,,,with every swing of the pick, but damned if you don’t come close sometimes.  Spent 14 hours on the road in Vietnam today from Da Nang to Phu Ninh Lake to Quang Ngai doing oral history interviews for the book.  Valuable information discoveries and riveting stories all day long, had  it all wrapped up and we were to end the day with a quiet dinner at Auntie Mai’s house in Quang Ngai City.  

After a delicious meal, Mai is prompted to tell her story:  One of 12 children who grew up in Quang Ngai province, she and her sister were the only two in the family who supported the Communist cause.  Sister Loc drove a jeep for the Americans near Chu Lai, but secretly fed information about what she saw and heard on the job to the Viet Cong.  Mai, age 10 in 1968, was recruited to work as a nurse for the Viet Cong in the mountains above Quang Ngai.  This area was continuously bombed by American aircraft as Mai and her fellow medical workers constantly moved the field hospital to avoid being overrun by American ground troops.  Mai grew to womanhood nursing wounded soldiers in the mountains until the war ended in 1975.

More interviews tomorrow.