Tent City B was on the outskirts of Tan Son Nhut and was the headquarters for US Army Vietnam. It included living quarters for those working in the headquarters complex. The enlisted men quarters were rows and rows of hastily and crudely constructed hooches with tin roofs, cement floors, non-insulated half-high corrugated tin walls all the way around with the top half made of screening material. They were miserably hot in the heat of summer.
Walking through the rows of hooches on my way to work or to the dining facility, I often walked by hooches proudly displaying their state flags. Never once did I see a Texas flag displayed. I would take a day off from time to time and to search the shops in Saigon looking for a Texas flag. I took a Vietnamese-speaking employee from our Signal Section to shops around Saigon asking if they could fabricate a Texas flag for me. At one particular sidewalk shop when Ms. Dao showed them a picture of the Texas flag, they offered us a Viet Cong flag instead. When none was to be found, I decided to enlist the assistance of my Texas congressman.
I drafted a letter to U.S. Congressman Kika de la Garza who represented my home district in Texas. I never directly asked for a Texas flag opting instead to ask for information on where I could order a full size authentic Texas flag. I needed a disinterested person's opinion of my letter. I handed my draft to an administrative sergeant working in our Signal Section. Sergeant First Class Perkins thought it was a good letter and suggested I not change anything; however, he suggested I include a U.S. senator in my request as a fail-save way of receiving a reply. He made good sense, so I typed and mailed two separate letters. One went to Congressman Kika de la Garza, Washington, D.C. The second one went to Senator Ralph Yarbrough, Washington, D.C.
Some three weeks after mailing my letters, I received a reply from Senator Yarbrough. He kindly sent me a full size Texas flag along with an official certificate declaring the history of the Texas flag, asking me to display it proudly and thanking me for my service in Vietnam. About a full month later, I received another Texas flag from Congressman de la Garza. It was late due to some staff member at the congressman's office sending it to me at the wrong military address. I wrote both the congressman and senator and thanked them for the flags.
It completely surprised SFC Perkins that both letters would produce Texas flags. "Ojeda, Texans just don't fuck around!" said Sergeant Perkins. He was sufficiently impressed that he decided to write his own Senator from Illinois copying the same letter which I had written. To his surprise, Senator Everett Dirksen,1 a strong supporter of the Vietnam War, sent Sergeant Perkins a very brief reply telling him of two size Illinois flags available and the prices for each. In his closing, Senator Dirksen mentioned that he would be happy to send him the choice of whichever flag he desired, adding, "Just send a check or money order for the amount made payable to Senator Everett Dirksen." Sergeant Perkins was incensed. "That cheap bastard! That sonnavabitch!" yelled Sergeant Perkins. "He'll never again get my goddamn vote ever again!"
I suppose Texans take their state flag more seriously and are more willing to share the flag more so than those folks in Illinois. That was a proud Texas moment.
Texas Lone Star Flag from Texas Senator Yarborough (hanging from ceiling joists)
Letter from Senator Ralph Yarbourgh
Letter from Representative De La Garza
Viet Cong (enemy) flag offered to us when shopping for Texas Lone Star Flag
1 Everett M. Dirksen was a Republican representing Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He was Senate Minority Leader and a staunch supporter of the war in Vietnam.
Copyright texan@atudemi.com - January 2022