A LA RESERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU

 

 

A LA RESERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU

 

It never left my possession, carried in a secure slot in my wallet, since my best buddy, Ray Donnelly, gave it to me before he died of shrapnel wounds in a field hospital in Vietnam, fifty years ago!

Ray saved my life, sacrificing his own during the battle of Khe Sanh. The V.C. stormed our base. Ray and I were hunkered down in a fox hole, when a grenade fell into our position. He quickly covered my body with his own as the grenade exploded.

Ray’s damaged dog tag was so valuable to me – more than any other object in my life. Its loss was incalculable.

I searched everywhere and everything to no avail. The loss was devastating, eating away at me and covering my every day existence in a black shroud.

Weeks later, I received a letter from a man named Binh (“peaceful”) Donnelly, claiming to be Ray’s son. I was as close to Ray as anyone. I knew he never married and he never mentioned a son.

I immediately contacted the man who sent the letter. We arranged to meet.

 

It turns out that Ray had a torrid affair with a local Vietnamese woman, Ngoc (”precious gem”). The man who wrote to me was indeed Binh Donnelly, the result of that affair.

We met many times after that. I regaled him with stories of his dad. He related all the details of his life as a “mixed-breed” child, growing up in post-war Vietnam. He and his mother were able to get to the U.S. where he grew up and became a successful physician.

After several meetings, he presented me with the only memory he had of his deceased dad, his dog tag!

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn’t the lost tag, but I valued it almost as much. At least, it would fill the void I felt in my life.

We still correspond often and meet a lot. Binh’s mother died before he graduated from medical school, knowing that she had saved him from the prejudice against mixed- breed children and proud of all that he had accomplished.

Binh is now a successful heart surgeon and I love him as if he was my own son. I see Ray in him every time we meet.

The dog tag will be willed to him upon my death. I will not lose it before that!