 Hello and welcome to Think Tech Hawaii and It Never Got Quiet. This is a half hour program that explores the Hawaiian connection with the Vietnam War. I'm your host, Vic Grapp. On August 22, 1864, 16 European nations adopted the first ever Geneva Convention. Its purpose was to establish some measure of control to an ever-increasing scale of destruction and warfare. It was inspired by the work of Swiss businessman Jean-Ali Dunant. Dunant was on a business trip to Italy where he witnessed the carnage of the battle of Sulferino in 1859. He wrote a book titled, Oddly Enough, A Memory of Sulferino. The book helped to create the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863 and subsequently the Geneva Convention the following year. Part of the Geneva Convention established one member of the military organization is having a special and protected status on the battlefield. They have become known as the combat medic or corpsman. They were there to save lives and alleviate the suffering of wounded and sick persons on the battlefield. Chapter 4, Article 25 of the Geneva Convention states, members of the armed forces specially trained for employment should the need arise as hospital orderlies, nurses, or auxiliary restructure bearers in the search for or the collection, transportation, or treatment of wounded and sick shall likewise be respected and protected if they are carrying out these duties at the time when they come into contact with the enemy or fall into his hands. Article 29 reads, members of the personnel designated in Article 25 who have fallen into the hands of the enemy shall be prisoners of war but shall be employed on their medical duties insofar as the need arises. According to the Geneva Convention knowingly firing at a medic wearing clear insignia that he is a war crime. Combat medics or corpsman are military personnel who have been trained to at least an emergency medical treatment level and are responsible for providing first aid and frontline trauma care on the battlefield. They are also responsible for providing continuing medical care in the absence of a readily available physician including care for disease and battle injuries. Of all the jobs in the military, the combat medic or corpsman is probably the most respected. Our guest today is Alan Ho, former combat medic and now practicing attorney. Alan was drafted into the US Army in 1966. He served in Vietnam during one of the more intensive periods of the war. Alan attended UH Minoah earning a degree in political science, later earning his law degree. Alan has his own private practice and continues his association with the US Army through several other organizations. He is also a member of the Honolulu Poll Club. Aloha Alan. Aloha. Welcome to the program. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. It's an honor to have you here as I said being one of the professions in the military that is probably the most honored of all in terms of rescuing people and putting yourself in the line of fire and not being able to shoot back. Legally anyway. Legally, you know, and listening to that explanation of article 25 it just kind of, oh, somebody forgot to tell that to the enemy but it never stopped them from shooting at us. That's true. I can remember the number of dust-offs that were shot at, Great Big, Red Cross, and White Square. And I can remember at one point in time they started putting them sixties on the side of them. Absolutely. And eventually, you know, the need for helicopter evacuation was so great that any slick armed or unarmed in the area would drop in and pick up the wounded. A slick being one of the helicopters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just curious, what unit were you attached to? I was with the, I was the reconnaissance platoon of the Second Battalion, First Infantry Regiment, of the 196 Light Infantry Brigade. And the 196 Light Infantry Brigade originally when organized in 1967 was part of what was called Task Force Oregon in the northern sector of Vietnam and then ultimately was rolled into the 23rd Infantry Division. And subsequently also became the American. The American. Actually the 23rd and the American, I'm sorry, it's the same organization. Yeah. Yeah. The American had quite a reputation as far as being a great combat unit and very looked up to. I saw quite a few of the guys with the little flashes on their uniforms when they were going out of country. Right. It was the Blue Shield. The Blue Shield with the Southern Cross, the four stars representing the South Pacific. You were in country, what in 1968? 1967. I got there in December of 67 and then came home in ending part of September of 68. And they were located primarily where? In the northern sector, more commonly known or referred to as Chulai, Tam Quay, and up in way and as far north as Ashile Valley. So you kind of had an intermingling with Marines as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, in 1967, 1968, things were quite hectic. And the 196 Light Infantry Brigade was sort of referred to as the Harfen Brigade. So wherever extra rifles were needed, we would pick up and be sent there. Given that experience, I mean, I don't want to judge up bad memories or whatever, but I imagine dealing with casualties. You must be suffering from mountains of PTSD. You know, no, not really. I have, I guess, had been very fortunate to have been raised in a very strong family. And my parents were very religious, were Christians. And so my upbringing provided me with a sense of strength, a sense of family, and of course being part native Hawaiian, it was always this sense of ohana. And so I always kind of viewed each incident, each critical kind of moment where life and death hung into balance as my role to do the best I could to sway the balance toward life. A couple of years ago, and we were talking about this, I tried to, you know, I wanted to get a documentary going on Hawaiian veterans of the Vietnam War and their experience. And we were searching for a title, and it finally ended up, I'll see if I can mess this up, Hapili Vahena Ole, which meaning a relationship that cannot be undone. And considering what Hawaiians went through going to the mainland and going to the training centers, mostly in the South, their experience had to have been somewhat different from mine, especially coming from the mainland and being a Hali. I was treated differently. Now I know you did not have that experience, yours was quite different, but I'm sure that this is kind of the acceptance and we were talking about as far as all. And coming here, it's a different spirit, a much different spirit. And I think that we were going to get into that a little bit as far as your son and Hawaiian culture and how it's, I think we have something unique to offer the world in that, we were talking about Hawaiian language and just the word aloha alone has such a huge depth of meaning, not just as a greeting. Right. Hawaiian cultural traditions, they talk about our culture being dualistic or as Hawaiians refer to it in terms of language and interpretations, the ka'ona or the other, the hidden meaning. And so when we use the term aloha, like you had pointed out earlier, like the Jewish or the Hebrew word shalom has an incredible breadth of acceptance and also in terms of what it means and how it is said between two individuals or how is it, who are friends, like old time friends or how it may be shared with someone you just met for the first time. I think that Hawaiian culture has evolved in terms of, I look at all of the Pacific islands and the language and how closely related the tons are between Tonga and Polynesian or Tahitian and Hawaiian, but again going to this concept of a relationship that cannot be undone and we talk so much about the divisiveness in our society right now and you sent me the account of your son in Mosul and Iraq and we'll get into that in a minute, but it's very stirring and very inspirational to see that there are still young people who believe in going into battle, going into war and taking up the concept of fighting for this nation and fighting for what we believe in. I thought that, wow, at your son's funeral the outpouring of people that came and just even the tourists that came to see the funeral was just amazing, whatever. As I told you, I wish I could have met him. He was just a phenomenal human being, which is, I guess, a testimony to your raising of a fine group of kids. Yeah, you know, he was a remarkable young man. I think like his old man and he and I had this special connection that he used to introduce me to his friends as this is my old man and I'll tell you what, some people may view that as being somewhat disrespectful, but for me that sent a real strong message that my son and I had a deep personal connection that he felt proud enough of me to kind of share his feelings with his friends, but he was a remarkable young man in terms of he understood, appreciated and was an incredible student of history, culture, language, as well as, you know, his military heritage as well. And then for him, it kind of all blended together and he made a decision at some point in time that he was going to pursue that course being a warrior like his ancestors were. And of course, we will never know, you know, if he was going to make this a career or not, but in the few years that he was with us and that he engaged in that activity, he left an incredible legacy that to this day is carried on by everyone who had the privilege to come into contact with him. Well, just reading the article that you sent me that appeared, what, in Welcome Home magazine, that from some of the comments of the people that were in his platoon, I found it interesting that he enlisted, even though he had a degree and worked his way up and immediately got commissioned, or not immediately, but got commissioned, but the impact that he had with the people around him, and one of the people in there said that, oh yeah, he probably would have made commanding general of the army, or chairman maybe of the Joint Chiefs, right, but he had that kind of mana as far as walking into a room and understanding the charge. And owning the room, you know. And that period of time that he served in the army and the unit that he served with was an absolutely incredible period of time, and a remarkable group of young men, both enlisted, who were his soldiers, as well as those who were his leaders, because, you know, his colonel that he served under in combat was, is our now four-star general, Bob Brown from Usurpak. And I look around the army today, and I am absolutely astounded with the numbers of leaders or officers and enlisted men that my son served with, who are now occupying incredible roles of leadership within our country. Alan, we're going to get back to that in a little bit. Right now, let's take a couple of minutes for some messages here. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Aloha, I'm Prince Dax, the volunteer host of The Prince of Investing. Think Tech is important to me because it brings Hawaii's number one financial literacy show around the globe. For the first time, Think Tech Hawaii is participating in an online-based fundraising campaign to raise $40,000. Give thanks to Think Tech. We'll run only during the month of November, and you can help. Please donate what you can so that Think Tech Hawaii can continue to raise public awareness to promote civic engagement through free programming like mine. I've already made my donation, and look forward to yours. Please send your tax-deductible contribution by going to the website, thanksforthinktech.causevox.com. On behalf of the community, enriched by Think Tech Hawaii, 30-plus weekly shows, thank you, mahalo, for your generosity. Welcome back to It Never Got Quiet. We're speaking today with Alan Ho, who was a combat medic in Vietnam, and we were talking about his son, Nino. Nino, yes. You have this flag sitting here on the table. Can you tell me a little bit about that? You know, this remarkable piece of cloth is, I know for a fact, at least 50 years old, because that's how long it's been in my possession, and it is a flag that is faded. The stars are kind of torn and worn, and the gold braiding is now almost yellow. But in 1967, when I joined my long-range recon team, we got this flag sort of as a talisman, you know, for no particular reason, other than it was something to have. And being a medic, I had kind of like the largest bag. And so, you know, there was space in my bag to carry this extra flag. And you know, I carried this flag with me for a good six months, and kind of it just being there. And then on Mother's Day 1968, it took on a very special meaning when my unit got overrun. And I lost 18 men on Mother's Day 1968. Now, if you talk about how horrible and what that meant to the mother of one of my soldiers who was killed on that day. But subsequently, there were 10 of them of the 18 that were missing in action for up to 37 years. But we promised that this flag would be presented to the family of my lieutenant who was missing in action, Fred Ransbottom, from Edmund, Oklahoma. And so, my two sons grew up knowing the history, the story of this flag. And it's meaning to dad, and it's meaning to young soldiers. And so, when Nine Oil was deployed to Iraq with his unit, he has shared the story with his young soldiers. And they said, Sir, would you ask your dad to send us the flag? Because we want to carry it in honor of the men that your dad served with in Vietnam. And at that time, in honor of his lieutenant who was still missing in action, oh, you can imagine how proud that made me. So, you know, I said, oh, my God, these young men, they understand, they got it. So I sent the flag to them and they carried it in battle, specifically in the battle for the city of Mosul in 2004 and 2005. And the sad part of the legacy of this flag is that my son was carrying the day he was killed in combat. And subsequently, the story or the legacy of this flag has just kind of grown by huge proportions. And subsequently, it has been on maybe five or six more deployments in the combat by units affiliated with my son's unit simply because they knew the story and the legacy of this flag. So, this flag has been to Iraq five times and Afghanistan four times. It's literally flown the whole country of Afghanistan with the 25th aviation combat brigade, literally hundreds of thousands of miles. It's been around the world. And I think one of the unique aspects as it relates to Vietnam, this flag was on board the Kitty Hawk when it made its last sail as a Navy carrier before it was sent back to the mainland for deactivation and decom. So, yeah, this is a very special flag, Vic. And whenever I get the chance, I take it with me and I share it with the young soldiers and I say, here, take this. This flag has a lot of mana. It certainly does. Take some and give it some of yours. And you know, it brings me great joy to see the reverence in which these young warriors treat this flag. And I'm glad to see that there are still people out there like that. As I said, it does my heart well because I think of the media portraying the divisiveness that is in this country and yet we still have young men and women who will go out and sacrifice themselves for a piece of cloth that is representative of what we are and what we believe. And I think that's amazing. And I know that you've carried on as far as with your time with the Army, you explained to me your position as you currently hold in your relationship with the Secretary of the Army. Could you explain a little bit about that? Yeah, right. I have a very unique honor to be a civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army. And the Army is really the only service branch that has this program. And what it is is that there are 100 of us in the country and there's generally two per state. And our job is to serve as a liaison between the Army and the community. And there's really no specific task that we're given other than to help facilitate good relationships, help the Army to address issues that it may feel they need special assistance as it relates to that community. And on the reverse to help our community kind of adopt more open door policy with our military families who live and reside in our communities. And I think for me one of the not the biggest challenges, but one of the things that I enjoy the most is engaging with soldiers who when they first come to Hawaii to encourage them to you know what you need to live and serve your duty outside the wire. Because you know you will discover when you go outside the wire that it is this is anywhere USA. And you know over the years I've seen how that has evolved and how it's become a remarkable experience whereas before young soldiers would kind of like hang out only together and stay on base or do things that only soldiers would do among themselves. But now you see them out in the community they're engaging in programs in the in the in the schools to help repair and they're actively now engaging in surfing with you know some of our professional surfers on the North Shore and of course the scuba diving and the skydiving and you know things that we used to as young boys do a long time ago, not so much these days. I think also too we were talking about as your son promoted Hawaiian culture and I think that again we have a very unique society here in the islands and one of the things that struck me is being we both attended the ceremony at the 25th of their deployment their 50th anniversary of their deployment to Vietnam and also 75th birthday of the unit standing up and it was very impressive for me to see all these young soldiers out there the the thing that got me was the haka that they did that was unique to their unit and how many of the of the kids out there we call them kids but yeah you know they're adults and but it was a very impressive ceremony and I felt very warm about the whole thing I thought it was a great ceremony yeah I'm going to have to check my picture and make sure that you're in there I know you're in there I was actually on the the vehicle with the reviewing of of the troops that morning well as I recall we were all called out no no before I reviewed you remember yeah yeah that is again that was a very impressive as I said people are sitting there and talking about us look at all these soldiers yeah that's only a third of them yeah it's incredible when you when you see a division online yeah in in in formation it is awe inspiring yes it is yes it is and again the dedication to these kids is amazing yeah thank god for them thank god for that and I want to thank you allen and as I said I have I've met your son through his spirit and I really appreciate that thank you for coming on you welcome journalism is not objective no matter how hard we try we all carry some amount of prejudice towards the topic however there can be alternative journalism where an issue can be discussed without rhetoric or animosity I believe that this is what we have to offer here at think tech Hawaii this media offers an opportunity to bring more than one perspective to the community think tech also provides information on a host of topics that can aid in improving your life but all this costs money we speak of free speech as one of our rights to our constitution but it requires maintenance that maintenance has been measured in the lives of those who have defended and by those who support efforts such as think tech Hawaii through their contribution the staff here are not volunteers they would like to continue to pay their rent the hosts of the programs you watch are volunteers we do this out of service to the community so please contribute the information to do how to do so is on the on the split on the screen below we love to have some feedback if you have some comments please send an email to 808 vietnam vets gmail.com I would like to thank the staff here at think tech Hawaii for all their support and assistance special thanks go to ray and robert who go the extra mile truly without them this program would not be possible please come back again next week for another issue of it never got quiet mahal