Return to Saigon - A Memoir: From High School in Saigon to His Return There as a Wounded Naval Aviator, Vietnam Shaped His Life
By: Larry Duthie / Narrated By: Elio Agostini
Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
Technical jargon, meticulous research, humor… and? Emotionally evocative as well…
This is how it is…
A few years ago, a little audiobook came out called Vietnam: There & Back by a man, Jim “Doc” Purtell, and it was voted in as my Next Listen. ALWAYS happy to listen to Military History, esPECially of Vietnam, I hastened to experience it, and with a heart humbled by further knowledge of what grunts endured, I offered my review, and there I let it rest.
To my great surprise, I received a note from Jim, and I’ll cherish it always. When his next audiobook came out, Vietnam—Soldier Stories and Songs, I was sooo there, again truly humbled as the music Purtell created was on-target and oh so illuminating.
Why do I offer this here? Because: Yeh yeh yeh, the gentleman I meet on Mondays at 10:15 am is m’ FAVE Vietnam Veteran, but I do NOT forget Jim and his buddies. Every Vietnam Veterans Day I wake early and compose an email of gratitude to Purtell. And when he replies with his updates, I’m so very grateful.
I do NOT forget, and I always am here for March 29th, and this year Return to Saigon by Larry Duthie was my own choice for the day’s remembrance. Yes, I read the rather extensive Publisher’s Summary, and I chose it based on Duthie’s living in Saigon prior to war’s outbreak, his enlistment, and oh yeah: I’d yet to do an audiobook that was based on a Navy flyer’s experience. That his story opens with having to eject from his burning aircraft? Oh yeh, that had my eyes popping.
Once past the teaser, Duthie relays his experiences as a fanciful gadabout prone to truancy and feigned seriousness. He and the few other American boys, Seniors in their Saigon high school, are fond of not quite keeping track of their lessons, preferring to sit in dark coffee houses… or bars… and discuss all sorts of things that seem “important”. At the same time, we’re treated to Duthie’s dawning awareness, his morphing from stranger to lover of all things Vietnam.
After aimless attempts post-high school to lead a normal and productive life (Think: A gazillion—and six—majors in college and university. Think: Dead end jobs that actually go nowhere faster than the normal pointless occupation), Duthie enlists in the Navy. A series of improbable events sees him learning how to fly a favorite machine of his, the A-4, and danged if the guy doesn’t have talent with flight and even carrier landings (Those nerve-wracking Musts that pilots are twitchy about).
What got me about the book was how supremely well-conceived, well-structured, well-edited it was. Because once past the intro of a fraught aircraft ejection, the book moves slowly, ever so carefully taking us from innocent gadabout kid, to the initial losses of other planes and pilots where mortality, death, suddenly hit him.
Then we go onto many, many deaths, some of good friends. And death coming at any moment, in any situation. Enemy fire, check. Miscues on the flight deck, check. Even mechanical failures because the crews were so exhausted they missed something… something that caused catastrophe, sudden death. The varied disguises Death wears takes its toll on Duthie, and we see him becoming confident, yes, but emotionally scarred as well.
Not enough? Well then let’s get onto that crash with Duthie chuting out into very, VERY hostile territory. His wingman also had to eject, so now there are two men Down in dire need of rescue. Edge of the seat writing/listening, and worse? It morphs into tragedy pretty danged quickly. A nightmare Duthie will not wake up from, for years. Years…
At first I thought I was going to have a problem with Elio Agostini’s narration. I’d initially pondered whether his voice came off as too old for something that was going to have plenty of action, possible terror, but I kept myself focused on the fact that this is written as an older man looking way back into his past. As far as everything else, the action, the terror? Agostini does just fine. Combat flight is NOT the only terror Duthie experienced. No, he also survived a horrific fire onboard his ship, one that left charred devastation, wounded men. Dead friends. Agostini perfectly captures Duthie’s improbable escape through the bowels of the ship, his sadness at seeing the rows of metal coffins, the scars in his psyche that will haunt him forever. So well-done, all in all.
As with the best memoirs of war, Return to Saigon ends with Duthie going back to Vietnam to visit old haunts, try to find where his comrade was shot down, never rescued, left to suffer and be killed/taken prisoner. He meets up with a former adversary, and he’s delighted to see that the gentleman will get what all wished for as young combatants in violent situations: Death By Natural Causes, years under the belt. He also gets the chance to attend the funeral of the pilot who rescued him, joined by the other men on that particular flight/rescue.
As always, I love all that because tears, unshed for decades, finally flow, unbidden, unchecked, and there’s no shame, just relief and the chance to finally FINALLY mourn the loss of comrades who were respected, valued.
Loved dearly.
Remembered always…
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