1830 hrs., Monday, 6 December 1999

Dear Brothers,

Since sundown Wednesday (1 December) we in Vientiane have been living under a cloud called "Internet blackout." It’s a very long story, as Lao stories usually are. Making the issue touchy for the likes of me (I’m trying to set up an American chamber of commerce in Vientiane), GlobeNet, the local ISP, was founded by an American, one with a colorful reputation. I wonder were such people come from. Like me, the guy is a native Pennsylvanian, a fact that makes me shake my head even more. He has lost just about all credibility. Adding fat to the fire, I believe he’s a Nam vet too. This sets a particularly bad precedent. (He once stated, standing under the upriver gate to Wat Chan--it was boat racing time--that "the Russians" had asked him to come and do satellite telecommunications. Wha? Although they do talk to them, politically correct Laotians consider Russians to be traitors. The Cubans in Vientiane usually won’t talk to a single diplomatic soul from the former Soviet Union. Or at least one won’t; he adamantly told me so at a diplomatic reception last month.)

The blackout gave me some unexpected free time. One thing I did Saturday (the 4th) was churn out another "Letter from Laos." A fair amount of time had passed since I had written one. I was even wondering if I might have writer’s block. However, I got inspired again by some goings on centered around Lao National Day, 2 December. You’ll see what I mean when you read it. Yet this preface and the letter itself can’t be transmitted until the blackout is lifted. We were promised last night. Now they’re saying this evening. Regardless, I figure Vientiane will be subject to telecommunications gridlock for several days to come. Undelivered email is bouncing back from outer space. Maybe I can press "launch" come Saturday.

Oops. Something else worth mentioning. I’ve begun copying in ASV (American School Vientiane) on some of my email to Thailand-Laos-Cambodia Brotherhood (Mission). ASV doesn’t use a list server but nevertheless has something like 300 people on its email roster. It appears that the ASV community has lots in common with the TLCB community. It’s just my nutty idea but it seems to me that somebody (or a committee) might consider whether it would be worthwhile to bring ASV into the fold. After all, some of its members were/are married to TLCB people. And more than a handful are the grown up children of some TLCB people (I’m including Ravens, etc., in the Brotherhood). Many have begun sending me email, several as often as some of you--one even wants to be a volunteer teacher in Vientiane next summer, something one of my Lao associates can arrange. It’s the 1960s-70s commonality that gave me the idea for collaboration with ASV, filling in yet more missing/sleeping pieces of the TLCB puzzle, i.e., what all of us did in Thailand, Laos and/or Cambodia (even Vietnam) during the war. Who knows, someday we might even create a TLCB version of the Peace Corps in Beulah Land!

BTW, I once did a WWW search searching for dependent alumni organizations in SE Asia. Although defunct, Clark Air Force Base, the Philippines, has an enormous alumni website--you’ll be happy to know that it contains some of the best information about Clark anywhere on the Web. As you might guess, Kadena (AFB), Okinawa, has a fine alumni website too. Probably because in its heyday it remained smallish as well as isolated (everything still is for those of us who live here), ASV doesn’t fit the established patterns very well. Which got me to thinking that its natural partner might be TLCB. This is a trial balloon; the subject has yet to be discussed with anybody at TLCB or ASV.

Your man in Vientiane,

Jim

Clark, PI (64-65)
Torii Station, Okinawa (65)
II Corps, RVN (66-67)
Vientiane, Lao PDR (92-present)

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