My wife and I met with Nguyen Ba Phong for lunch in his home and he shared his story with us. For anyone interested, here is a brief overview of one man's experience in the late stages of the American War in Vietnam.

Phong graduated high school in Da Nang and made it through one year of studying engineering before he was conscripted into the South Vietnamese army in 1971. He was 21, and would now be fighting against his uncle, an officer in the Liberation Front. He was quite scared about the idea of going to war, and was resolute in his decision not to join the communists.

Because of his education, he was placed in officer training, where he learned "everything about war" for two years, instead of the infantry term of six months. He and other trainees spent a lot of time on hand to hand combat, locating and identifying V.C. troops, and operating in the jungle.

After training, Phong to was transferred south of Hoi An, his home town. On the coast, he spent much of the days interviewing civilians outside of larger cities, and rooting out V.C. soldiers from their daytime enclosures. As evenings approached he would move his soldiers back to the city. Phong jokes that the daytime was theirs, but that they forfeited the nights to their enemy. And in this cycle, they carried out the war.

In April 1974, Phong was captured while on a daytime patrol. He was taken to the V.C. troops nearest his hometown where he would be identified and catalogued. He then spent the rest of the war as a prisoner. After Saigon fell, Phong was sent to a re-education prison where he spent one year instead of several because his uncle secured his good treatment.

Phong spent the years after his release as a laborer; he was never able to establish himself as an engineer, nor any other lucrative positions due to his inability and unwillingness to join the communist party.

Perhaps this anecdote will help to enrich our understanding of this particular conflict.

Well, "who fought for South Vietnam" is a very unspecific title. Could you elaborate on his role in the war? Was he a pilot, an infantryman, etc.