VA in Kerrville, Texas - 1988: VC! VC! Twenty-Some Years Later - Several years ago, after having gone through a PTSD program at the VA in Kerrville, Texas I approached a good friend and heli-Vietnam bro, Johnny Hubbs to attend combat group therapy with me. I hoped that having someone with me to converse with during those trips would keep me from going dinky-dao and driving off the road. The drive was pleasant enough but could put you to sleep.
      On one of those trips it was my turn to drive and of course I went into my "dinky-dao" mode as I normally did before one of these groups. Johnny started yelling, "VC! VC! did you see that VC!". I came to semi-full senses, swerve to the left, and almost rolling the truck. WHAT! I yell. "VC, you idiot, you almost trashed me and my truck. You must be dreaming dummy!" I tried to convince him that what in the hell would VC be doing out here in this Texas hill country, but he kept insisting that he had seen a Viet Cong, so I reluctantly turned the truck around and start back the way we had come. Now I knew there were no VC but the only way to shut him up was to take another look.
      We had driven only a short distance when sure enough, there was this Mamasan (VC, yea, right man, Johnny needs glasses) wearing her conical hat and long black silk dress, and I'd swear she had Ho Chi Minh sandals made out of stolen tires off a jeep. She also had an umbrella and was walking a dog on a leash and was totally unaware of two Vietvets freaking out. Talk about a Live Action FLASHBACK!
      Several minutes went by as I again had to turn around and head our original direction, and as we re-passed Mamasan we had to convince each other that we weren't having a joint "flash-back" and tried to calm down. Knowing that the Vietnamese indulged in what we consider four legged canine friends (not much worse than some of my Tex-Mex delicacies) the only thing I could think of to say was, "I guess Mamasan got hungry and was warming up her supper and I bet if we stop, she'd swear, Me no VC! Me no VC!"
      That kind of broke the spell and we laughed about it and definitely had a good topic to talk about at our combat group that day. Good thing that they don't have "Show and Tell" at these groups---we could have really made a good showing that day!