November, 1972
Saigon, III Corps, Republic of South Vietnam

Saigon, a bustling city named as the Paris of the East, in part to its French heritage. What was once a colonial capital has become the beacon against Communism in Southeast Asia. However, it was at this point in time, that this beacon has started to flicker. It was only a month ago that the Communist North Vietnamese and their remaining allies in the National Liberation Front (Better known as the Viet Cong) had been driven out of South Vietnam after they had pushed from the DMZ, to Quảng Trị, to An Lộc, 56 miles away from Saigon in the Easter Offensive. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam, or ARVN as their American allies tended to call them, had a difficult time defending the nation from Communist invasion, though they had the know-how and the spirit to defend their homeland, the initial shock had caused them to lose some ground before they retook the country.

Assisting them was U.S. and South Vietnamese air support from Operation Freedom Train, which provided aerial support for the ARVN throughout the offensive, and Operation Linebacker, which was Nixon’s response to this offensive, which was to mine crucial North Vietnamese ports, and bomb North Vietnam to the point where it crippled their industry. Both of these events drove the North Vietnamese out of the country, despite the lowering number of U.S. troops in the area. But for now, citizens were picking up the pieces, refugees were returning to their homes, or staying for good, households were rebuilt and mourned, and people were calming down from the fear of Communist invasion. Saigon had faced a near threat of invasion, it did not need those fears to be realized. Unfortunately for them, fate had seemed to have had better plans.

November 23rd, 1972, 0700 Hours (7:00 AM)

At the beginning of the morning 1st Lieutenant (Trung Uy) Nguyen Bao An* was driving back from the U.S. Defense Attaché Office on Biên Hòa Air Force Base. The Defense Attaché Office, or the DAO for short, was one of the few signs of American presence left in South Vietnam, the task of the DAO was to provide both American military and civil support to the South Vietnamese. It had so happened that instead of looking for a hapless Sergeant, Lieutenant Colonel Truc, one of the liaisons with both the ARVN and the DAO, had tasked him to pick up a key observer from the U.S. Embassy, across from the Presidential Palace. An was calmly driving, passing multiple police and Quan Canh (Military Police) checkpoints. As he was making his way to the city, a strange situation began to unfold at an ordinary intersection.

At the corner of Truong Minh Giang Street, and Yen Do Street, a strange, archaic structure had begun to materialize right in front of the city dwellers' eyes. The structure was pure white, and seemed like it was made out of marble in the style of a miniature Western European temple for worshiping the Greek gods. The structure would cause a variable amount of concern as it blocked traffic.

Soon National Police patrol officers, and the field force, militarized policemen who partook in conventional, urban warfare, almost to the levels of the Quan Canh, would soon arrive, and would block off the intersection, armed with M16A1 rifles, revolvers, and the occasional M79 grenade launcher for shooting tear gas, and wearing an assortment of grey peaked police caps, black berets, and grey pants, with white uniform shirts, or navy blue army fatigues, with black M1 helmets with tri-color markings of green, white, and green again, marked TC on the front, for Tuan Chan (Patrol).

In the case of the field force, they wore tan camo fatigues and M1 helmets with tan desert Mitchel covers. As the police were keeping the crowd under control, a strange, water like substance would explode from the entryway, causing many of the civilians to flee or look for cover, as the National Police held their ground, and took cover behind their vehicles. The entryway would stabilize into a wall of water like fluid, as the police officers aimed their rifles, fearing what was to happen.

Suddenly, herds of caribou, armored in black plating in what appeared to be Nordic designs charged through the gate. They were followed by many creatures including minotaurs, with heads and legs of bulls, and torsos in relative shape to human torsos with the exception of fur covering them, with battle armor and armed with axes and battle hammers; diamond dogs, bipedal, dog-like creatures covered in similar garb and armed with swords; griffons, armed with swords and spears and crossbows, dressed in what looked to be grey steel armor; and much to the mystified faces of some of the police officers, brightly colored, miniature horses, some with wings, and some with regular attributes, and some with horns protruding from their heads, vaguely resembling a lân*, all were wearing little to nothing, but were still holding crude weapons.

This multi-creature army charged out of the portal, making quick work of the police line, quickly charging at nearby officers and stabbing them with their swords or horns, shooting with bursts of magical plasma, or for other non-horned creatures, crushed them with hammers and cut with axes and swords, into a gory mess of body parts and viscera. As some of the police officers and civilians within the immediate area tried to take cover behind cars and carts. The police responded with gunfire, patrol officers would quickly find that their revolvers have a somewhat noticeable effect, as the armored beasts quickly were gunned down after firing 12 rounds.

The field force had better luck as their M-16’s quickly gunned down the horde of beasts, causing blood and guts to litter the city street. Regardless, overwhelming numbers force the police to quickly withdraw from the position, some of them tried to helplessly organize an effective way of escape as the beasts begin to abduct some hapless civilians, as police tried to shoot them before the civilians got further in behind enemy lines, watch commanders would frantically order their radiomen to call back to the precinct and request army support before being killed.

As An continued driving down the street, he heard sounds of gunfire and screaming, he began to tense up in anxiety as he looked around for what he initially thought were Viet Cong before a caribou abruptly ran into the path of the oncoming jeep, An tried desperately with all his might to slam on the brakes, only for the jeep to collide with the hapless animal, its body colliding with the windshield before being thrown off the hood from the momentum. An quickly rushed out of the jeep, his Colt 1911 drawn, and gazed with a confused look upon the bloody, gutted roadkill. “This is strange…” An thought, “I thought caribou were-” He was never able to finish his thought, as shots were fired, he flinched and ducked for cover, but thankfully, the bullets had missed their target, only to ricochet of the jeep and the ground. “Who’s there!?” An asked, as he switched off his safety, and coolly, just as he had learned from the academy, prepared to get up and take aim.

“O-Officer Le Binh Minh! National Police!”

“1st Lieutenant Nguyen Bao An! Army of the Republic of Vietnam! Hold your fire! I am going to get up slowly!” An then slowly, and carefully got up from his cover behind the jeep, he then slowly placed his pistol on the ground, as the patrol officer in front of him lowered his revolver, and shakily switched his safety back on. Afterwards, An took his Colt, switched the safety on, and then holster it slowly.

“I-I apologize for nearly shooting you, I-I was dazed and I thought…”

“Do not worry, I assume you are fresh from the police academy?” The patrol officer shakily nodded. “You will get used to it, the Viet Cong attack frequently enough for you to do so-”

“They weren’t Viet Cong…Th-They were…”

“Take it easy, what was it that was attacking us?” The officer nodded to the roadkill before them, and An, with an incredulous look on his face, looked back at the officer.

“I-I swear, I am telling the truth, those things came through some sort of portal, they shredded most of the police near the scene, I-I was going to get some help but-”

“Has the army been called in?”

“We’ve been trying to reach the precinct on the field radio, but they killed our radioman before we could get word to them, some of us ran off to relay to the precinct of what happened, others tried to create a path to evacuate the civilians, th- the creatures sir… they were…they were….” The patrol officer broke down and cried, feeling he had failed in his duty to protect the people. With no other options, An took the patrol officer, and drove his battered jeep to the nearest police checkpoint… if there were any left.

Within the same timeframe, back at what was beginning to be ground zero, the invading force began to burn and rape and pillage the nearby blocks, any forces still nearby the portal were ordered to stand to attention by an ornately decorated caribou stag, as a large caribou, larger than any of the troops there, stepped onto the streets of Saigon, and looked around at the carnage, his white cloak fluttering in the wind, as he trudged around in his gold-lined elaborately designed armor. His aide de camp followed from behind with similar armor, but topped with a red cape. The large stag then abruptly stopped, and looked around at his forces standing at attention, he then bellowed out, “We claim this territory for the Caribou Empire! Do what you will, we will liberate this land to cure them of their ideals! Beat them into submission!” His warriors yelled as they went their separate ways, spreading out the chaos, and the horror, of a brutal regime.

The lieutenant and the broken officer bypassed the carnage of ground zero and quickly, after shooting many enemies along the way, find a police checkpoint at the corner of Truong Minh Giang and Duong Tu Xuang Street. The watch commander, talking with another officer near a jeep with a radio and a map, looked up as the jeep stopped right in front of them, both An, and the slowly recovering officer, dismounted from the jeep. “Please, take him to a hospital, he isn’t fit for the firefight for now.” The watch commander nodded, and gestured for one of his officers to take the shaken patrol officer in to the nearest safe hospital.

The watch commander replied, “The army must have arrived at last, we are getting torn apart here.”

“Not quite, from what I have heard your men have been having trouble contacting them, I’m assuming you have already radioed the precinct?”

The watch commander nodded, “We have been given orders from President Thieu to give the priority of evacuation to all civilians, and they will be evacuated to the walls of the Presidential Palace, where the guard will try to protect them should the worst come to worst. Evacuation routes have already been set and the civilians are being evacuated as we speak. We have deployed all eight of our M8 armored cars, two stationed here, and the other six stationed at Truong Minh Giang and Hein Vuong Street a few blocks away from here. We have also deployed our V-100 armored cars, they’re clearing the city as we speak. The army are sending all ranger battalions near the area, and additional infantry, and armor reinforcements from the 5th division at Biên Hòa will be arriving shortly. In addition the VNAF and our American allies are scrambling their aircraft as we speak. The plan is to drive the enemy here, where we will hold out until additional reinforcements from the army arrive, or, if we are lucky enough, we wipe them out with tear gas.”

“Where do you want me?”

“Right here, you are our only contact to the army, if anything goes wrong, we might need you to call in an airstrike.”

An nodded and said gravely, “Let us hope that the battle plays within our favor.”

With the civilians fully evacuated from the area, patrol officers and field force officers had quickly set up a barricade with assorted furniture and rubble, with trucks of field force officers arriving to bolster defenses. Two armored cars positioned themselves only a few feet away, their cannons pointed at the anticipated direction of the enemy force, providing cover until the barricade was set. Gas masks were quickly distributed and the few field force officers that had M79 grenade launchers were issued tear gas canisters in addition to grenades. Soon the sound of gunfire drew nearer to the checkpoint, as national police, backed by the first few ranger battalions, ambushed and harassed the caribou forces, the sheer firepower from the chokehold at Truong Minh Giang and Hein Vuong Street forcing the enemy to funnel in to the deceptively rudimentary blockade. The field force made the opening blow, as soon as everyone put on their as masks, tear gas was shot into the charging horde, quickly wiping out the initial waves. M16 rifle fire and revolver fire quickly wiped out any enemies left conscious.

The opening blow quickly lost its effect, however, as pegasi and griffons quickly fixed the solution by quickly dissipating the cloud of tear gas with a few flaps from their wings, and quickly grabbed a few nearby troops, dropping them from high altitudes, encouraging the caribou attack group to quickly charge back to the barricade. Several ponies, caribou, and other mythical creatures were gunned down into a bloody pulp, only for their able comrades to quickly trample them and continue the charge, as if they were apathetic to their downed kin. Several unicorns shot back with charges of plasma, quickly wounding and killing several police officers, as some would find charred holes through their bodies, or find that their entire limb was burned off, the field force and the patrol officers were quickly overwhelmed and began to fall back, some in complete panic as their rifles began to become ineffective against the giant horde, all the while more officers were knocked to a bloody pulp by pegasi and earth pony hooves, and others were quickly stabbed or cut up by the swords, axes, and hammers from the other mythical creatures.

The police did all they can, as officers found their friends stabbed, crushed, or decapitated, they replied with gushing bullet holes into the enemies’ chest, or blow their heads off, soon the battle line would fall near the checkpoint, and An soon felt nervous as he heard the gun fire near them, “Biên Hòa! This is Lieutenant An! Our barricade is slowly falling, we need additional reinforcements at section Bravo-8, I repeat, we-” a plasma shot narrowly missed An as it instead hit the radio, causing him to duck, and draw his pistol, quickly switching off the safety, he fired off a few shots at the unicorn who shot him, causing his head to explode into viscera and brain matter. He quickly looked back at the radio, finding a charred mess, he quickly turned back and join the fight, shooting off mag after mag of his pistol.

Cannon fire from the armored cars blanketed the area, trying to clear the area of the horde, only for a lucky unicorn to fire a shot of plasma, near the engine, causing one of the armored cars to explode into a fireball, burning the crew inside into a crisp, and causing several other nearby officers to scream in agony, only to have their heads explode from unicorn fire, or silenced by axes or swords. An was starting to feel tense, as he yelled, “Come on! We need to hold the line, protect our civilians! We are the only thing standing between them, and the enemy!” He was having doubts, with the officers dropping like flies, even if they take a few creatures with them, they were starting to get overwhelmed, he was considering on ordering a withdraw to another intersection.

Just as the situation started to feel hopeless, the distinct sound of chopper blades could be heard. An quickly took cover and grinned like mad as he soon was beholden to a welcoming sight. A flight of VNAF UH-1 Huey's , escorted by a squadron of USAF AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters approached from the horizon. The Cobras quickly made several gun runs, and shot down any airborne pegasi and griffons, the Vulcan machine guns and their grenade launchers made quick work of the bogies and wiped out areas to clear for LZ’s. The explosions and gunfire soon littered the street with limbs and shattered creatures, alongside disfigured or mutilated police officers. The police officers cheered as the Americans, though limited in their appearance, heroically saved the day again. An soon got up from cover, emboldened by this new arrival, and continued to fire off a few rounds, making each shot count. The Huey's soon quickly hovered a few feet over the LZ, and a battalion of rangers quickly jumped out of the helicopters.

As the choppers flew away to prevent from getting hit, the cobras stayed behind and continue their strafing rounds. The rangers quickly jumped into the fray and ferociously attacked the remaining mythical forces. With the introductions of M1919 and M-60 machine guns and M-72 LAW’s into the battlefield, the consistent explosions and gunfire soon beat back the caribou forces, their numbers quickly whittled down. They were soon forced to retreat, realizing that if they didn’t do so, they would soon be wiped out. The South Vietnamese forces quickly pursued hot on their trail. As soon as they regained ground, back to the barricade, An then quickly vaulted over the barricade and waved his pistol forward, yelling, “We have molded them into cowards! Push on and don’t give them a chance to recover! Forwards to victory!” The rangers and the police soon followed, and chased the caribou alliance back to the intersection they funneled from.

The caribou forces looked relieved as they neared what they thought was their way of escape. Their hopes were soon dashed, however, as they stared at the end of several barrels of M48 Pattons, M42 Bulldogs, and an assortment of ARVN troops, the 1st armored cavalry division had arrived. Soon, all four flanks squeezed the enemy in a chokehold. The tanks fired off their cannons and machine guns in the front flank, followed by infantry and M113 APCs firing their machine guns, and on some APC’s, their recoilless rifles, slowly moving towards the entrapped group. M8 armored cars and additional police and infantrymen, backed up by even more tanks, moved in from their side flanks. And finally the force of rangers and officers from the rear had effectively cut off any means of escape.

The caribou forces tried their best to fight, but they were soon turned into mush by the combined gunfire. An’s group would soon advance upon the caribou’s position, and quickly secured the area with additional infantry forces. “Take anyone left alive prisoner! And have the medics treat any enemy casualties! We want to know where they came from!” The troops quickly held any enemy creature left alive at gunpoint, and medics tried to treat the wounded the best they can, the main caribou force had now been wiped out.

All over Saigon, the 5th ARVN division, the National Police, and the rangers quickly cleared Saigon of any pockets of resistance, American AH-1’s, with VNAF A-1 Skyraiders and UH-1 gunships monitored the skies, shooting down any rogue pegasi and providing close air support for infantry units. VNAF F-5’s and USAF F-4’s also maintained air superiority, adding on to the extra security blanket in the sky. ARVN troops and police forces cleared out building after building, each discovery they made only angering the troops.

November 23rd, 1972, 1500 Hours (3:00 PM)

After a day's worth of conflict the remaining soldiers of the mythical force found themselves trapped, holed up in the Marie Curie Girl's School, not so far from the gate. The South Vietnamese quickly surrounded the remaining threshold, making sure there was no way for any creature to slip out and flee. With orders to help out in the effort to sweep and wipe out any remaining pockets of resistance, Lieutenant An immediately rushed to the school, being within the proximity of the school. Tired, he slapped himself to keep awake, as he approached the scene of a captain, some NCO's and another lieutenant looking over the school directory. An tapped on the Captain's shoulder and said, "Reporting for duty, sir."

"At ease Lieutenant, you have just missed only the beginning of my briefing." The Captain motioned for the officers and NCOs to the directory and briefed the group. "Alright, we'll have two ranger groups, led by Sergeant Huong, and Staff Sergeant Trung, both commanded by Lieutenant Lam, move in on the northern and southern walls, and climb into the top floor windows. Both groups will then splinter into fire teams, led by soldiers of your own choice, to clear out all of the floors of the school. In the meantime, you, Lieutenant An, will lead two squads into the main entrance, and clear your way from there, and draw fire away from the Rangers. Take any prisoners, and rescue any hostages, questions?" No one shook their heads in denial. "Then you are dismissed. Remember to synchronize your watches." Both Lieutenants and the Staff Sergeant assigned their fire groups into teams, a Reconnaissance team to clear the area, a search team to breach and secure the rooms, a fire support team to secure the rooms and provide additional fire when needed, a civilian control team to question and extract civilians, and a POW team to process prisoners. From there they quickly got into position.

2nd Lieutenant Lam, with the assistance of another sergeant in the fire group, silently motioned for his troops to line up single file against the walls, and a select few of the rangers would prepare to throw their grappling hooks. Once his fire teams were lined up, ready to strike, he silently ordered them to hold still, and gestured for the radio operator to come to him. Once the young Corporal reached him and offered the receiver, he took it and radioed in to the 2nd ranger group, making sure that they, too where in position, once he was sure, he whispered, "This is blue group, we are in position, standing by to attack." Staff Sergeant Trung and Sergeant Huong sounded off that their ranger groups were also standing by.

1st Lieutenant An, hearing all three fire groups sound off that they were in position, whispered into the receiver, "Alright, in 5 seconds, begin to move in." As both fire groups sounded off in acknowledgement, An's fire group of regular infantry lined up on both sides of the gateway. An stared at his watch, watching as the seconds ticked by. Once the seconds were counted down, everything seemed like they were in slow motion. The breach man quickly kicked down the door, and both sides quickly rushed in, they were instantly met with spell fire, and charging enemies, all of which were quickly gunned down, a battle would begin.

Hearing the sounds of fighting and gunfire, Lam ordered his men to throw their grappling hooks, and quickly, the rangers, from all three flanks began to scale the wall to the top floor once in the rangers began to search the floors starting from the top, any pockets of resistance left was either quickly gunned down in a hail of gun fire, or surrendered to the forces, being kept to the rear of the group by the POW team, being quickly searched, segregated, silenced, and swiftly extracted back to the command post. Lam's rangers quickly clear room after room, either finding empty school rooms, or finding pockets of survivors and hostages, all of whom were quickly extracted by the civilian control team, the task is long, tense and tedious, as everyone held their breath, and looked around, trying to spot any movements made by an living being.

As Lam's group and An's group began to push back the enemy, the surviving mythical creatures were forced to fall back to the middle floor, with nowhere to go. A frightened buck would rush to the final room, the sounds of screaming and struggling heard, as some of the troops had their way with the female students, he would soon find the general, and would say, “My lord, the enemy is heading this way! Th-They are too powerful! We are outnumbered! What do we do?!”

The general stared back at him, and the yelled, “Foolish young one! Now is not the time to be scared! You should feel proud! We will fight to the death, and take as many of them with us to Tartarus! But before we do… we will leave them something for them to remember us by.” He grinned maliciously, as he gestured his hoof around the room. He would then lower his hoof and say, “Nevertheless, prepare some defenses, and ambush them, wear them down! We will make their rescue as difficult as possible!”

"Secure this floor! Make sure that no one escapes alive!" An ordered as the infantry and the rangers converged into the final school room. Soldiers and rangers assigned to fire support teams and recon teams quickly combined forces and organized their respective sub-groups. Soldiers and rangers assigned to the assault group lined up on each side of the first door on the floor, with Staff Sergeant Trung taking point. He then signaled for the breach man to approach the door and get ready to kick it down. Tension built up as the troops on each side of the door gripped their rifles and prepared to raise them, and as the staff sergeant began to count down, “ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four three, two, one.” He then signaled for the breach man to kick the door down.

The door collapsed with a loud crash, only for the point man to be burned to death by masses of plasma magic, he was taken to the side in cover as the rest of the troops rushed in, some of the initial soldiers, excluding a very lucky staff sergeant would be blown up by an explosive hex, but in the end, the South Vietnamese were able to gain a foothold, and soon, the room was filled with gunfire as the remaining enemy creatures left standing in the room soon died in the ensuing confusion. Trung’s men opened any of the cabinets, only to find empty space, filled with textbooks, several troops would yelled out that the room is clear, and the troops would then move on.

The process of breaching and securing rooms would repeat for quite some time, slowing the South Vietnamese advance. Some rooms were completely empty, others had no hostile troops, but managed to kill off a few troops from hexes and traps that were left behind. And some were simply filled with survivors, hiding from the barbaric forces, who were soon promptly evacuated. The number of rooms left un-cleared would slowly, but gradually count down, and soon, it would appear as if the floor was cleared.

Suddenly, as Trung’s men rounded a corner, the troops in the front were quickly met with swords and axes, as the mercenary troops tried one last ditch effort to save their employers. In reaction, the South Vietnamese backed up, and would quickly gunned down the remaining mercenaries, the more cowardly ones quickly fled into the arms of other search groups, and were quickly taken as prisoners. The floor soon cleared down to one, single, classroom.

A group of rangers and soldiers assigned to the assault team quickly lined up near the final classroom door. With both officers leading from the front, An would count down from 5 with his hand, once reaching zero he signaled to advance. The group quickly kicked down the door, and stormed in, again met with last ditch swinging and stabbing. Learning their lesson, the attacking groups quickly dived and ducked for cover, and replied with M16 fire, making quick work of the unlucky many who were not behind cover. “Don’t shoot! We surrender! W-We can’t take this anymore!” A voice rang out. The ARVN soon held their fire, and yelled out orders in broken English for the surrendering forces to raise their hands-err- hooves, and slowly raise from their cover. The caribou, and a few surviving earth ponies, would do so, as ARVN troops quickly rushed to their position, and grabbed them, searching their armor for any more weapons.

The ARVN quickly moved the prisoners out and checked the hostages for injuries. Some were in varied stages of undress, uniforms ripped in struggles, or worse, one of whom An notices. It was a middle school girl in a plain white, tattered aoi dai*, holding on to a dead, bloodied teacher, the corpse of the attacking caribou clearly strewn next to them, full of bullet holes, his penis at erection and covered with more blood. She was shaken and scared, trembling in shock, and crying softly. Panicking in denial, An quickly, but gently moved the teacher’s corpse, he then saw a horrifying sight, the girl’s lower dress and pants were ripped apart revealing thighs, and her folds, covered in blood in approximately the same area as the buck’s blood.

A young private behind the lieutenant would be unfortunate enough to witness it, and quickly rushed to the window to vomit. With comforting, but tense, squinted eyes, fists clenched in anger, An slowly turned to the girl, and offered out his hand to her, kneeling down as he got close to her, just to prevent any further intimidation. "Don't worry, we're here to get you out, you're already safe." The ARVN quickly found the general in the same room, he tried to put up some resistance, but, fueled by anger at what they witnessed, the troops violently knocked him unconscious with the butts of their rifles, some of their more calmer comrades had to hold a few of them back to prevent further injuries made in rage.

With the remaining forces dead and captured, the Battle of Saigon effectively ended two days after the skirmish at Marie Curie. The final pocket of resistance was confirmed dead trying to escape back to the portal. The ARVN quickly secured their point of entry, and quickly fortified it at the same level as their DMZ. The international community was quickly aghast as reports came out as to the conditions of some of their nationals that were in Saigon at the time of the attack. Americans were shocked in horror as images of rape, murder, and savagery appeared right on their TV screens, the same screens that showed the horrors to an unpopular war now made witness to an enemy whose actions proved to be far worse than the regime that their government propped up, their anger only furthered fueled by news of the Embassy being attacked, with some U.S. civilians being among the assaulted and killed. History books would officially name the incident as Thanksgiving Offensive. It became globally known as the Rape of Saigon. With the first blood drawn, Mother Vietnam, and to the extent, the international community was faced with a crossroads decision. One thing was for certain, a new, far worse evil had arisen, and they didn’t know where they were from.

Author's Notes:

Hey there guys, I am The Lone Doctor. I really hoped that you have enjoyed my story. This is my first one on Fimfiction, so it would be great of there was constructive criticism. This is actually an alternate take on another thought I had based on the anime GATE, with a more Vietnam War spin on it. Anyways, I'll do my best to update as soon as possible, and if you liked it, please leave a like.

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Fast Facts

*Vietnamese names tended to start with the family name first, then the middle name, then the first name as a regard of respect. Additionally, nametape for the ARVN only listed the first name only, instead of surnames like U.S. nametape, partly to the fact that 60% of the population had the same last name, and partly because of cultural differences with Western armies.

*The Vietnamese answer to the Western unicorn. Though they are described to have the features of a horse, a (water) buffalo, and a dragon. Yes, I know sounds like a monstrosity. They are said to bring good luck and fortune and therefore they are the creatures you see at dragon/lion dances in Chinese/Vietnamese/Almost every East Asian New Year..

*Traditional Vietnamese dress consisting of pants, and a long, tight fitting tunic..