to show it.

I recall the smells, too. Like the way cordite hangs on the air after a fire-fight. Or the pungent odor of rice paddy mud. So different from the black dirt of Iowa. The mud of Nam smells ancient, somehow. Like it's always been there. And I'll never forget the way blood smells, sticky and drying on my hands. I spent a long night that way once. The memory isn't going anywhere.

I remember how the night jungle appears almost dreamlike as pilot of a Cessna buzzes overhead, dropping parachute flares until morning. That artificial sun would flicker and make shadows run through the jungle. It was worse than not being able to see what was out there sometimes. I remember once looking at the man next to me as a flare floated overhead. The shadows around his eyes were so deep that it looked like his eyes were gone. I reached over and touched him on the arm; without looking at me he touched my hand. "I know man. I know." That's what he said. It was a human moment. Two guys a long way from home and scared to death.

God, I loved those guys. I hurt every time one of them died. We all did. Despite our posturing. Despite our desire to stay disconnected, we couldn't help ourselves. I know why Tim O' Brien writes his stories. I know what gives Bruce Weigle the words to create poems so honest I cry at their horrible beauty. It's love. Love for those guys we shared the experience with.

We did our jobs like good soldiers, and we tried our best not to become as hard as our surroundings. You want to know what is frightening. It's a nineteen-year-old-boy who's had a sip of that power over life and death that war gives you. It's a boy who, despite all the things he's been taught, knows that he likes it. It's a nineteen-year-old who's just lost a friend, and is angry and scared and, determined that, "some*@#*s gonna pay". To this day, the thought of that boy can wake me from a sound sleep and leave me staring at the ceiling.

As I write this, I have a picture in front of me. It's of two young men. On their laps are tablets. One is smoking a cigarette. Both stare without expression at the camera. They're writing letters. Staying in touch with places they rather be. Places and people they hope to see again. The picture shares space in a frame with one of my wife. She doesn't mind. She knows she's been included in special company. She knows I'll always love those guys who shared that part of my life, a part she never can. And she understands how I feel about the ones I know are out there yet. The ones who still answer the question, "When were you in Vietnam?"

"Hey, man. I was there just last night."

So was I. How about the rest of you vets-hits home doesn't it!

Share this article with others so they understand why many of today's veteran's behave the way they do be it Vietnam or other conflicts, this is a common thread shared by all.

AUTHORS NOTE:  This statement was sent to me by Mike Paluda who was a friend of Bob Olson and who is quoted in the chapter titled “Warrior.” It is from a soldier who served in the 9th Infantry Division which operated in the Mekong Delta.

Mike stays in touch with a lot of Army guys from the Vietnam War, and I thought that these thoughtful and powerful comments should be passed on.

Rolland Kidder