We are nearing the end of the summer course and the lecture class has reached the 15-odd years that American advisors then troops worked in Vietnam, building up an unbelievable infrastructure of bases, air hangers, jet landing strips in the jungle, and basically a whole lot of pavement. At a major highway junction just south of the former demilitarized zone (DMZ), there was once a relatively large marine air base at Dong Ha. Now all that remains of it are a few of these very heavy duty airplane hangers built out of corrugated aluminum filled with concrete on the outside. This particular hangar survived whereas most have since been scrapped because after 1975 it was used as a theater for performances.
When it came time to dismantle this one, the town Department of Cultural Affairs had already claimed it as city property and since then they have abandoned using it for performances (they have a brand spanking new theater) but maintain it as a historical ruin of the American occupation. Makes for a very striking ruin especially on such a sunny day.
On our way through Dong Ha we stopped at a cafe favored by one of many NGO's that operate in the DMZ doing rehabilitation work: clearing landmines, giving people with legs and arms blown off prosthetics, digging out unexploded bombs etc. Fortunately, the majority of unexploded ordnance has been dug up now in the area--this snapshot shows a picture of work going on about eight or nine years ago. However, there is still a lot of material left in the hills and even more across the border in Laos on what used to be the "HCM Trail."
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