The Lost Boys

          In the later years of the Vietnam War, they could be seen in certain parts of the larger Vietnamese cities and towns.  In Saigon, they tended to hang around an area known as “The Soul Kitchen.”  They were young Americans of all colors and sizes.  Some still wore military uniforms, and some wore civilian clothes.  Most were listed on their unit rosters as, “Absent With Out Leave”.  Others were carried on the books as deserters.  The thing that most of them had in common was their dependency on some type of illegal drug. 

           Some of these lost boys brought problems from their civilian life into the military.  Others couldn’t handle the rigors and discipline of military life.  Whatever their problems had been, the stress of life in a combat zone pushed them over the edge.  Illegal drugs became a way of escaping their fears, and illegal drugs were plentiful in Southeast Asia.  

          Most of them lived with Vietnamese girlfriends, some in communal fashion with others like themselves.  They earned money to live on in various ways.  Those who still had their military identification cards and uniforms could buy goods at military base exchanges and sell them on the black market.  Others worked with local criminals and simply stole supplies from military warehouses.  Some sold drugs for the Asian drug lords to support themselves and their drug habit.  In doing so, they helped to hook others on the poison that they couldn’t live without.  

          No one seems to know how many of these young Americans were left behind when the United States abandoned its South Vietnamese Allies.  Whatever happened to these lost boys is anybody’s guess.  It’s not even clear if the US Government knows.  If they do, they haven’t said.  Surely the Vietnamese Government in Hanoi knows, but they haven’t said anything either.  Maybe God alone knows the truth.  Wherever they are, let’s hope it’s a better place than where they were.