These kids were one of the bright spots while we were in Nam. Some of them, usually the younger ones would meet us out on the roads and trails. When we were in an area for a long period of time, for my unit that was 2-3 months, we would get to know them, and look forward to seeing them while out on patrol. This is my favorite photo. This little guy earn so much trust with us that one of my fellow marines let him carry his M-16. I asked him not to do so in the future because we were in a war zone. But it made for a great photo. You don't want to leave these little ones behind, it's heart breaking to do so. Hopefully he survived the war. He would be in his 40's today.







This is the little girl that I was asked to take home with me. I still can't believe that her father had so much courage ask me to do so. Give away your child to protect her. You have to love someone so very much to do something like that.









I often wonder about her welfare. All these kids caught up in the war we had to leave behind. We really did a bad thing, leading these people to believe that we would stay until the end, when we would secured there homeland, and give them freedom, something we take for granted.








It truly is heartbreaking what we did. Instead of invading the North, and driving the communists out of power we tried to police the south against a relentless army bent on taking away the freedoms of these people.









These young guys were involved in a firefight near their village and captured a North Vietnamese flag. Look at how young they are. The young teenagers were left behind to guard their villages when their fathers, and older brothers went into the service to fight the invading armies.




One of our favorite little guys hanging out with us trying to keep out of the continual rain. We would see him early each morning when we patrol the villages near his home. Once we set up camp he would stay near us until just before nightfall, then he would head home.








Brother & Sister, two cute little kids. The boys is our arms bearer above, and the one you see inside a make shift tent keeping out of the rain above. Their mother kept the little girl at home most of the time, but her brother was constantly with us.








These older kids, teens, came around every once in awhile. I don't think it was the "In Thing" to hang around with us. It took some coaxing to get the ladies into the picture. They were a little shy.









These guys had a long night protecting their village. We gave them some of our hot chocolate, a real treat for them. As you can see these kids are not very well equipped. They had old carbine rifles, and one had an AK-47 which they took off one of the enemy. Amazing how fast they had to grow up.








Handsome looking young man don't you think. When I see pictures like this one, I can't help to think if this boy had been given a chance to live what you, and I would call a normal childhood. Without the fear of the communists takeover, or the chance of his small village being attack. I have two sons, a 20 year old, and six year old. For my youngest it's having a good day in school, and playing baseball.






It took a couple of months to get a picture of this little girl. She was very shy of Marines, finally after coaxing from her neighbors she let me take this picture.









Posing for the camera, this little girl wasn't shy at all. For all the little ones we were able to meet, and become friends with they let a lasting empression on all of us. At the time we all hoped that we could win the war, and free these kids to live a normal life.








Quite a group of guys. From our little friend to the older ones who had the responsibility of protecting their village. Some of the older ones didn't like us, they didn't know who the enemy was, it made for a some tenison at times. I would say the older ones tolerated us, more than accepted us.

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