Vietnamese Civilians Getting By

In late January 1970, I was pulling guard at Bien Hoa AFB for a few weeks.  I worked at night and slept during the day.  When I had some time, I walked around the Village of Bien Hoa.  There, I took this snap shot of living conditions that at least some Vietnamese civilians had to endure.

As you can see, the houses were not much better than shacks.  The outside skin is nothing more than scraps of plywood found who knows where.  A barbwire fence kept the inhabitants from getting out or others from getting in; I was not quite sure which.

Their wash was hung out on a clothesline in the same way my mother would have done it back in the states.  To the right of the clothes you can see a wooden swing for two.  It seemed odd to find a swing in a yard that looked like this one.  If you look carefully, you can see a young women in a green top and white pants in the middle of the picture.  She is talking to a neighbor.

Each shack appears to have a television antenna.  Back then in Vietnam and now, when things are not going so well in your life, watching television is a way to temporarily escape from it all.