I was asked by my fellowship of church’s mission agency if I would be interested in going back to Vietnam. So I had never up until that point thought of ever returning. Never crossed my mind.
So I decided that yeah that might be an interesting thing. So in January of 2002 I went back for the first time.
My wife didn’t want to go along. She said “No, that’s something you need to do. I don’t have any great interest in that part of the world do you need to go.” So I went.
it could bring some relief, some healing
And prior to that, probably in the late 1990s I don’t know why but it occurred to me that hardly a day went by that something didn’t remind me of Vietnam.
So now we go back in January of 2002 and I come home and after a few days I realize again I notice it hardly in days gone by the something hasn’t reminded me of Vietnam. Only it was completely different. And I started realizing that new experience had replaced those old memories. Not that I forgot about Hill 902 or 1000 or FSB Ripcord or any of those experiences. Not that I forgot about them. It’s just that they weren’t on the top anymore. They had been replaced by these new experiences.
And I thought well that’s a pretty important concept. That if we are stuck in the past that’s what we’ll be, we’ll be stuck in the past. And we don’t have to be stuck in the past. If we could allow ourselves to get beyond the past and experience something different, something new, it could bring some relief, some healing.
So I’ve gone back now I think 13 times.
Bob Smoker in Vietnam 1969 -1970
All of us. We all deal with things that are difficult. But I’ve come to believe firmly that we don’t have to let the past dictate who we are today. That it is possible for the average person maybe beyond the average person, it’s possible to get past the past.
That doesn’t mean you have to go back to Vietnam. There’s ways of building a new history without going back to Vietnam. But it’s an important thing that can be done, and help a person get past the past.
Bob Smoker in Vietnam 2013