February 18, 2006
Gentlemen,
I'd like to share an experience with all of you that I thought might interest you. In June, 1970, as a "short-timer" in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam I was guarding 6 Viet Cong prisoners who were helping to rebuild a sandbag bunker that their comrades in arms had demolished with mortar fire. As I kept watch over the captured enemy soldiers I was listening to The AFVN (Armed Forces Vietnam Network) on my battery powered radio. The DJ announced "and now a just released jam "Give Me Just a Little More Time" by The Chairmen of the Board!
It wasn't the first time that I'd heard it and I liked it very much but this time I noticed one of the prisoners was not singing but was lip syncing the words, even the part that goes ..... "and our love will surely grow....bluuuurrrrtttt"! I asked him if he spoke English and he told me that he attended the University of Michigan. When asked how he came to be in his current predicament he told me that North Vietnamese Soldiers held AK-47 Assault Rifles to his wife's, father's and mother's heads and demanded he serve in their army or they would kill his family. He got himself captured the very first opportunity that he got.
That day, instead of being the "inhuman animals" that I had been trained, even brainwashed to believe, I saw my enemy as being human beings for the first time. I believe that event helped me to overcome prejudice more than any other single lesson in my life. You guys clearly had a part in that experience. Thank you for making such a horrible part of my life and the lives of thousands of others a little better, if for just a couple of minutes at a time, through your music.
Thank You and God Bless You,
Harry A, Rogers Captain, Charlotte Fire Department, Retired