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Alice (Ahlgren) Blackburn – ACHS 63-64

Hi Folks,

I’m looking to connect with people who attended ACHS from 1963 to 1964. My sister Lynn, bother Bill and myself were all there during those years and my mother, Mildred Ahlgren, taught there in 1964. Lynn graduated afrom ACHS. Still have my Gecko yearbook although it’s starting to fall apart.

Alice Ahlgren Blackburn

46 comments to Alice (Ahlgren) Blackburn – ACHS 63-64

  • Admin

    Hello Alice! 🙂

    Welcome to our Blog!! … someone on here was asking about you the other day … and now you appear!!! Was Maile I believe.

    The next time you visit the Blog, please Subscribe to our Newsletter. It comes out every Friday. There is a Newsletter Subscribe link in the Menu on the right side of this page, just click it to subscribe, then follow the instructions to confirm your email address. Thanks!

    Also, nice to hear you have a ’64 Gecko Year Book. We’ve been talking about making all the year books into digital eBook format, and have them available for everyone to download from the site. So, now we have access to ’61 thru ’64 ..

    Again welcome and thank you for joining our Blog, I’m sure everyone will be excited to see you 🙂

    Bob

    • ron ryan

      I just happened upon this web site while surfing the net. I lived in Saigon from 63-65, I was 8 when we moved there from Fort Devens Mass. I atteneded 2nd and 3rd grades. Mrs Armstrong was my teacher. I still have a yearbook. The movie theater was bombed twice- I was there both times. I always thought 100 Dalamations was playing. We were in Thailand on R&R when we found out we were being evacuated. Nobody would believe what I got to experience. We lived on Yiendo St, and I remember the coup that assassinated Diem really well. I found some bullet shells and army patches in the front of the house. My sister and I were the only ones home because my mother had to take my other sister to the PI. It was dark when my dad got home, he was with the 3rd RRU. I remeber he got his guns out and we went out to hide behind the servants quarters. Lots of flares, gunfire, planes and helicopters. I think I’ll look at my yearbook to see what these people looked like. I think my sister was in the 8th or 9th grade. Her name was Randeen Ryan. My sister Kris was a year younger than me.

  • Ken Berger

    Alice: I remember the Ahlgren family fondly. I retired from the Army in 1996 (after 28 years) and have settled in the DC area. I too have a yearbook – I’m not sure which box it is in the basement. Take care; Ken Berger

  • Jim Cooper

    Alice –

    Hmmmm…Coop’s younger brother checking in here. I remember watching Soupy Sales for the first time ever at the Ahlgren household when we came to yours and Mike’s HS graduation in NJ, and it seems to me we stayed at your house. Glad we all are reconnecting like this!
    Jim

  • Hi Alice:
    I remember you clearly, though I don’t recall whether we were in the same class or not. I went to the French school, Lycee Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for 9th and 10th grade. I remember some of these other guys as well, Jim Cooper and Ken Berger. I think you were all older than me. I’ll try to dig out any Geckos we have next time I visit my mother, who is living in Denver. Jackie Shaffer was always involved in music in one way or another at ACHS and in Saigon, like at the Vietnamese-American Association (VAA).
    Best,
    Harrison Shaffer
    Tucson, Arizona

  • Ralph Johnston

    Alice,
    Great to see you found the Saigon site – I still have the 64 yearbook as well. It’s a little worn out, and falling apart, but I have some wonderful memories of that time. You and your sister are doing well I hope, great to see your name after all these years.
    REE

  • Alice Ahlgren Blackburn

    I do remember the cyclo driver murder. We did that outside my house. DO NOT LET MY TEENAGE SON EVER GET ON THIS SITE!! Creative little trouble makers, weren’t we. I also remember being woken up at a slumber party to hear the Kennedy assassination news. Does anyone remember the bombing of the Kinh Doh? My parents were inside as were lots of ACHS kids, including Mike Cooper. (By the was, Jim, Mike dumped me our senior year for a very attractive junior.) Great hearing from you all. By the way, I am currently working for a winery in Carmel Valley. Drop in anytime.

  • Alice,
    I was at ACS from Jan. of ’63 till June of ’64. I have the ’64 Gecko plus a lot of pictures taken by Mary Lou Poudre when we (Mary Lou, Barbara Bready, Bill Sheppard, Butch McGraw, Pepe Doggett and Danny Daniels) were roaming the streets of Saigon at 4 AM. What a bunch of brats we were!

    My daughter doesn’t get to see these pictures till she’s forty.

    I will tell Mary Lou and Bill about this site. I’m sure they have some tales to tell. I’d love to hear about any of your adventures, too.
    Les
    lesax@comcast.net

  • Does anyone remember what subject Mrs. Elizabeth Tyson taught? She was a teacher at ACS who died at Clark AFB while undergoing surgery for cancer (lung). It was the middle of the semester and our class was crushed when we heard the news.

  • Bruce Berger

    Hi all. Reading the blogs brings back fond memories of our days in Saigon. I was there from 62 until the evacuation in 65. My brothers Ken (class of 64) and Darrell were also there (class of 66, as was I).

    I do remember the bombing of the Kinh Doh. If memory serves me correctly (somewhat doubtful), it occurred on a Sunday evening. The movie playing was something called ‘The List of Adrian Messenger.’ I also remember the bombing of Pershing Field, and in late 64, the bombing of the Brinks BOQ.

    We were somewhat deprived in Saigon because we didn’t ever get snow days away from school. But we made up for that by occasionally getting coup days off.

    I do have copies of the 63, 64, and 65 Geckos, all of which are in pretty good condition.

  • Kathy Connor Dobronyi

    There were two bombings of the Capital Kinh Do–One on Saturday September 21, 1963 during the showing of “Lady and the Tramp, and the one on Sunday February 16, 1964. The name of that movie was “The List of the Andrea Dora,” although the write ups always say that “The Diary of Ann Frank” was the film that evening. I was at the September bombing, but we went to the Philippines on R&R in February, 1964 before my mother, brother, and I were evacuated stateside March 10, 1964.

    Lynn and I played flute for the band. She was wonderful to a beginner, and I still appreciate her patience all these many years later.

  • Jim Cooper

    Kathy – I was at the first bombing, and as I remember, it was at the old Rex theater – but I do distinctly remember that the film was “Lady and the Tramp” and the bomb went off early in the film, actually detonated in the alley outside of the theater, and we were evacuated in a pretty orderly manner – I was upset we had to miss the rest of the movie. It was quite a few years before I saw the movie again, this time with my own kids (but no bombs!).

    Alice – I didn’t know Mike dumped you – but he confirmed this fact when he was in town for my daughter’s college graduation (U of Kansas) and commissioning into the Navy here a couple of weeks ago. He admits that in retrospect, dumping you so early in the year was a tactical error – I consider it extremely poor headwork on his part in every way – how could he have ever found a junior more attractive than you?

  • Kathy Connor Dobronyi

    Jim-I don’t remember ever going to the old Rex theatre. I think the Capital Kinh Do was quite new, and the showing of “Lady and the Tramp” was considered quite a coup (excuse the pun).

    The bomb went off in the ally, but blew up the women’s bathroom. It was a good thing there were no children in there when it happened. I remember the MPs came down the aisle, checking the bathroom, then the had us file out row by row. When I tell people this, they are surprised that no one screamed, cried, nor rushed to the doors.

    Sitting quietly, waiting patiently seemed the right thing to do.

  • Jim Cooper

    Kathy – Yikes! You are correct! I’ve remembered the first bombing over the last 45 years as happening at the old Rex, but your comment spurred me to do some heavy Internet research, and I located a clipping of a 1964 Stars and Stripes article reporting the second bombing and making reference to the first one (see http://www.oldspooksandspies.org/riina/starstripes.pdf ). I also remember that the bomb was placed just outside of the womens’ restroom. The old Rex BOQ had a small theater, and I did see some movies there before the Kinh Do opened up, including “Babes in Toyland”.
    By the way, not sure why all of us have camped out on Alice’s blog line, but since she and Mike were steadies at one time, I feel comfortable here for now – until she tells us to leave!

  • The movie at the time of the february Kinh Do bombing was “The List of Adrian Messenger.” I had seen the movie the night before, but was getting in a cab to go see it the next day (again) when I heard the explosion. You should have seen the look on my mothers face when the bomb went off. Several of my friends were in the theater and one, Barbara Bready was injured when hit in the head by falling debris.
    There was also an attempt to bomb the bowling alley, though I don’t remember exactly when that was. Police found a bike rigged with explosives in the alley, leaning against the wall. Fortunately, it failed to detonate.
    Good times, good times…?

  • Bruce Berger

    Jim & Kathy – I don’t remember the old Rex theater. Is this the same as the Alhambra theater, which was before the Kinh Do? Or is the Rex a different one entirely? I think the Alhambra was somewhere in the Cholon district, and the Kinh Do opened right after the Alhambra closed.

  • Jim Cooper

    Ken – The first theater could’ve been called Alhambra, that does seem to ring a bell. I do remember that (whatever it was called) it was located in Cholon. If anyone else can weigh in on this discussion, please feel free.
    My older brother, Mike, was at the Capitol Kinh Do when it was bombed in Feb ’64, and he was (understandably) very traumatized by the experience – he was particularly impressed by the bravery of Marine Captain Koelper, the one who ran into the theater, alerting the folks sitting in the theater to the imminent bombing and undoubtedly saving many lives as a result. A fascinating bit of info on Capt Koelper’s actions that evening is at this link: http://www.historynet.com/letters-from-readers-december-2007-vietnam.htm
    The citation for Capt Koelper’s posthumus award of the Navy Cross can be found here: http://combatleadership.com/Heroes_Results.asp?MedalID=1670

  • Sondra Shankey-Ewell

    Hi all you “kids”
    The Alhambra was the only show in town when we older kids were there (1958-1962) in Cholon. I do remember being bussed to the theatre with guards aboard after the attack on Diem’s palace in 1961(?).
    The info on the Rex and King Do is so very interesting. Back stateside nothing was heard about the bombings of the KingDo in ’64. It still absolutely amazes me the utter lack of info given us back home of this time before the evacuation and the war. Most Americans hadn’t even heard of Vietnam in the 1960’s.
    Oops! Sorry for rambling; all I wanted to mention was the Alhambra. Please keep posting memories of your times there for they are so interesting to anyone who was stationed there during the pre-war era.
    Thanks,
    Sondra

  • Admin

    Great comments Sondra! 🙂

    The first attack on Diem’s Palace was on November 11-12, 1960. It started in the wee hours of the morning the day after the Marine Corp birthday. We lived next to the Marine guard house. At first I thought it was the Marines partying and setting off fireworks. Then dad recieved notice from the State Dept over his mobile radio he had in the house, that the Palace was under attack. It started in the wee hours of the morning. It was still dark out, I remember. I was in bed sleeping and the noise, of what I thought was fire crackers, woke me up. About that time, dad came into my bed room and said “Stay down, get dressed in dark cloths and stay on the floor between the wall and your bed. Don’t move until I tell you to.” He crawled over to my bedroom windows, and closed the wooden shutters. Then he handed me a .45 cal pistol saying, “If anyone tries to come through the window, shoot them.” He then left my room and joined mom who he had stationed in the hallway, armed with a .45 cal pistol, where she could see the windows to their bedroom and the back door in the kitchen. He then crawled across the dining room and living room and positioned himself so he could watch the front door and also out the livingroom front window shutters so he could see the street activity, etc. Later in the day, after things settled down some, and I was allowed in the livingroom … I discovered he was fully armed with a couple high powered rifles with scopes, 2 more .45 cal pistols, ammo boxes and grenades, etc. We lived about 3 blocks from the Palace. During this event, I saw for the first time in my life, another side of my dad that I’d never seen before. A highly trained and skilled WWII Special Forces combat Marine in action protecting his family. While he was in that mode, he was nothing like the man that I knew as my father. I then understood how he survived 4 1/2 years fighting in every major battle in the Pacific during WWII. So he could send extra money home to mom and I, during WWII, he would volunteer for solo missions into Thailand, Indochina (Vietnam) and mainland China. After mom and dad passed away, I was going through their things. I came across his old pay records from WWII. He got paid a total of $78 per month with all his extra combat pay, etc. WOW!

    Bob

  • Mary Lou Poudre Berven

    As Les wrote, “The List of Adrian Messenger” was definitely the film being shown at the Kinh Do Theatre in 1964. Barb Bready and I were there together when the Marine courageously ran in to warn us of the bomb. Because of him, we ducked down on the floor in front of our seats until the blast went off. Then we made our way as quickly as possible out of the theatre. Since Barb was injured in the scalp from a piece of flying debris and bleeding rather profusely, someone gave her a shirt to wrap around her head until we found a taxi that took us to the clinic to have the head bandaged properly. In the next several days, Neil Sheehan interviewed her and her story and photograph ran in newspapers Stateside. Sheehan went on to become a prolific author about Viet-Nam, including the book “A Bright and Shining Lie.”
    I do remember you, Alice, and I also remember my parents hearing the news at a cocktail party and rushing to the Kinh Do unable to find a trace of either Barb or me. Eventually, they caught up with us at the clinic. I have both a copy of that interview and a 64 yearbook in good shape. That night, I believe, is when my parents decided thatI would attend boarding school in Switzerland from 64-65 . . .

  • Kathy Connor Dobronyi

    Was the bowling ally across the street from the Capital Kinh Do? Was there a malt shop or a sweet shop in the same building as the bowling ally to the right as you entered?

    Were these buildings any where near the Cercle Sporteff?

    I can’t seem to place the location. Everything was so close together, accessible by pedicab or motocyclo for the daring.

    Les, I remember the movie as being “The List of the Andrea Dora” because my mother planned to see it if we were in town. “The List for the Adrian Messenger” was released on 29 May 1963 (USA). Thank you for clearing up that memory.

    Sonda, I found information on both bombings of the Kinh Do (September 1963 and February 1964) when I accessed newspaperarchives.com. There was even an article about guards posted outside of the commissary/PX that was printed in January 1964. The information was there, but it wasn’t on the front pages at the time.

  • Bruce Berger

    I wasn’t there during the palace bombing of 1960, but was present during the November 1, 1963 coup. My brother Darrell and I were going to the Special Services shop in Cholon, to get some model kits. There were soldiers all over, not letting people through. At first we thought it was a Buddhist monk setting himself on fire, since that had been going on that fall. By the time we got home, there was a full scale coup going on.

    We lived in an alley off of Cong Ly, and heard quite a bit of gun fire, and then the planes bombing the palace. Our next door neigbhors, the Colliers, actually got a bullet in their bedroom window.

    The day after the coup, our whole family went wandering around. We got into the presidential palace, and were able to get some souveniers, like ARVN berets and things. I even picked up a US flag. Looking back on that, I guess that makes us looters.

    I think two of the generals involved in the first coup were ‘Big’ Minh, and ‘Little’ Minh. There were more coups after that, but the first is the most memorable. Ah, those were the good old days!

  • Kathy Connor Dobronyi

    My brother, Mike Connor, picked up a live hand grenade the day after the coup and brought it to school the next day. Mike was 14 and should have known better, but he thought that it was cool and he didn’t realize it was live. The MPs came and reported the incident to my mother who was working at the PX.

    I remember others picked up metals and other military awards as souvenirs.

  • Maile Doyle

    This is so interesting to read about all the memories of our unique time in Saigon. I remember the early morning attempt (Must be the second one)on Diem’s Palace with tanks moving up Cong Ly, planes flying over my house, and the sound of gunfire. My mother, a 4th grade teacher, was on the school bus with my younger sister, Peggy and youger brother, Jerry headed to ACS down Cong Ly! My other brother, Bob, was in a taxi going to school because he had missed the bus (a regular occurrence LOL). I was home to take my youngest sister, Polly to the clinic as she was running a fever and Mom couldn’t do it. Dad and I were having breakfast when our house boy came running into the house yelling for my father to “Come Look!” – outside our front door we could see what looked to me like a mushroom cloud in the air just s few blocks away. I looked in awe while my father, Col. Frank Miller, very calmly told me to go get my sister, place cushions from the couch on the floor in the central hallway and lie down on them. He got on the phone to call for information and we were visited by someone in Civil Patrol. The noise of gunfire and tank fire became louder and closer, as the window frames and shutters rattled from the vibrations. (We lived just a couple of blocks from the palace.)I remember covering my little sister with my arms and wishing I was the size of a piece of dust I could see under the cabinet in the hallway. I was scared, but felt safe with my Dad in the house. I was too naive to really understand the danger we were in. (No, Bob, he didn’t give me a gun!) It was only after the “dust” settled, that we reflected on how our family was so spread out. Everyone made it to school safely and the MPs locked the school down until things settled down.

    Do you all find your friends are amazed when you talk about our experiences in Vietnam in those early days of the 1960s? We lived the history our children and grandchildren are studying.

    On another topic, does anyone recall the name of the Spanish restaurant on a rooftop where they served the most delicious Sangria? REE and I used to go there all the time for dinner dates.

    That’s it for now…

  • Admin

    Maile said “Do you all find your friends are amazed when you talk about our experiences in Vietnam in those early days of the 1960s? We lived the history our children and grandchildren are studying.”

    Maile, generally I find most who I’ve shared my VN youth experiences with find if very hard to believe and are amazed beyond words. Growing up initially as a Marine Brat followed by being a DIP Kid… certainly gave me a different prospective on life … to put it mildly … lol … most people I find can’t even begin to relate to the way we grew up and what we were exposed to at such a young age, etc.

    I fully agree ‘we were part of’ the history our children and grand children study about. It is just sad to see that much of the history we lived has been distorted and misreported over time.

    Hopefully, over time more Saigon Kids will join in here and share their experiences of what really ‘happened’ back then. It seems everything you find on the Internet and other places, is written from and ‘adult’ view point; and, the kids (us) of the era have been forgotten and lost in the maze, so to speak. We were a part of the history of pre-war Vietnam. Our experiences need to be preserved in history for current and future generations to learn about and understand the lessons to be learned for our experiences, etc.

    Gotta get …

    Bob

  • Alice Ahlgren Blackburn

    Hi Everyone,

    Mention a simple everyday theater bombing and the whole group comes out of the shadows. Good to hear from you all. Now about that coup. I was waiting for a bus outside MACV headquarters when the MPs came over and told me to get inside headquarters immediately. I was stuck there for hours with officers and general running around trying to get the latest word on what was going down. The MPs finally drove me home much later when the gunfire cleared. How did our parents get through this? If I don’t get a cell phone call from my son once or twice a day I get worried. Imagine your teenager running around like that today! My brother was also one of the palace looters.

    Yes, Jim, Mike Cooper dumped me. My self esteem plummeted for years.

    Lovely to hear from you all. Keep the memories coming.

  • Kathy Connor Dobronyi

    Maile,
    Not only do we get strange looks and comments, but our children who share the stories also get them. I was just talking to my daughter in Columbus, Ohio the other night, and she commented that she was talking about my experiences in Viet Nam. People immediately assumed I was a nurse, and when she said that I was 12 years old, two things happened. One group made one or two comments but the other group acted as if she never said anything.

    Unfortunately, the history of U.S. involvement in Viet Nam is just another war. The stories now are written by veterans trying to make sense of their involvement. I can understand that, but what about the civilians? Where are their stories?

  • Frank Stoddard

    Bob, The “11” “11” day coup was for Cheryl Smiths birthday! Nothing less nothing more!!! Frank

  • Admin

    Frank … geezzzzzz man, now you tell me this !! … and I was sitting there all day with a .45 cal pistol ready to shoot anyone who came thru the windows … and it was JUST A BIRTHDAY PARTY for Cheryl!!!! LOL … it figures tho, as she always did like to be the CENTER of attention …. hahahaha … but, then all women do!! LOL

    Laters man … “I’m Stroll’n” … 🙂

    Bob

  • Debbie Bullock Maes

    I attendted in l963, and am interested in being in contact with anyone else who was in the class at that time. It is really great reading memories only you thought you had.

  • alice ahlgren

    Debbie…you were a freshman?weren’t you? Which means you must have known my brother Bill.

  • Sarah Black Fry

    Alice and All! This blog is a dream come true!! (I was sitting here composing the eulogy for my mother’s memorial this Saturday, and wanted to include a section about our time in Vietnam. I went online to remind myself of the date of the Kinh Do bombing — and found Alice’s blog! My apologies in advance for what may be a LONG entry.) My three brothers (Tom, Peter and David) and I attended ACS Sep 1963-Feb 1965. Tom was initially VP of the 1964 Senior Class, then became Class President when Karen Lundquist resigned the post. Our dad headed up a USOM (United States Overseas Missions) surgical team that served in Pleiku, Dalat, Danang, and finally put roots down in Nha Trang by the time Mom and the four kids joined him from Colorado. He got down to Saigon once a month or so. Mom was the Clinic Supervisor at the HOPE-PROJECT’s rehab center in Saigon. We lived at 5 Pham Dinh Toai, right next door to Cathy Richardson and her family. The afternoon of 16 Feb 1964, our parents dropped the four of us kids off at the Kinh Do to see the matinee showing of “List of Adrian Messenger”. After the movie, Mom and Dad treated us to a BBQ steak dinner at the Brinks (rooftop of BOQ above USIS Library downtown). We talked non-stop about how great the movie had been, and begged Mom and Dad to go see it after dinner. But as we stepped off the elevator on the ground floor, two U.S. servicemen in civilian clothes were talking loudly about what had just happened at the Kinh Do. One had blood all over the back of his shirt, and our doctor Dad spoke with him to be sure he was all right and listened to his tale of what had happened. Side Note: Some say that Major Koelper was the first U.S. Marine killed in Vietnam. Need to check that out. Ironies: I joined the Marine Corps in 1976 and am a retired LtCol, working now in Hawaii for Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Previous (2000-2007) job was at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where, totally by chance, I worked with a retired Navy officer who was dating Major Koelper’s widow; she still lives there in Kailua. My three brothers and I are gathering in Reno this week to prepare our parents’ home for sale and coordinate Mom’s memorial (she passed this month; Dad in May 07). Alice, both you and Lynn were active in Rainbow Girls; I was the sitting Worthy Advisor when most of the American dependents were evacuated in Feb 1965. Mom and I and my two younger brothers went to Bangkok, instead of coming back to the U.S. (Tom had returned to Michigan via Europe after graduating in 1964, then attended Dad’s alma mater, Albion College, and Dad had just extended his two-year tour to June 1964, to allow us time to finish school before returning to the U.S. — so he stayed in country.) I think the family has at least three copies of the 1964 ACS yearbook, all in good shape. Looking through mine, I am transported right back to Saigon. Bottom line: Finding Alice’s blog is GREAT news. Let’s keep it going and use it to find even more of our friends from Saigon. Our common experiences, albeit individual and unique, bond us together in a special relationship. Though we are not brothers and sisters per se, we share a bond no one else has and few outsiders can imagine. Semper fi and aloha to all, Sarah Fry

  • Gilbert Medina

    Wow I thought the world forgot us kids
    I was in Saigon from 1962-1965 my three sister Ruby,Patsy and Cynthia where with me in the King do when they blew it up. If I am not mistaking the film was Walt Disney´s Lady and the tramp. If any of you remember we are that Hawaiian family the lived I Gia Ding. I still have my past port and ran into a few of the kids when I myself was in the army.
    My family mom and the girls we left Saigon on the 15th of Feb. with the Westmorland family. Rip and I caused a major problem in Gaum we jumped the fence and took of accrose the street to watch some kids skateboarding. When the MP´s caught up with us everyone was waiting in the plane already. Mrs Westmorland and my mother promised to give us a good wiping once we got to Honolulu.
    I dont know if anyone remembers the Herz Family there father was picked put by the Viet Cong and never came home. We were living on the next street behind them. If anyone knows about there son Herby (thats what I called him) please let me know.
    Well that is enough for now I still feel a lot of pain about Vietnam it left memories that I still cant shake off.

    Gilbert Medina Jr.

    • Cathy

      Gilbert,
      I read your post on Saigon Kids. I am wondering if you are the same guy from Waipahu. I recognize your sisters names and assume its you..(Ricky). Where are you living now?
      I have often wondered where you were.

  • Leila Tvedt

    Had just left the theater when it was bombed. Always bothered me that a kid’s movie was showing, so any victims would have been young ones, not combatants. Most vivid memory was running past the infirmary and seeing how fast they got stretchers and medical supplies lined up on the sidewalk for casualties. As I recall, there were no injuries. Called my mom and told her not to worry cuz I was OK. OK from what, she asked, and freaked when I told her about the bombing.

  • Anita Roby-Lavery

    Hi! I’m the quiet one, arriving in Saigon early February 1964 from Seoul, Korea. I think Wendy Brooks arrived in Saigon soon after I. Reading the above comments helped bring back some memories. Like the senior class trip to Nha Trang. The bombing of the ball field a block from where I lived. That sort of thing. To whomever’s hosting this website, thanks!

  • Leila Tvedt

    Do any of you have unexpected flashbacks? I was a TV news reporter in North Carolina in the mid 70s covering gun control, doing an interview at a gun shop. Didn’t realize there was a firing range downstairs until a gun went off. I hit the deck. You can see me on the video just drop out of sight. My crew and the store owner thought it was hilarious but I remember an instant of terror leftover from living in Saigon and feeling like a moving target there. How ’bout you?

  • Alice Ahlgren

    Wow. Sorry to hear that. I’ve never had any kind of flashbacks. Even during the worst of those times I never felt particularly scared. I suppose that was the gift of being a teenager with no fear even in those days. I loved Saigon and all the wonderful people and great times we had there. I guess that shielded me from the reality of the war closing in on us.

  • eric collier

    Hi, gang. Eric Collier, class of ’64. I was surprised to hear from Jim Richards (not seen since the civilian evacuation of ’65) a few months ago & visited him in Pebble Beach. He turned me on to this site. Greetings to all
    Anybody heard from Mike McNerney or Laurie Delp?
    I’ve never had any flashbacks either, though I still think of that stretch in VN as quite formative, & occasionally as quite dramatic. Enjoyed a slide show at Jim’s house about his visit to Nam, North & South. Amazing things going on there, & it seems there are no lingering hard feelings among the people toward U.S.

    Chúc m?ng ??n t?t c?

  • Arnon Reichers

    Hi Eric,
    You were friends with my brother, Paul, and I was friends with your sister Stephanie. Our parents were also friends (Paul and Phyllis Knox). I remember your monkey (Pickles? Honey Pot?) and a dachshund you had. How are you? How is Stephanie?

  • Susan Lindquist Glenn

    Wow, I don’t go on here very often but it is so good to read all these comments. I’m a little sister, LOL, to Karen, Ellen, and Larry Lindquist (my younger sister Barbara also there of course). Daughter of Mrs. Ruth Lindquist, the principal of the high school. Being the “kid sister” I looked up to all of my siblings and their friends and remember each and everyone of you! What a blast from the past, so amazing to read these comments and remember all of the things that happened back then. Being the kid sister I was busy climbing over rooftops and up the sides of buildings in my neighborhood and my friends neighborhoods and watching what was going on in the streets below. Crazy the things we did and didn’t even think about it as anything except fun!

  • Susan Lindquist Glenn

    My children loved to hear the stories about Vietnam and now they have their own stories to tell about living in Saudi Arabia during the invasion and the war there. And they also got to be evacuated out of the country! Evacuated out of Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, when we went back to Arabia many of my friends asked me where I was going to live next because they were not going to live there!
    People always listened to the stories, or tried to get me to tell stories, about my time in Vietnam and I was very fortunate that all of these people believed every word of what I could tell them. Life was very real there – we were too naïve to know it. I have great appreciation for having spent time in such a beautiful country as Vietnam was, I’m sure it still is. I unfortunately have never been able to get back.

  • MARILYN SNOW

    It was the list of Adrian Messanger and I was at the “”3:00” showing. I went with 2 other kids, 1 female and 1 male but have no clue who they were now. we had been outside the Kinh Do having a beer and trying to decide if we want to go ahead or wait the the “5:00″ show. decided to go to the 3 and we were half way down the road going to the bowling alley to have ice cream when the
    bomb went off. As I recall the 3 of was were pissed that someone had blown up the movie theater and now we would not have anywhere to go to the movies…..If anyone here was with me that day, please remind me who you were… Oh yeah, Hi to you all….”mare” ACS 1963-1965

  • Alice Ahlgren Blackburn

    Hi Marilyn,

    How are you and where are you? Still have the pictures of our glory days as ACHS cheerleaders. So much fun.

    Alice

  • Paul Reichers

    Hello “Aunt” Alice,

    Looks like you have not posted to this site in several months, but I just happened to be here and saw your name. I’m remembering many fun afternoons in Saigon at the Ahlgren’s drinking Tom Collins Mix and munching dry roasted peanuts with Coop. Here’s hoping you enjoyed Thanksgiving this year with Erik and family and all the other guests.

    Fondly,
    Paul

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