Writer : Jae-sung Chung Date : 2021-05-27 Hit : 33
A Terminally Ill Vietnam War Veteran

A Terminally Ill Vietnam War Veteran

 

As one of the fellow ROK Vietnam War veterans, I was dumbfounded at the news that a colleague veteran, Mr. James Kun Kim has been in a time-limited life situation since he was diagnosed with prostate cancer on March 12, 2018, at Western Urology in Australia. After returning from the Vietnam tour (1970-1971), he immigrated to Australia later in 1997.

 

He served in Vietnam as a member of a security echelon under the ROK 100th Logistical Command that was detached to protect a US RADAR base situated at the top of Suoida Mountain near the Tan Son Nhat International Airport. As we all are well aware, the United States Army sprayed a great deal of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War to defoliate the dense tropical jungles to prevent enemies from infiltrating the military installations. As shown in the attached distribution chart of the Agent Orange sprayed during the Vietnam War, the area surrounding South Vietnam’s capital city of Saigon typically appears to be the most heavily sprayed spot at that time. My friend, Mr. James Kun Kim is therefore undoubtedly believed to have been heavily exposed to Agent Orange.

 

Most of all, it is a heartbreaking thing that the cancer has already spread to other organs, that is fatally threatening his life every moment of every day.

 

At this moment, all I can do is to hope my fellow comrade, Mr. James Kun Kim will have a miraculous recovery by the saving grace of God.

 

God bless Mr. James Kun Kim!

 

The following is my translation (Korean->English) of Mr. James Kun Kim’s brief note on his service environment written by refreshing his memory:

 

In an effort to have my brief recalls on my Vietnam tour be historically proved, I’d like to go back to the period of 1970-1971.

 

During the Vietnam War, the coalition commanders were not able to find any high mountains in the vicinity of Saigon, the former capital city of South Vietnam. Strategically the entire city area consisted of vast plains only. There were no appropriate points for the US Army to install a RADAR (Radio Direction-finding and Ranging) base.

 

This being so, a US intelligence unit, as the best alternative way, designated a point beneath Suoida Mountain (600m) in the proximity of the Tan Son Nhat International Airport along the #51 highway. The US intelligence unit built a military RADAR net base in order to monitor intelligence, which we called at that time “The Roof of Saigon”. It was one and a half-hour driving distance by jeep from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport taking the #51 highway going towards the direction of Vung Tau city to reach the intelligence monitoring base.

 

The RADAR base was located beneath the mountain peak which was surrounded by enormous tropical rainforests. We built our foxholes on each side of the narrow path on the way up to the mountain summit. At our foxhole spot, we were unable to see the sky even during midday because of the densely tangled tropical jungle canopy. We were confined in a deep sea of rainforests.

 

We soldiers, from day one, found that numerous Chinook choppers were flying over the rainforest vine spraying clouds of dust like white rain. It was later revealed as the deadly chemicals of Agent Orange.

 

We the soldiers, stuck in the muggy foxholes without a breath of wind, had to treat the cloud of dust as water. I and my fellow comrades, from time to time, even licked the white raindrops while taking our helmets off. We even washed off our faces and bodies with the cool white rain. We were completely exposed to Agent Orange. 

 

Oh, my dear fellow comrades who lost their lives….

 

Though I am not sure if it was around this time or a couple of years later, an incident occurred that the MACV commander, General Abrams’s helicopter was attacked, due to a possible leak of US secret communication to the enemy. It occurred because the enemy had infiltrated the surrounding rainforests and may have eavesdropped on the US secret communications. Immediately after the incident, the brains of MACV decided to completely eradicate the dense tropical rainforests around the Roof of Saigon.

 

The US Army extensively carried out a clean-up operation under the name, Operation Ranch Hand right above our heads. Chinook helicopters covered by gunship helicopters were hovering at low altitudes (less than 40m) and were spraying dozens of tons of Agent Orange onto the jungle canopies covering an area of 80m x 16km, which completely defoliated the dense rainforests. In the meantime, the MACV operation appeared to have led to a serious problem by having the coalition troops heavily exposed to the deadly chemicals in Agent Orange.

 

To tell the truth, the Vietnam War veterans have had numerous kinds of cancers over the last 50 years due to Agent Orange exposure. Many of them have already passed away or are suffering from fatal diseases that are slowly threatening their lives. This means that severe punishment over Agent Orange exposure still remains.

 

We all must not forget the fact that those who are suffering from inexpressible pains are getting closer to death every day.

 

James Kun Kim 


 










 

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