1 - 8 of 8 Posts
In 1967 or 1968, a US Army LCU, Landing Craft Utility, lost its way in the Mekong Delta and strayed into Cambodian waters. The crew became prisoners of war. After about 2 years of negotiations, a ransom was paid to Cambodia for safe return of the crew while Cambodia kept the LCU.
I personally knew one of the warrant officers who was captured and released. I was a student with him in a harbor class operations class we both attended. He told me that the LCU had a cargo of about 50 or so 55-gallon barrels of aviation gas and many pallets of 105 mm ammunition, in the well deck of the LCU. Sometime in the night, while the LCU was trying to find its way to fire base, it became lost and strayed into Cambodian waters. Suddenly, a high peaked Cambodian "war canoe" with a machine gun in its raised bow, fired a stream of tracers over the aviation gas and ordered them to surrender. They did so immediately as they had no choice.
While in captivity, the warrant officer passed a kidney stone and had an abscessed tooth pulled out by another POW. The Cambodians did not mistreat them but it was a 2-year ordeal. In order to secure their release, the US Army traded one D-8 Caterpillar tractor for each of the 8-man crew. Before the D-8’s was turned over to the Cambodians, their fuel systems were given a good amount of very fine sand.
My friend remained in the Army and lost his life to a VC sniper about on year after he was released. He was a fine person with a positive attitude and dedication to duty. I was very sorry to learn of his death.
I personally knew one of the warrant officers who was captured and released. I was a student with him in a harbor class operations class we both attended. He told me that the LCU had a cargo of about 50 or so 55-gallon barrels of aviation gas and many pallets of 105 mm ammunition, in the well deck of the LCU. Sometime in the night, while the LCU was trying to find its way to fire base, it became lost and strayed into Cambodian waters. Suddenly, a high peaked Cambodian "war canoe" with a machine gun in its raised bow, fired a stream of tracers over the aviation gas and ordered them to surrender. They did so immediately as they had no choice.
While in captivity, the warrant officer passed a kidney stone and had an abscessed tooth pulled out by another POW. The Cambodians did not mistreat them but it was a 2-year ordeal. In order to secure their release, the US Army traded one D-8 Caterpillar tractor for each of the 8-man crew. Before the D-8’s was turned over to the Cambodians, their fuel systems were given a good amount of very fine sand.
My friend remained in the Army and lost his life to a VC sniper about on year after he was released. He was a fine person with a positive attitude and dedication to duty. I was very sorry to learn of his death.
Joined
·
8,717 Posts
Most likely the price is in US$, consider Cambodian Riel is only approx. 0.00025 US$ and US$ is very commonly used in Cambodia.
I know people going Cambodia and Vietnam every year, they said you can "arrange" a marriage with approx. US$20,000 total expenses through brokers, mothers from poor country side will bring their daughters to come to interview, mostly to older widower or not so wealthy men from other developed Asian countries like Japan or Taiwan that couldn't find a bride. They just want their daughters to leave the country.
I know people going Cambodia and Vietnam every year, they said you can "arrange" a marriage with approx. US$20,000 total expenses through brokers, mothers from poor country side will bring their daughters to come to interview, mostly to older widower or not so wealthy men from other developed Asian countries like Japan or Taiwan that couldn't find a bride. They just want their daughters to leave the country.
Is it a straight-forward process or is there some kind of scam in it?
Joined
·
8,717 Posts
From one articular case happened to my friend's uncle, it's pretty straight forward, he went with his uncle and witness the whole process. There're over 100 young women brought by their mothers to the interview, it's a whole day event.
My friend's uncle was 50, a widower, found a 20 something girl and the agency/broker arranged all necessary papers for the bride to move out the country.
I don't know how much the family got from the arrangement, but it doesn't take much to feed a family over there.
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
