Marjorie T. Hansen - Brave warriors, humble heroes : a Vietnam War story

2014 Marjorie T. Hansen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Brave Warriors, Humble Heroes:
A Vietnam War Story

Brown Book Publishing Group
16250 Knoll Trail Drive, Suite 205
Dallas, Texas 75248
www.BrownBooks.com
(972) 381-0009

A New Era in Publishing

ISBN 978-1-61254-226-3
ISBN 978-1-61254-209-6 (HC)
ISBN 978-1-61254-217-1 (PB)
LCCN 2014945915

Printed in the United States
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For more information or to contact the author, please go to
www.BraveWarriorsHumbleHeroes.com

Acknowledgments

I thank Charlie for choosing me to share his life and go on the journey with him. I thank the military wives who took me by the hand when I was a young bride and kept me from stumbling in a hard and difficult environment by preparing me for the loneliness and fear that came with the Vietnam War and teaching me the coping skills for my final role: surviving spouse. I thank the brave warriors, humble heroes who gave everything they had to give in the service of their country. We will never forget you. I thank all of the men and women who served with distinction, pride, and honor during the Vietnam War, and the families who waited at home, for this is your story also. And to my precious family, what can I possibly say to you? My cup runneth over with joy to have you for sons and granddaughters. Each day I thank God for my many blessings.

I owe a special debt of thanks to the outstanding team of professionals at Brown Books Publishing Group who helped make this book possible.

CHARLIES STORY: THE EARLY DAYS

W e stood on the runway at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base (NKP) February 3, 1972, holding each other as I fought back tears and desperately tried to smile as we said good-bye. It was time for me to start my journey back to the States after fifteen days in Thailand with Charlie. On that hot, humid runway near the Laotian border, 235 miles from Hanoi, North Vietnam, sadness and fear washed over me like a giant ocean wave. Charlie had three more months of flying combat missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos before he could return home, and leaving him behind in a war zone was heartbreaking, knowing the danger he faced and the possibility we would never hold each other again. As I silently prayed for God to protect him, I experienced a strong unsettling feeling that the Vietnam War would never end for us. The dark premonition was to become our fate.

Shortly after my flight departed NKP, Charlie wrote,

Thurs AM

3 Feb 72

Dearest Marge,

While you are still in the air for Bangkok and Im waiting for someone to come get the air conditioner, Ill jot down a few lines.

Im sure you feel like Ithe past two weeks have been an almost perfect honeymoon. I say almost because I got left behind. Youll really have some stories to tell your grandchildren now!

So much for now. I miss you already and

I love you,

Charlie

I really do have some stories to tell my grandchildren now! The story I love to tell the most is Charlies story.

Charlies commitment to a life of service began when he was a child growing up in East Point, Georgia. He was a Boy Scout, an acolyte in the Episcopal Church at age nine, and a summer church camp counselor. Although he had many opportunities in his childhood, his life was far from privileged. Times were hard in the South from 1934 to 1952. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother who worked long hours to provide private school and a loving home for him. He swept floors and bagged groceries at the local grocery store from the time he was old enough to work until he left home for college. Knowing that college would not be possible for him without a scholarship, in the eighth grade, he entered Georgia Military Academy in College Park, Georgia, as a day student where he focused on his education, with a service academy appointment as his goal. He graduated magna cum laude from GMA in 1952 with honor appointments to both the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and the United States Military Academy in West Point. He chose the US Naval Academy and graduated with the Class of 1956 as a member of the 13th Company. He was commissioned into the United States Air Force upon graduation.

Charlies story became our story when I met Second Lieutenant Charles Jasper Hansen Jr. in September 1956 during my senior year at Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee. As a favor to my sorority sister, I had reluctantly agreed to be his blind date for an entire football weekend. I was not too happy about the arrangement since I had just returned a United States Naval Academy pin to a midshipman, Class of 58. Disappointed about the failed relationship, I had vowed never again to date a service academy man! However, since I had attended June Week 56 in Annapolis when Charlie Hansen graduated, my sorority sister thought we would have something to talk about over the long football weekend. She was right. Our one-weekend-only blind date led to a lifetime of adventure, joy, and love.

During that first weekend and in the months and years that followed, we discovered the many things we had in common like our traditional values, faith in God, love of education, and strong desire to serve something greater than self in our chosen careers. We were young, idealistic, in love, and ready to take on the world. After I graduated from FSU with the Class of 57 and completed one year of secondary level teaching and Charlie completed his flight training and earned his navigator wings, we married in 1958.

I am blessed without measure to have been a part of his extraordinary life for fifty-six yearshis best friend, his wife, his lover, the mother of his two fine sons, and the grandmother of his three precious granddaughters. Our life together had all the elements of a beautiful love storyglamour, excitement, adventure, travel, danger, adversity, disappointment, sacrifice, loneliness, sadness, fear, challenges, illness, and death. The most important elements were faith, hope, and love.

Our story played out all over the worldfrom the FSU campus to Japan; from the Florida beaches to the rugged California coast and the islands of Hawaii; from South Vietnam to the jungles in Thailand; from frozen North Dakota to deep in the heart of Texasduring one of the most divisive and turbulent times in our countrys history, 19562012, which saw the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, assassinations, racial unrest, the Vietnam War, riots, secret wars in Laos and Cambodia, Agent Orange, downsizing of the military, and social change.